The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of three graphic organizers for teaching vocabulary and the development of the emotions-related to achievement. The study focused on the effects of different types of graphic organizers on word-learning and various emotions in social studies. This study was designed as a quasi-experimental design by utilizing a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The experimental group was instructed on vocabulary by using the Concept definition map, a Word-questioning strategy and a Circle thinking map for word-learning, while the control group was taught to use the C(2)QU [(Context (2)-Questioning-Using)] as a process of learning new vocabulary from context. The participants of this study were fourth-grade students from a state school in Bayburt, Turkey. The results indicated that the graphic organizers group was more successful than the comparison group in terms of improving general word recognition knowledge and meaningful leaps in acquisition of target word meanings. In addition, it was found that using different types of graphic organizers developed positive achievement emotions (i.e., enjoyment, hope and pride) more than contextual learning process in social studies.