Lesson 1 Vocabulary practice

Make sure to memorize both forms of the nouns as well as their gender. Have you noticed that words that end in -a, have a second (genitive) ending of -ae? This means they belong to the first declension. Also, notice that all the nouns in this lesson are feminine (f) in gender. Most first declension nouns are feminine.
Knowing that -a words change to an -ae, that they belong to the first declension and that most -a, -ae words are feminine in gender will make them easier to remember because you have less independent things to memorize.
Also, besides the fact that knowing Latin will help you with English vocabulary, the opposite is also true: knowing the English words derived from Latin words will help you remember the definitions of Latin words.