Do your students groan when it’s time for vocabulary? 😩 You’re not alone! In this episode, I’ll share 4 engaging social studies vocabulary strategies that will make vocabulary instruction meaningful, fun, and effective.

We’ll start by looking at the three tiers of vocabulary (Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3) and see where social studies fits in. Then, I’ll walk you through four practical strategies you can start using right away in your classroom:

1. Interactive Word Walls – bring words to life with skits, drawings, and hands-on activities.
2. Vocabulary Journals – help students build their own personalized “dictionary” for review.
3. Games and Movement – charades, four corners, bingo, and more!
4. Context and Stories – use real-world examples and storytelling to make words stick.

These vocabulary activities are perfect for upper elementary social studies teachers (3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade) who want low-prep, high-impact strategies to boost student comprehension, critical thinking, and test prep.

📌 If you’re looking for ways to:

• Make social studies more engaging
• Teach vocabulary beyond boring worksheets
• Save time with easy-to-implement strategies

…this episode is for you!

Resources Mentioned:

General Social Studies: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Social-Studies-Vocabulary-Word-Wall-Cards-Bulletin-Boards-for-Upper-Elementary-12164521

Texas History: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Texas-History-4th-Grade-Vocabulary-Word-Wall-Cards-Bulletin-Boards-12313715

U.S. History: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/US-History-5th-Grade-Vocabulary-Word-Wall-Cards-Bulletin-Boards-BUNDLE-12749068

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This is the Social Studies Teacher Podcast, a show for busy elementary teachers looking for fun and engaging ways to easily add social studies into their classroom schedule without feeling overwhelmed or pressed for time. I'm Kirsten of the Southern Teach, an educator and mom who is passionate about all things social studies.

I love sharing ideas and strategies that are low prep and easy to implement. So let's dive in together.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Social Studies Teacher podcast. This is Take two. Unfortunately, I recorded the whole episode. And it did not save. And so I am rerecording this episode. Hopefully it sticks. Let's see what happens. Before we get started into this fantastic topic, I wanted to make sure you're subscribed.

You can always click the little button to subscribe if you're watching this on YouTube, or you can also listen to this wherever you love to listen to podcasts. It's up to you of how you want to consume. This content. There's also a blog post version of this episode if you go to the southern teach.com/blog.

So if you do either of the three, I would truly appreciate it and I would love it. Also, if you could share with a fellow teacher that also might teach upper elementary social studies, it is going to mean the world to me, and it already does. I love seeing your comments and your aha moments that you emailed me about, so.

Anything and everything subscribing, just reading along, following along, joining my email list is all appreciated. Today we're gonna be talking about ways to make vocabulary fun and engaging for your students, as well as being meaningful and purposeful. And. All low prep for you. I'm gonna give you four strategies that you can try right away in the classroom.

And without further ado, let's go ahead and dive in. I do think it is important to talk about the three tiers of vocabulary that students will encounter. In elementary school and secondary school, you've got the tier one words. These are basic everyday words like chair, happy school. They pick up these words naturally in conversation with peers or with parents at home, or adults at home, family members at home.

These are what you would also call sight words or high frequency words because they're spoken and heard a variety of ways in a variety of. Contexts. Then you also have the tier two words. These are more academic specific, but they are very broad in that you could use these specific words in multiple subjects.

You might see them in math, you might see them in science, and you might see them in social studies or ELA. Some examples would be analyze, summarize, cause and effect or main idea. All of these things you could find in pretty much any subject, and they're not necessarily spoken outside at recess or with family members.

It's just something they pick up when they're in school. Tier two words are still critical because it helps students access more complex texts. Then you've got the tier three words that are the content specific word that you're going to learn in one subject, like. Social studies, tier three, vocabulary or math, tier three vocabulary in social studies.

Some examples of tier three words would be democracy or latitude, economy, culture, and possibly constitution. These are words that are really content specific in the topic, and it's usually gonna be in social studies. Tier three is important to teach in social studies as well as pairing it with some tier two words because it helps students think and write like historians and geographers and economists.

It just helps them become more well-rounded and. Understand these words in context a little bit better. Now, with that outta the way, let's talk about the strategies. The first one I have for you is the interactive word walls. Word walls do not have to be boring. Displays that we have in a corner in our classroom.

When you make them interactive and engaging, it helps. Make learning stick for students. I would recommend posting your vocabulary words in a word wall format on a bulletin board somewhere, and have it organized by unit and theme. Some ideas might include having a word detective, where students are finding words in their reading or text or some type of book that's related to social studies.

They highlight the context clues and they match them up to the wall. Another idea would be student illustrations where you've got students drawing pictures or symbols or some quick cartoons to represent the words. You could also do skits or gestures or some type of charades where students are acting out a word like revolution or erosion while others.

