Reading Activities / Illustrated Vocabulary

Illustrated Vocabulary

Vocabulary picture cards, inspired by the Frayer model

Pick the words from the text worth keeping, then draw what each one means and use it in a sentence set in the world of the story. Drawing a word is a slower, stickier way of learning it than copying a definition.

A picture and a sentence. The drawing fixes the meaning; the sentence proves they can use it.

Words from the book, not a list. Type in whatever the class has just met.

Prints blank cards. One card per word, ready to draw and write on.

Model a card on the whiteboard · printing blank cards is free

The sheet it prints

The printable illustrated vocabulary sheet — blank cards with a drawing box and a sentence line.

How do you teach vocabulary by drawing it?

Give every new word a card holding three things: the word, a drawing of what it means, and a sentence using it. Drawing a word is slower than writing a definition and it sticks better, because a child cannot draw something they have not understood. Illustrated Vocabulary is inspired by the Frayer model and deliberately simpler — a Frayer model has four boxes including examples and non-examples, and this keeps the two that carry the most weight for a primary class.

Why does drawing a word help you remember it?

Because a child cannot draw a word they have not understood. A definition can be copied without a single thought; a picture cannot. The drawing is not the point in itself — it is the proof that the meaning landed, and it is visible from across the room.

How is it different from a Frayer model?

A full Frayer model asks for a definition, characteristics, examples and non-examples in four quadrants. It is excellent and it is a lot to hold. This keeps the drawing and the sentence, which is the version that fits into the ten minutes at the start of a lesson.

How do you run it on the whiteboard?

Take one word and draw it badly yourself first — it gives permission, and the class will tell you what you have missed. Then give three or four words for them to card up. Print a sheet and they build a personal glossary over a term.

How do you make it harder or easier?

To start, use concrete nouns, which draw themselves. The step up is abstract words — reluctant, envy, betrayal — where the picture has to show a situation rather than a thing, and the conversation about how to do that is worth more than the card.

From the classroom

Abstract words are where this earns its place, and they are also where it stalls. A child asked to draw reluctant will sit with an empty box unless you have modelled that you draw the situation, not the word — somebody at the bottom of a diving board. Do one of those together before you let them loose and the whole thing works. And do not mark the drawings. The moment a child thinks the picture is being judged on quality, they pick easier words.

Try it now

Take the hardest word from the chapter you are reading and card it up together on the board. The sentence at the bottom is the bit that shows you whether it stuck.