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Many Meanings

This amusing, entertaining, enjoyable, delightful activity will be a fun way for students to explore synonyms. 

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

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Steps

  • Step 1

    Have a discussion about synonyms. Explain that these words help to avoid constant repetition, provide more imagery, and increase precision in writing. Ask students to come up with different words that have similar meanings. For "big" they might come up with large, enormous, massive, etc. For "happy" they might say jolly, glad, cheerful, etc. 

  • Step 2

    Have students choose a word and several synonyms for it to write and illustrate. Ask them to cut a piece of construction paper vertically into a triangle and then cut the triangle into three or four strips horizontally. Have them write their synonyms on each strip and add an illustration to it. Then have them arrange their words into a synonym tree.

  • Step 3

    Ask students to write a short story using all of their synonyms and then read them to the class.

Standards

LA: Demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.

LA: Develop real and imagined narratives. 

Adaptations

"Thing" and "said" are two words that are often overused in writing. Challenge students to write a dialogue and avoid these words. Instead of "thing" they might say object, item, trinket, article, etc. In dialogues they might say "he replied," "she acknowledged," "they commented," etc. 

To introduce antonyms to the class  Read "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish" by Dr. Seuss, which contains many pairs of opposites, and have students point out the antonyms as they hear them.