Guess what that terminology is. I also recommend rotating your word wall to make content fresh and relevant. So let's say you're talking about being a good citizen and good citizenship, and for that unit you're putting related vocabulary words. To good citizenship on the word wall, and then switching it out for the next unit.

So keeps it relevant, keeps them looking around in that area where your word wall is located. The second strategy would be utilizing vocabulary journals. So if you have interactive notebooks with your students. You could always add in some type of section with vocabulary words. You can utilize a template or you can just have them utilize one vocabulary word per page, think some type of glossary or dictionary where they get to customize.

What they're learning about specific tier three vocabulary words in your classroom For social studies, you can structure things like adding what the word is, having a brief definition, maybe utilizing the word in a sentence. Some examples, having an illustration or drawing or diagram, and also specific examples in history or just in the.

Context of what the word might mean. Encourage your students to revisit this section of their notebooks to review. Maybe they're studying for a test that's coming up. Encourage them to look back at the vocabulary words that they might have talked about or learned. And they can always add in more connections throughout the year.

So it's kind of like a. Growing dictionary that they can refer back to and add more examples as you might get into more detail about the terminology. So an example of this, let's say you have the word migration that you talk about. A student might define it as when people move from one place to another and they can draw a diagram with arrows showing movement between continents or different states.

And you can add an example sentence like. The great migration was when African Americans moved north for jobs. And as you go through the year, you might add more examples of migration and what it might mean depending on what you're talking about. The third strategy we're going to talk about is games and movement.

Vocabulary practice does not have to be all worksheets. Adding a little bit of fun and engaging. Movement can help with retention and help students really connect to what they're learning. One really fun idea is utilizing four corners. Usually you might think of playing this game at PE or outside at recess, but you can try it in the classroom.

What you would do is have each corner of your classroom representing an answer choice, and the teacher asks a multiple choice question with vocabulary words. The students move to the corner, they think is correct. It's a great way for. Some misconceptions to be addressed in the moment. Let's say you've got a ton of students in one corner, and it is the incorrect answer.

You can address that right then and there, and then move on to the next activity. Another idea is a vocabulary relay. You can split your class into teams, and you give the teams. Whoever's up next in line, a vocabulary word, they have to rush to the board and either write a definition or an example, whatever you decide you want them to do.

And you can even switch it up. Maybe round one is definition, round two, uh, is an example or some type of diagram. So that could be really fun. And whoever answers it correctly the fastest, their team gets a point. Another idea would be having a matching game or a bingo. You have vocabulary cards with words, and then the pictures and definitions on another set or on a bingo board.

And then students are, you call out a word, students are going to match. Or they put a bingo chip on the definition and the picture, whoever gets five in a row has bingo. Or you can have them do this in pairs where they're matching it together and they are reviewing different vocabulary words. So this is another great example of how you can add in games with vocabulary.

The last strategy is context and stories. Whenever students are getting real world context and connections and they're able to relate to the vocabulary words, it makes it a lot more meaningful and it makes learning stick. So instead of just giving them a word, and this is the definition of that word, use it in context.

Here are some ideas for that. The first would be to use a short narrative or scenario or even a historical story. So example. Let's say you have civilization, instead of just straight up saying civilization, here's the definition of civilization. Tell a mini story about people learning to farm and building permanent homes and creating laws.

And then you ask your students what word could best describe this and have students answer out and. Give their best guess, and then you share what the terminology, this is civilization and talk more in depth about it. Another idea is using primary sources or visuals to make connections. You could show an artifact or a map and introduce words like artifact colony.

Then the last one is you're having students create their own short stories or real life examples using new vocabulary that they might have learned. So to recap, the four engaging ways to Teach social Studies vocabulary, the first one is utilizing interactive word walls. The second one would be utilizing the vocabulary definitions and having some type of interactive notebook with the ability for students to go back and review those different words with the different prompts, like definition, examples, et cetera, et cetera.

The third one is related to games and movement and utilizing fun games like Four Corners to Review vocabulary. And then the last one is incorporating real connections and real examples with some stories. Alright, well hopefully this got you some great ideas and if you're watching this, that means this video stuck and is not going to have to be redone a third time.

But either way, I am so glad that you have watched or listened or tuned in for today. I cannot wait to talk to you next time. I hope you have a great rest of your day. Thanks for listening to the Social Studies Teacher podcast. If you enjoyed listening to this episode, hit that subscribe button and leave a review.

I would love to hear your thoughts. You can also find me on Instagram at the Southern Teach. I can't wait for you to join me in the next episode for more teacher tips and strategies.