My fifth graders spend a lot of time learning the various systems of the body. The skeletal system provides some tough new vocabulary words: humerus, phalanges, scapula, etc. So a dual-focus approach will help them learn the vocabulary and be able to retrieve it. I try to make as many meaningful connections as I can. For example, the shoulder blade (scapula) is a wide, flat bone that looks like a spatula. Spatula is a great cue for scapula.
I have a picture of a child licking a mint to help retrieval ligament.
I use a large construction crane lifting a skeleton (yell-a-ton) to remember cran-i-um. And, of course, Elvis the Pelvis helps us remember pelvis. A grocery cart precariously sits on the edge of a ledge to connect with cartilage. We pat our knees to remember pat-pat-pat-patella. We “fill land” by scraping our fingers and toes for phalanges. And please humor us by remembering that funny bone in the upper part of our arm, the humerus.
Be sure to reinforce each syllable and have the child say the word aloud, then in a sentence. Use Diane German’s technique from the Word Finding Intervention Program. I summarized it in an earlier post: http://www.wordfindingforkids.com/an-endorsement-from-the-word-finding-guru/
I’m sure you have other ideas. Please comment on this post or send me an email with your cues. I will add them to the Grades 3-5 page of cues, as listed above.