Republican Women present dictionaries with games and challenges

Since 2008, the Montgomery County Republican Women have been distributing dictionaries to students in Conroe Independent School District. One of the group’s members, a former teacher and currently a writer of children’s games, cards, and books, has devised in introductory lesson that combines vocabulary, storytelling, and an information quiz to highlight the many uses of the dictionary and gazetteer that the group offers to the children.
Nancy McWilliams created a game called the Castle of Passageways to lead the children through a short adventure story, during which they stop along the way to choose words which can best express the action of the story. Besides the game, children have the opportunity to work with words that have multiple meanings and to compete to guess the answers in a quiz that covers science, math, and social studies questions which highlight the information that can be found in the gazetteer.

The Republican Women have found that the activities engage the children and help them to find the many ways that the dictionary and gazetteer can help them learn.

Those interested in more information can contact the Dictionary Project or the Montgomery County Republican Women to learn how to make the materials and use these lessons and activities.