Why these words
Why these words?
Can young children really learn the challenging words in Story Friends—and why should they?
Story Friends teaches young children challenging words, from enormous to exhausted. Many of the words will be new to them, and some of them might seem “too challenging” for children in preschool and kindergarten.
Here are five reasons why the developers chose the words in Story Friends, and why learning these words will help prepare children for success in school and life.
The challenging words in Story Friends…
- Help children express themselves more clearly and precisely. The developers selected sophisticated words that represent familiar concepts young children already know. Learning these words will help children express exactly what they mean—for example, soaked is a more precise word than wet.
- Get kids ready to grasp academic content. If children don’t know the more sophisticated words they’ll encounter in school, learning will be harder for them. The words selected for Story Friends are useful across many content areas and will boost comprehension once children start reading. Teaching kids challenging words now will prepare them for school success later.
- Help children understand the language of adults. The Story Friends developers chose challenging words that adults use frequently but young children with limited vocabulary aren’t likely to know. When children learn and master these words, they’ll better understand what the adults around them are saying.
- Are tough to learn without help. The words selected for Story Friends would be difficult for kids to learn from context. That’s why Story Friends—with its explicit instruction and multiple exposures—is the best way to introduce these words to children and ensure that they fully grasp the meaning of each one.
- Show children’s progress. To demonstrate the positive effects of intervention with Story Friends, it’s important to target vocabulary words that children don’t already know. By testing students’ knowledge of these challenging words before and after Story Friends, you’ll get an authentic picture of how much your students have learned.
Turn the page to see the words your students will learn with Story Friends!
Vocabulary Words
- accident
- agree
- brave
- comfort
- complete
- different
- grin
- gorgeous
- disappointed
- enjoy
- enormous
- exhausted
- horrible
- ignore
- fail
- frosty
- imagine
- kind
- ridiculous
- ruin
- leap
- lost
- pause
- reckless
- search
- selfish
- soaked
- tumble
- wise
- day/night
- empty/full
- around/between
- bottom/top
Concept Words
- speedy
- terrified
- soar
- wise
- worried
- thrilled
- tumble
- empty/full
- first/last
- bottom/top
- day/night
- high/low
- in/out
- soft/hard
- tall/short
- largest/smallest
- near/far
- new/old
- up/down
- winter/spring