In-School Vocabulary Parades
VOCABULARY PARADES in your CLASSROOM or ENTIRE SCHOOL!
What is a Vocabulary Parade?
In the book, Miss Alaineus, A Vocabulary Disaster, our heroine, Sage, enters her school’s 10th Annual Vocabulary Parade where students design a costume for a school parade. The costume describes a vocabulary word they have selected or been assigned by a teacher.
Join the thousands of schools who have hosted Vocabulary Parades in their schools and strengthened their students’ word-enthusiasm (and test scores!), all while boosting creativity. First, define “miscellaneous” for your students so everyone is in on the joke, then read the book, (or let Debra do it for you, see video). Select from a wide range of activities or download the free 30 page Vocabulary Parade Kit for help from start to finish.
Vocabulary Parade Samples
Teachers in Vocabulary Parades: AFFLUENT, FLAMBOYANT, INCANDESCENT.
Outdoor parades: BELABOR, GEOGRAPHY.
[ mis-uh-ley-née-uhs ]
1. consisting of various kinds.
2. a collection of unrelated objects.
Explain the definition of the word “miscellaneous” to your class so everyone is in on the joke when the book is read or use this video where I explain it in two minutes!
Debra Explains “The Idea”
The mistaken word that inspired the book, Miss Alaineus, A Vocabulary Disaster, and Vocabulary Parades across the U.S.
Let the creative word-play begin!
Below you will find Miss Alaineus, A Vocabulary Disaster, read by Debra Frasier (that’s me!), especially for this online teaching time.
I have four pages of suggested words to select from on my website (included below), OR you might want to use wordlists that are going to show up in your reviews or tests later OR you might let students select their own words and be surprised OR you might want to specify Verbs, Nouns, Adjectives — teachers have even used Math, Geology, or Science Word lists. You decide what will help your mission the most.
Here are three tools for teachers to use for inspiring students’ costumes.
“Let’s Make a Vocabulary Parade Online” is a 43-image video slide show presentation to SEND DIRECTLY TO YOUR STUDENTS. This presents the Vocabulary Parade project in one place to your students and their parents. The information is read from the screen. You can add a voice-over, if you like.
In this presentation you will find an array of simple to complex ways to make a vocabulary costume out of things you can find at home.
This slide show is available in three formats:
- Video Slide Show: (same as the video above.) The images automatically advance every 10 seconds.
(Note: you can download and edit these files and add your own narration.) - PDF (Put in full screen mode to automatically advance the images. The images advance every 10 seconds.)
- Powerpoint. This can be upload to Google Drive and either be converted to Google Slides or remain as a Powerpoint slideshow.
This video slide show of costumes is available from the Vocabulary Parade Downloads page.
(These are primarily full-body costumes and hats.)
Hosting the In-school Vocabulary Parade
Selecting the staging parameters for your parade will largely be determined by how many students are participating. If a single class or grade level are presenting, your options are many, and each word can have a presentation moment on a stage or parade. If the entire school is participating you have time constraints and may have to use a parade that does not have a pause for each student, and instead is an energetic march where documentation is SUPER important as that is where each word will be reviewed. (These all-school parades are a wonderful experience where words actually get exciting!)
Parades have been staged through hallways, gyms, circumnavigating the school outside, or even marching downtown. Where will your audience be stationed?
You can also consider creating a classroom-by-classroom slide show/power point that can be shared from a menu, shown on each teacher’s individual schedule. Add music to any slide show! Type out the word so it can be reviewed! Add links for parent newsletters so everyone can watch?
- Staff joins the fun! Your students will LOVE seeing you in the Vocabulary Parade. Invite your principal to participate, or other staff members: custodial team, cooks, front office, etc. We are learning words and being creative but just as important is the work of knitting the circle of our continued joy of being a group, TOGETHER, despite the physical separation.
- Sharing will depend on the platform your school is using. A host of platforms are in use around the USA: including SeeSaw, Google Classrooms, Canvas, and more. If you need other tools for your platform, let us know. These programs allow for building digital slideshows in various ways. One teacher starts her link-included lessons in Google Slide, then publishes it to the web where it is assigned a URL, which can then be added to a SeeSaw lesson. First, find out how your program allows you to build a presentation. Then how will you save the link for later distribution to your students and families?
- Try “hosting” the first showing of the parade at a certain time, like it would be in a classroom event at school. Not all will be able to be present but some will — and there will be a feeling of “watching together”. Make invitations? Have a link that permits reviewing multiple times. This will greatly improve vocabulary retention. Play some music in the background to add liveliness.
- Consider THREE parades, or even TWO, where the level of costume escalates: Start easy: Invite only drawn costumes at first? Next, suggest hats found at home for a base. Lastly, encourage full scale costumes out of what you find at home. OR Let students select how to build their costumes, leaving as much room as possible for varying home situations. (Ideas are everywhere: Once a student in a Florida was late for the Vocabulary Parade and he arrived with his bed sheet wrapped around him for the word, COVER-UP! It was ingenious!)
- Remember to let students watch their Parade over and over with their own link. This is how words are reviewed and community is strengthened.
This kindergarten teacher made a forerunner of an online parade by taking photos of her students “performing” their verbs. This could easily be made into a digital presentation that could be viewed again and again.
can be found in our Vocabulary Parades Downloads page.
Author Study
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