• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Brown Bag Teacher

Teach the Children. Love the Children. Change the World.

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • Home
  • Meet the Teacher
    • Disclosures
    • Professional Development
  • My Classroom
    • Back to School
    • Differentiated Instruction
    • Distance Learning
    • Management
    • Organization
    • Technology
  • 1st Grade
    • Art
    • Daily Five
    • Guided Math
    • Reading/Literacy
    • Science
    • Writing
  • 5th Grade
    • 1:1 iPads
    • Book Displays
    • Community Building
    • ELA
    • On Demand Writing
  • Shop
  • Blog

January 16, 2013

Synonyms and Antonyms in 1st Grade

Growing up, on Sunday afternoons my Mom would tell my brother and me about the special or wacky holidays that were coming up during the week. From Felt Hat Day (September) to World Thinking Day (February), it was a highlight of our weeks and neat to imagine that somewhere in the world someone actually celebrate these events.

As a teacher, wacky holidays are something I want to include my classroom. Not only do these holidays engage students but they provide a fun way to connect the ‘real-world’ with learning…read: ALWAYS connected with the CCSS. While some of the holidays I celebrate are more obscure (i.e. If Pets Had Thumbs Day or Lock Sock Memorial) many provide important life lessons in appreciate and thankfulness (i.e. Thank a Mailman Day or National High Five Day).

This Friday (January 18th) is Thesaurus Day! That’s right, get your party hats on J While I will not be in the classroom full-time, yet, I will at some point celebrate this holiday with students. Additionally, holiday or not, antonyms and synonyms can be hard for students…especially struggling readers. There are SO many words in 1st grade, and it can be so difficult for students to determine if words are synonyms/antonyms if they cannot read the first word! Therefore, I wanted to create a way to teach synonyms/antonyms catering to struggling readers and visual learners – I came up with Weighing Words.

Mini-lesson: I introduce the activity with a scale explaining that words have weight. A word’s ‘weight’ is its meaning. I would make the connection that an even/equal scale means two words ‘weigh’ the same or have the same meaning (ex. kind and nice). They can replace one another on the scale or in a sentence. Then, introduce the word ‘synonym’ – a term that means words have the same weight or meaning – and display the anchor chart. As a class, we create a list of same-weight words placing them on the scales. I would then go through the same process with antonyms.

Center: (We do the Daily 5, so I would include this activity in Word Work) To gauge student understanding (i.e. formative assessment), students would complete the weighing words activity in a group. Given 10 sets of words, students weigh the words (using laminated cardstock scales) to decide if they are synonyms or antonyms. Although I colored coded my cards (so students are focusing on deciding if the sets are synonyms or antonyms , they could easily be printed in black/white allowing students to decide which cards ‘match’.

Click here or the above picture to grab the anchor charts and center for free. I hope it helps synonyms and antonyms ‘click’ with your friends J Wishing you and yours a wonderful Thesaurus Day!

Join me for weekly classroom updates and free resources that are just-right for your guided math classroom!

Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

Related Posts

  • Figurative Language Mats
  • Questions I Will No Longer Answer
  • Life in Colonial America Stations
  • Main Idea in 5th Grade

Filed Under: 1st Grade, Reading/Literacy Tagged With: Freebie

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Karen says

    January 16, 2013 at 1:04 am

    Looks great! I love the idea! Who knew there were so many "holidays!"

    Karen
    anappleadayinfirstgrade.blogspot.com

    Reply
  2. Rachel Seymour says

    January 16, 2013 at 4:21 am

    Thanks for sharing the freebie! Love it! Thanks for also visiting my blog and letting me know about Techy Tuesday. I've already linked up at Katie's! 🙂

    Rachel
    A-B-Seymour

    Reply
  3. Susie says

    January 16, 2013 at 5:25 am

    Hi ~ I found you through a 100th Day pin! Love the look of your blog. I'm relatively new too! Hope you'll check me out too!

    TheJugglingTeacher

    Reply
  4. Miss Squirrels says

    January 16, 2013 at 5:55 am

    I love the idea of the "same weight"! Thank you for the center!

    Squirrels

    Going Nutty!

    misssquirrels@yahoo.com

    Reply
  5. SunnyDays says

    January 16, 2013 at 7:59 pm

    Thanks for linking up to show and tell this week and sharing such an awesome freebie!
    Denise
    Sunny Days In Second Grade

    Reply
  6. Stephanie says

    January 17, 2013 at 3:17 am

    LOVE unusual holiday celebrations! Last year my favorite holiday to celebrate was Star Wars Day (May the 4th AKA May The Fourth Be With You!) Needless to say I had a large group of Star War enthusiast boys 🙂

    Thanks for the great post I am your newest follower!
    Stephanie
    Elementary My Dear

    Reply
  7. Kim says

    January 17, 2013 at 3:56 am

    What a great idea! How fun to celebrate all those silly holidays! Thank you for the freebie!
    Kim
    TheVeryBusyFirstGraders

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

My name is Catherine Reed, and I am in Year 10 of my elementary life, residing in small-town, Kentucky.  I student taught in 1st grade and never ...

Read More

Find it Fast!

Join Me!

Join me for weekly classroom updates and free resources that are just-right for your guided math classroom!

Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

Don’t Miss These!

Working together to meet a goal builds classroom community & encourages teamwork. As a PBIS school, check our our 20 favorite nonfood, low-cost rewards!

20 Positive Behavior Rewards that Aren’t Food

Guided Reading offers students intentional reading instruction with texts that are just a little too hard! From lesson planning to benchmarking students to word work activities, check out these awesome ideas to make Guided Reading work!

Guided Reading: 1st Grade Style

Weekly Lesson Planning Routine

Overwhelmed by math centers? Check out these SIMPLE ideas for create predictable patterns and routines that allow for streamlined planning!

Managing Math Centers

Wordless Picture Books

Categories

Archives

Footer

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: No feed found.

Please go to the Instagram Feed settings page to create a feed.

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Join Me!

Join me for weekly classroom updates and free resources that are just-right for your guided math classroom!

Sweet! Thanks so much for joining me. Now check your email to confirm your address & snag your freebies. Happy Teaching! -Catherine

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

The Brown Bag Teacher © 2022Built with and Genesis Framework by Bellano Web Studio