One of my favorite activities for promoting vocabulary and word retrieval is working on analogies. I love Analogy Adventure, by Linda Schwartz (illustrated by Beverly Armstrong), available on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Analogy-Adventure-Grades-Critical-Thinking/dp/088160173X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1444501845&sr=1-1&keywords=analogy+adventure ) . Not only does the book present a variety of fun-themed analogy worksheets, but it also teaches what an analogy is and how to write an analogy.
The book is marketed for grades 4 – 8. I have modified the activities for everything from 3rd grade through high school. After learning to complete analogies, I like to present additional analogies using vocabulary from the curriculum.
What can you target with analogies? Word finding, of course. Vocabulary, multiple-meanings, synonyms, antonyms, categories, higher-level language, the list goes on. I always ask the kids to explain their answers and tell how the words are related.