Vocabulary Mini-Lesson: Song of the Trees by Mildred Taylor
Topic: Introducing Book Vocabulary Words

Vocabulary words: boughs, lumberman, hovered, protectively, indignantly, menacing, venomously, elude, sentries, resounded

·Introduce the words by taping word cards on the chalkboard that will later be placed on a word wall before beginning reading the book and reading them aloud with students to practice their pronunciation.
·Students will receive a set of cards, some which have vocabulary words and others with their definitions, and work in small groups to play a matching game and pair the words and their definitions.
·Talk about the meaning of each word as a whole group to ensure that all students understand the words and definitions.
·Have students re-sort the words according to their part of speech. Talk about the answers as a group and use the word cards on the board to show students’ answers and reach a class consensus.
·Students create a word poster illustrating one of the vocabulary words. The posters should have the word prominently displayed, an illustration of the word, part of speech, and use the word in a sentence. The posters can be hung around the classroom for reference while reading the book.
·Have students present their poster to the class. After presenting, they can move that word card from the board to the word wall.
·While reading the book, students will pay attention for the appearance of the word they created a poster for and record how it is used in the text.