Context Clues: Activities with Synonyms
By studying synonyms, students can build their vocabularies exponentially, as they will be able to connect new words they are learning to words they have already learned. Combine your synonym study with a study of context clues to help your students develop the decoding strategies they will require to navigate potentially complex texts and determine the meanings of unknown words.
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Challenge Word Synonym Lists
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Help your students build their vocabularies by creating challenge word synonym lists. On poster boards, write sentences that contain some complex vocabulary, underlining one word in each sentence. Divide students into groups of three or four, and give each group one of the poster boards along with a thesaurus. Ask students to use the thesauruses provided and to create a list of words they could put in place of the underlined word. Hang the posters on the wall, encouraging students to review them and to increase their vocabularies.
Synonym Flip Books
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Have students craft flip books featuring synonyms. Type out sentences, each of which contains one complex vocabulary term. Cut slips of paper sized to fit over the complex vocabulary term in the sentence. Give each student a copy of each of the pages containing the sentences along with some of the slips of paper. Have students write words they could use to replace the complex terms in each sentence, stack them on top of the original term, and staple them at the top, creating a flip-book style selection of words that could be used to replace the complex one. Complete this process with the other pages, then bind the pages together to make an entire book for each student.
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Synonym Selection Challenge
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Challenge students to replace complex terms with synonyms, making the activity into a game. Select a passage with some complex vocabulary and underline terms you feel students will find challenging. Have students read the passage independently and, above each underlined word, write synonyms they could put in place of the words. When you grade the passages, give students one point for each properly selected synonym, rewarding the student with the highest number of points as the winner.
Sentence-Synonym Match-Up
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Create a match-up game for your students to attempt as they build their vocabulary skill. To prepare this activity, write out sentences on index cards, underlining a word in each. On separate cards write single words that are synonyms for the words present in the sentences. Jumble the cards. When students are ready to attempt the challenge, give them the jumbled cards and time them as they sort them, placing each sentence card with the word card containing the term that could most effectively replace the underlined word. Declare the student who completes the challenge in the shortest amount of time the winner.
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