Rocks and Minerals Vocabulary Mats

I just uploaded my rocks and minerals vocabulary mat activity to teacherspayteachers. This year, I am teaching 4th grade, so  I will be creating vocabulary mats for all of our 4th grade science units. I may even delve into other grade levels as I have time and create vocabulary mats for new concepts.

What is a vocabulary mat? It’s a spin on the old flash card study strategy. Instead of having answers on the back of their cards, students have a vocab mat that stays as one sheet of paper that includes a set of related vocabulary words. Students also have a sheet of definitions that they cut apart and place onto the vocabulary mats as a study/review strategy. At the beginning of a unit, it is an activity to assess prior knowledge. Throughout the unit, students' quickness and accuracy with matching up the words is an assessment on their growth in learning the content of the unit.


In this packet, I also included worksheets for my other two favorite vocabulary strategies: the "I have never heard this word/I know many ways to use this word Continuum" and the "Categorize and Label sort".