Recently we received a donation of dictionaries from The Rotary Club of Islington, Highgate and Muswell Hill. Our school captains accepted the dictionaries from a rotary representative, Daniela at our Monday morning whole school assembly.

Our Grade 5 and 6 students were the first in the school to use the new dictionaries. They first discussed how dictionaries can help us and what we learn about words in dictionaries. The students played some games to try and find words quickly.

Next, the students learned to refer to the definition, part of speech, synonyms and example sentence to determine the meaning of the word. The students then had to use the dictionary to explore the meaning of the words thwart, capable and clutter. Each student wrote an example sentence to show that they understood the new word.

 All of our students speak English as a second language and dictionaries are a great resource that students can use to help them learn, understand and remember new words. We encourage our students to use dictionaries when they are reading and come across a new word that they don't quite understand. With each new word the students learn, they are a step closer to English fluency which will help them immeasurably when they continue on to secondary education in English.

Thank you again to Daniela Schofield for bringing the dictionaries to Tanzania and The Rotary Club if Islington, Highgate and Muswell Hill for donating them!!