Teaching Primary
Aged Students

Picture Dictionary

A to Z Secondary index
A to Z Primary index

What and Why?

Primary Colours includes six Picture Dictionary pages in the Activity Book. These make use of stickers to build up a ‘dictionary’ of the vocabulary that the children have learned.

Practical ideas

  • It is probably best if the Picture Dictionary pages are completed in class, especially at the beginning of the course. This will help you to make sure that it is completed correctly and that the stickers are not stuck somewhere else!
  • Before the children stick the pictures into the dictionary pages, make sure that they know exactly where they should go. Ask the children to put their finger on the place where they will stick the picture, and go around the class to check.
  • You can use the dictionaries to play ‘ I spy’ (see ‘Games’ in Extra activities). When the children have completed a few Picture Dictionary pages, ask them to find something beginning with a particular letter, or from clues, for example, Find a fruit that is yellow.
  • You can play ‘Bingo’ (see ‘Games’ in Extra activities). Ask the children to choose six items from a Picture Dictionary page. They write the words in the squares on their ‘Bingo’ board and close their books. You then call out words from the Picture Dictionary page in random order. You can make this more challenging if you say the meaning in the mother tongue or show a picture or give a clue, rather than saying the word itself.
  • The children can play ‘Guess what?’ in pairs. Choose a Picture Dictionary page and, with the children, make up some questions about each object. For example: Can you eat it? Is it yellow? Is it big? Can you live in it? The children then sit in pairs. One child thinks of one of the pictures, and the other child has to ask questions to guess what it is.