Teaching vocabulary to all children is necessary to expand their comprehension and reading skills. Thankfully, Wordly Wise 3000 introduced us to interactive vocabulary activities for school aged children. We received the Book K Student Book along with the Book K Teacher Resource Package which is for children in Kindergarten. The package includes Picture Cards, Concept Cards, and a Teacher Book. By following the provided lesson plans our son learned and immediately applied, approximately 50 new words.

The Teacher's Resource Book provides detailed instructions, helpful tips, assignments, stories, poems, and assessments to expand your child's vocabulary. The Picture Cards include 120, sturdy, cardstock cards that measure 7x5 inches and display an image of the vocabulary words. The 12 Concept Cards showcase the themes covered by the assignments in the teacher and student books. These cards are much larger, measuring 14 x 12 inches. The Student Book is filled with cut-and-paste, coloring sheets, writing, journaling, and sequencing activities. A variety of colorful illustrations and large text also helps reinforce the concepts and aid in your child’s vocabulary comprehension.

During the review period we followed the recommended two-week lesson plan. The vocabulary week begins by introducing the story and five words via the Picture Cards and Concept Cards, followed by rereading everything on the second day. On the third day we read and discussed a poem then I used the home worksheet to review the words for the remainder of our school week. All the home worksheets are found at the back of the Teacher’s Resource Book. Week two of the lesson starts by reviewing the poem, learning the remaining five words, and completing an activity from the Student Book. On day two and day three we reviewed the words and continued through the Student Book assignments. An assessment is given on the final day using the Picture Cards and the checklist from the back of the resource book. Each day we spent approximately 20 minutes working through each lesson.

Though the Teaching Book is written for a classroom I did find it easy to adapt the lessons for our homeschool. I appreciated the layout of this book and found it easy to make copies, as requested in the instructions, because of the spiral spine. Everything I needed was easy to find because this teacher book was organized perfectly. When introducing new words with the Picture Cards I was able to place those on the table but they were too large for my son's desk. It is also important to note nothing was provided to store these cards in so once the wrapping was removed; I had to keep them in a Ziploc bag. It would be great for a container or box to be included so parents can keep the cards together. Due to the large size of the Concept Cards I preferred to hang those on our magnetic dry erase board and I kept these together with a binder clip when not in use. I found the Student Book to be well put together and believe the colorful images kept our son's attention. At first glance the assignments seemed repetitious but after a closer look I noted minor adjustments are included to keep challenging the student as the curriculum progressed. For example, the student goes from using one word in their illustrations to two or three as we advanced through the program. This was helpful in challenging our son as he built his vocabulary.

Overall, we liked the lesson layout, simple schedule, and eye-catching graphics in the Wordly Wise 3000 Book K, Teacher Resource Package and Student Book. The curriculum is easy to prepare, teach, and challenges children in a fun way. Since the curriculum includes so many components, having a box to store everything would be very helpful. Other than that, this set is clearly organized and was a fun way to expand our Kindergartner's vocabulary. School Specialty provides the Wordly Wise 3000 Book K, Teacher Resource Package for $86.00 and the Student Book for $12.60.

-Product review by Ta'Neisha Kemp, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, January 2019