13 of the best free vocabulary resources for KS3 and KS4 English
Close the word gap and boost your secondary students' lexicons with these free activities, worksheets and posters…
- by Teachwire
Baseline SPaG and vocab test
Author: Educated Minds with Ms Cole
This baseline SPaG test covers spelling, homophones, punctuation and prepositions, and features 32 slides.
Year 7 English worksheets
Challenge students to stretch their descriptive writing vocabularies with these free Year 7 English worksheets. The download contains jungle-themed worksheets, teacher notes and a PowerPoint.
Graveyard of deceased vocabulary
This vocabulary display includes
- A sign for your vocabulary graveyard
- 6 gravestones for ‘dead words’ to avoid using. The words are:
- happy
- sad
- cold
- hot
- small
- big
- Accompanying bats for each gravestone with synonyms for each of the dead words
There is an editable version included to create your own, as well as a PDF version.
Boggle vocab starter game
Using Boggle as inspiration, this can be used as a starter and linked to a key word within the learning objective of the lesson. Students peer assess to check for spellings etc.
Browse more KS3 English games.
Vocabulary Ninja’s vocabulary laboratory
The Vocabulary Laboratory resource is the perfect task to run alongside Word of the Day! Break down any word to its most essential elements. Perfect for exploring tense, word class, synonyms, antonyms and understanding! Just place your focus word in the central box and allow the Vocabulary Laboratory experiment to commence!
The resource contains A4 and double A5 versions for versatile use in school. And because the Ninja likes to spoil you, there is also an advanced version of the Vocabulary Laboratory sheet included. 3 resources in 1.
Ambition vocabulary intervention session
Author: Educated Minds with Ms Cole
This activity asks students to find more-adventurous synonyms for words like walked, bad, shout, scared, said and confused, as well as getting them to rewrite a paragraph by replacing these words.
As an extension, pupils can continue the story by using adventurous vocabulary.
Vocabulary character posters for Macbeth
Character images (from the Patrick Stewart version) for Macbeth with high-level vocabulary for each.
Building vocab templates
A small number of templates that can be used for teaching vocabulary – key words, concept words etc.
Word square puzzles
Word Square Puzzles are great for flexing and building a pupils vocabulary repertoire. Use as a starter activity, extension, challenge, SPaG, homework or just for fun!
Each square has a target word made up off all of the letters within the square, but how many words in total can pupils generate from the letters within!
More word square puzzles
If you loved the Word Square Puzzles resource from Vocabulary Ninja above, here are more. That’s it.
Spice up Little Red Riding Hood
Author: Educated Minds with Ms Cole
This simple activity asks students to find more-creative synonyms for typical words found in the Little Red Riding Hood fairytale, such as alone, big, brave, dark, go, went and scared.
Character vocabulary posters for A Christmas Carol
An image for each main character (from the modern Disney adaptation) in A Christmas Carol with a range of high-level vocabulary on each.
Verbs for analysis
This is an analytical word bank to aid students’ spoken and written analysis of language and literature.
It includes differentiated lists for Key Stage 3 groups, and definitions of more unusual words with examples of them in use.
There are also lists of modal verbs and modifiers which are useful for discussion and analysis, often in conjunction with analytical verbs.