If you’ve ever read through a student’s IEP, chances are you’ve seen the phrase “preview/review of curriculum concepts and vocabulary” listed under accommodations. This simple yet powerful strategy can make a huge difference for students who benefit from repeated exposure to content.
But what does it actually look like in practice? And—let’s be real—when can you realistically fit it into your busy day?
In this post, we’ll share easy and practical ways to incorporate vocabulary previewing and reviewing into your classroom routine. Let’s dive in!
Why Is Curriculum Vocabulary Preview and Review So Important?
Vocabulary exposure helps students engage with lessons, feel confident, and better understand key concepts. For students with delayed language skills or cognitive disabilities, research shows they may need 50 to 75 repetitions of a word before fully understanding it.
Providing repeated, meaningful interactions with vocabulary increases both comprehension and classroom participation—especially for students with language-based needs.
Step One: Choose the Right Curriculum Vocabulary Words
Focus on key vocabulary that will appear in your content areas. For students with more significant needs, prioritize:
- Life skill-related words
- Words that are used frequently across contexts
- Core vocabulary, especially if the student uses an AAC device
💡 Pro Tip: Collaborate with your speech-language pathologist and special education team to identify words that align with both your curriculum and the student’s communication needs.
When Can You Preview and Review Curriculum Vocabulary?
You don’t need a dedicated block of time—just small, intentional moments throughout the day:
🌞 Morning Work
Create quick worksheets or game-based activities that practice vocabulary in bite-sized ways. Try partner activities so students reinforce vocabulary with peers in multiple contexts.
📚 Quiet Reading Time
Use picture books that tie into your unit. For example, if you’re teaching the water cycle, read a story about rain or clouds. This helps build background knowledge and reinforces vocabulary through narrative.
👥 Small Group Centers
Pair students for games like word matching, partner reading, or simple vocabulary-based board games. Working together builds social interaction and reinforces concepts in a low-stress way.
🕝 End of the Day- Story Read Aloud
Are your students all packed up and waiting to be called for dismissal? Put on one of the read aloud stories. This can be a time for students to sit back and relax at the end of a day of learning, while also beginning to build background knowledge for upcoming topics.
Ways to Make Curriculum Vocabulary Practice Fun and Effective
With Technology:
✨ AI Tools (Diffit, ChatGPT, or MagicSchoolAI): Simplify vocabulary and generate kid-friendly definitions, short texts, or even fiction stories based on your unit words.
🎮 Baamboozle: Create interactive games using your vocabulary list. Perfect for partner or small-group review.
🎥 EdPuzzle: Use video clips with embedded vocabulary checks. Great for previewing new words or reviewing them in context.
Without Technology:
🧠 Matching Games
Create a 2-column table in Google Docs—one side for words, the other for simplified definitions. Print, cut, and play! Keep sets in students’ desks for ongoing review. Need another activity? Try using our Brain Break Mazes to practice vocabulary while staying engaged with a maze challenge!
🌎 Real-World Connections
Tie vocabulary into students’ lives. Studying the colonial era? Compare colonial tools to modern ones. For example, compare styles of clothing, kitchen utensils, transportation, etc. This builds critical thinking while reinforcing key terms.
🎓 “Definition Expert”
Assign a daily job during morning meeting where one student introduces 1–2 words they’ll hear in science or social studies. When the word comes up later, they help define it for the class—hello, confidence boost!
📌 Word Wall
Keep vocabulary visible with a colorful word wall. Include visuals, simple definitions, or student-drawn images to support all learners.
📖 Story Time Connections
Use books to build vocabulary and context! Check out these fictional stories that connect to common elementary units below.
📚 Fictional Book Recommendations for Curriculum Vocabulary (Grades K–4)
Reading stories tied to upcoming curriculum vocabulary sounds simple—but finding the right books can feel time-consuming and overwhelming. Even if a story doesn’t directly align with your exact unit, books that introduce related vocabulary or build background knowledge can still be incredibly valuable for helping students make meaningful connections. To make this easier, we explored common science and social studies topics found in elementary curriculums and put together a list of engaging, widely loved books that support those themes.
1. Water Cycle / Weather
- Come On, Rain! by Karen Hesse
- Water Can Be… by Laura Purdie Salas
- Cloudette by Tom Lichtenheld
- Acorn was a Little Wild by Jen Arena
2. Landforms & Rocks
- I’m Trying to Love Rocks by Bethany Barton
- What Can You Do With a Rock? By Pat Zietlow Miller
- Let’s Go for a Walk by Ranger Hamza
- I’m a Volcano (Science Buddies Series) by Bridget Heos
3. Maps
- Mapping Penny’s World by Loreen Leedy
- Magnolia’s Magnificent Map by Lauren Bradshaw
- Follow That Map! by Scot Ritchie
4. American Revolution
- Revolutionary Friends: General George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette by Selene Castrovilla
- If You Were a Kid During the American Revolution by Wil Mara
- If You Were a Kid in the Thirteen Colonies by Wil Mara
- Magic Tree House #22: Revolutionary War on a Wednesday by Mary Pope Osborne
- I Survived the American Revolution, 1776 (I Survived Graphic Novel #8) by Lauren Tarshis
5. Slavery
- Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine
- Freedom Soup by Tami Charles
- I am Harriet Tubman by Brad Meltzer
- Freedom Braids by Monique Duncan
*BONUS TIP– Some of these read aloud stories may be on Edpuzzle so students can watch/listen to the story, answer questions, and help learn key words or concepts!
Curriculum Vocabulary Preview: The Bottom Line
Curriculum vocabulary preview and review is more than an IEP accommodation—it’s a powerful inclusion strategy. With just a few intentional tweaks to your routine, you can give all students (especially those who need extra support) the tools to access, understand, and participate in classroom learning.
Let’s keep making content accessible—one word at a time. 💬✨
Want more tips? Check out these blog posts for more ideas to preview/review curriculum vocabulary:
📙Modify on the Fly: 10 Strategies to Modify Curriculum for Inclusion Opportunities
📗15 Practical Strategies for Differentiated Instruction in the Inclusive Classroom
*Disclaimer: We do not receive compensation for mentioning any books, websites, or educational tools listed in this post. All titles and resources are shared solely for informational and educational purposes. We include them because we genuinely find them helpful and relevant to supporting inclusive classroom practices.