Interactive, Fun, and Educational. There are so many amazing uses for the Wordsmyth Kids Wild Online Dictionary. Broken down into the 3 parts this website is not just a dictionary but “interactive multimedia environment for learning about words and the world.”
World: The world is an interactive picture dictionary split into city and nature. By selecting one or the other the student is then provided with more choices, and more choices, and more choices narrowing down city or nature to its elements.
For example, a student will select city, then post office, then mail carrier, and finally mail box where they learn the definition, part of speech, see a picture and can listen to the pronunciation of the word. Students can see the word in a sentence and see the word translated into Spanish. In the process they can select the dictionary entry within each step.
The city includes locations commonly associated with population centers such as home, school, grocery store, library, and bank; and Nature, which includes a variety of natural and rural settings such as forest, seashore, and desert.
This is great when learning about maps, communities, geography, and habitats.
Collections: Explore categories of words separated into different collections. Students select a category and can scroll through different words to pull the definition, part of speech, see a picture and can listen to the pronunciation of the word. Students can see the word in a sentence and see the word translated into Spanish.
The possibilities for use are endless. Learning about mammals in the classroom, select the animals then the mammal category. Space? Shapes? Plants? Maps? This can easily be a center in the classroom for independent work or a whole class activity.
Book: The book is an ebook dictionary with all the words and definitions as well as the ability to listen to the word being spoken.
The ebook format allows students to see entries before and after the word they are looking at unlike most online dictionaries. It also has a side thumb index and guide words like a printed dictionary while also searchable like an online dictionary. A appreciable mix of features.
Click “See more” on each word to see the part of speech, a picture, examples of the word in a sentence, the word translated into Spanish.
Settings on the bottom (from left to right) toggle the audio on/off, toggle the full screen on/off, toggle the help on/off, and allow you to adjust what is available in the dictionary entries.