Themepark

communication
Words

Words-whether written or spoken-are the building blocks of communication. Depending on how they're used, words have the power to inform or confuse, incite or diffuse, inspire or deflate.

A common misconception about words is that bigger is always better. Anyone who has read and appreciated the simple power of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address knows that this is not always true. Still, it is generally thought that the greater a person's vocabulary, the greater their capacity for thoughtful expression.

 

Places To Go    People To See    Things To Do    Teacher Resources    Bibliography

Places To Go

Little Explorers Picture Dictionary
This dictionary contains illustrated dictionary entries. Small surfers simply click on a letter to see a page of words that start with that letter. The pictures are links, pre-readers can surf with a minimum of help and guidance from adults, and older kids can use Little Explorers as a school reference.
Merriam-Webster Online Language Center
This site is an online version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary and thesaurus. It also contains funny word-builder activities and a word of the day.
Word Central
A student version of the Merriam-Webster dictionary, complete with pronunciations and definitions of thousands of words. Visitors can build their own dictionaries or play any of the fun word games and activities.

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People To See

Capitol Reef - Petroglyphs
Introduce yourself to some of the ancient inhabitants of Utah and see the words and messages they etched or painted on rock outcroppings, on canyon walls, and inside sheltered caves.  Their pictographs and petroglyphs are ideas they left behind.
Cyrano de Bergerac
Get to know Cyrano de Bergerac.  He was the main character in a play by Edmond Rostand.  But he was also a real person.  In the play, large-nosed, unattractive Cyrano used his romantic, winning words to woo fair Roxanne on behalf of a more handsome, but less articulate, friend.
Eponyms
An eponym is a word that is derived from someone’s name.  For example, a sandwich gets is named after the Earl of Sandwich, an Englishman in the 1600s who first put meat between slices of bread.  Teddy bears get their name from Teddy Roosevelt who declined to shoot a bear tied to a tree on one of his hunting trips.  A Ferris wheel is named after George Ferris who designed the first Ferris wheel in 1893 for the World Columbian Exposition.
Ken Jennings
Spend some time with Ken Jennings.  He knows all the right words. He is the winning-est contestant in the history of Jeopardy. A software engineer from Utah, Ken won 74 games and $2.52 million dollars on Jeopardy which is a record for American game shows.
Kids & Cursing: 'Modern Family' Toddler Typical, Scientists Say
Spend time with swearers and decide how you feel about profanity.
Lake Webster
Meet the people in Massachusetts who live near a famous lake.  The native American word for this lake is Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg which is one of the longest placename words in America.
Noah Webster and America's First Dictionary
Learn about the man who published the first truly American dictionary. 
Richard Lederer's Verbivore
This site is for wordaholics, logolepts, and verbivores. Carnivores eat meat; herbivores eat plants and vegetables; verbivores devour words. Ours is the only language in which you drive in a parkway and park in a driveway and your nose can run and your feet can smell.
Samuel Morse
Make the acquaintance of Samuel Morse. He invented a system of writing words with dots and dashes.
Tom Sawyer
Spend time with Tom Sawyer. His words were so persuasive that he could convince bystanders that he was doing them a favor by allowing them to paint his fence for him.
Urban Dictionary
Meet the people who created the Urban Dictionary.  It is a specialized dictionary devoted entirely to helping people understand slang words and terms. 
William Archibald Spooner
Meet William Archibald Spooner and have him explain how his name came to be associated with the term spoonerism.  A spoonerism is when words or letters accidently get tangled up as they come out of our mouths.  For example, we might say “keys and parrots” when we meant to say “peas and carrots”. So we could accurately say that spoonerisms are wixed-up murds.
Wordsmith.Org: A.Word.A.Day
Word lovers can learn a new word a day or browse through the archives for a plethora of words.

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Things To Do

100 Most Common SAT Words
At this site students can match words commonly found on SAT tests with definitions in a series of interactive games.
Commonly Confused Words
Words that sound alike or nearly alike but have different meanings often cause writers trouble. This site features a few of the most common pairs with correct definitions and examples.
Discovery School's Puzzlemaker
Puzzlemaker is a puzzle generation tool for teachers, students and parents. Create and print customized word search, crossword and math puzzles using your word lists. Build your own maze or print our specialty hand-drawn mazes created around holidays and classroom topics.
Doublespeak Proverbs
Old sayings that have been relied on for hundreds of years. You've probably used these proverbs, or at least have heard them used at some point in your life. But for this brainteaser quiz, they have been re-written using BIG WORDS that mean essentially the same thing, but sound a whole lot different.
RhymeZone
Check out this language arts reference tool and comprehensive search engine that includes a rhyming dictionary, a thesaurus, and a cool search engine that enables you to search for references to a particular word in the works of Shakespeare, the Bible, and other sources.

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Teacher Resources

ABC Teach Printable Crossword Puzzles
Elementary school teachers can find printable crosswords on a variety of topics at this site. It also has a link to a site where you can make your own crosswords.
Spelling Strategies
The articles on this site contain strategies that integrate spelling into your reading and writing curriculum and help your students to improve their spelling skills.

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Bibliography

  • Brantley, Cynthia and Cynthia Johnson. The Princeton Review Word Smart Junior: Build a Straight 'A' Vocabulary/Grades 6-8. Random House, 1995.
  • Brantley, Cynthia and Cynthia Johnson. Word Smart Junior II: More Straight-A Vocabulary. Princeton Review, 1997.
    Burchers, Sam et al. Vocabulary Cartoons: Building an Educated Vocabulary With Visual Mnemonics. New Monic Books, 1998.
  • Burchers, Sam et al. Vocabulary Cartoons II: Building an Educated Vocabulary with Sight and Sound Memory Aids. New Monic Books, 2000.
  • Degross, Monalisa. Donovan's Word Jar. HarperCollins Children's Books, 1994.
  • Falwell, Cathryn. Word Wizard. Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998.
  • Hubbard, L. Ron. How to Use a Dictionary: Picture Book for Children. Effective Education Publishing, 2000.
  • Kauffman, Dorothy et al. The Oxford Picture Dictionary for the Content Areas. Oxford University Press, 2000.
  • Lederer, Richard. The Circus of Words. Chicago Review Press, 2001.
  • Lederer, Richard. The Play of Words: Fun & Games for Language Lovers. Pocket Books, 1991.
  • Lederer, Richard. Pun and Games: Jokes, Riddles, Rhymes, Daffynitions, Tairy Fales, and More Wordplay for Kids. Chicago Review Press, 1996.
  • Meltzer, Tom. Illustrated Word Smart: A Visual Vocabulary Builder. Princeton Review, 2000.
  • Moyers, Bill D. Fooling with Words: A Celebration of Poets and their Craft. Harperperennial Library, 2000.
  • Robinson, Adam. Word Smart: Building an Educated Vocabulary. Villard Books, 1993.
  • Robinson, Adam. Word Smart II: How to Build a More Educated Vocabulary. Villard Books, 1992.