Celebrate National Dictionary Day!

How should we celebrate Dictionary Day? Here are some ways to enjoy the contents of a dictionary --- the thousands of words in our English language.

1. Enjoy Nonsense Words

Read Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky (a copy in PDF) and mark all the words you cannot find in a dictionary. Discuss his invented words. What do they mean? What parts of speech are they? Do they remind you of any real words that you could find in a dictionary? Create a dictionary for Jabberwocky with the meanings you think the nonsense words have.

Sign up for free at Teachit and access this poem and worksheet set about Jabberwocky.

2. Learn Some New Words

At Weird Words of the British site World Wide Words I found these gems:

HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS -- with honor

FUSTIGATE - to cudgel or beat

BEJUGGLE - to outwit by trickery or deception; to cheat

Then at Unusual Words , I found even more:

BATRACHOPHAGOUS - one who eats frogs

PANDICULATION - stretching and yawning before going to bed or when waking

ULOTRICHOUS - having very wooly hair

You can also subscribe to various word of the day feeds (in your feed reader or by email) such as the ones I've included below.

Or just browse through your dictionary for something that catches your eye.

3. Adopt a "Dying" Word

At Save the Words, you can find words that are going out of use and try to revive them. You can also sign up for a word a day email.

4. Play the Dictionary Game

You need paper, pencils, and a dictionary. The object of the game is to guess the correct meaning of a word while tricking your opponents to select a false definition that you made up! To play, each player takes turns choosing a difficult word from the dictionary. The word chooser writes the word's correct definition on one slip of paper and two false, but believable, definitions on two other slips of paper. Then the other player must select the correct meaning! There are many variations of this game, and you can modify the rules as you choose. The main thing is to enjoy the words you find in a dictionary!

For more dictionary games, visit The Creative Homeschool.

Driven by a desire to unify the American way of speaking and spelling English, Noah Webster started work on the first American dictionary at age 43. He thought Americans should have their own distinctly American (rather than British) way of spelling, pronouncing, and using words. But at that time, Americans in different regions had no unifying standard of language. Webster's dictionary was the first step in changing that.

After 27 years of labor In 1783, Noah Webster created what is considered to be the first dictionary of America. It had 70,000 words in it. It's no accident that National Dictionary Day is on Noah Webster's birthday! He is the father of the American dictionary.

Noah Webster Printables

1. For a full color, especially for children Mini Page featuring Noah Webster, download this PDF.

2. For a kid friendly biography plus some printables related to Noah Webster, visit Garden of Praise.

3. For a three page, interesting biography of Webster look at this PDF.

Click on the link to visit Merriam-Webster's wonderful Timeline from Noah Webster to Merriam-Webster

For an interesting video from TED, watch Erin McKean redefine the dictionary. From the website: "Is the beloved paper dictionary doomed to extinction? In this infectiously exuberant talk, leading lexicographer Erin McKean looks at the many ways today's print dictionary is poised for transformation."

Besides doing dictionary skills worksheets, there are some fun and creative ways to interact with the dictionary on Dictionary Day or any day.

1. Create a dictionary entry for yourself! Define YOU! Visit Education World for the details.

2. Create your own dictionary. Use words you like, new vocabulary from a book you're reading, or funny words you'd like to start using. Make a minibook and fill it in in the same style as a dictionary would. Young children can make a picture dictionary.

3. Create your own word of the day calendar. Use the printable monthly calendars at Incomptech or at Print Free. Or you could use a spiral bound set of index cards and make a daily calendar to sit on your desk or kitchen table.

4. Have a dictionary race. Give each participant a dictionary. Call out a word and see who can find it first. You could also ask for some type of detail about the word that the dictionary will tell.

5. Set up a dictionary treasure hunt. Use sticky notes to create clues inside a dictionary. Follow the clues, word by word until you find the final treasure word. Read directions here.

If you like my approach to teaching language arts here, you may also be interested in my very modestly priced eBooks shown below. One is specifically about language arts while Notebooking Success applies to any academic area.

Click on the image to learn more. Both of these books are for the teacher; they are methodology books that teach you how to teach.