Teacher's Notes: Essential Antonyms
These words are very important for being able to communicate in a basic, meaningful way. Many words may be review for students, and many may be new. It's a great review to make sure that everyone has this basic vocabulary under their belt. These words will come up constantly in story after story, as well as in general conversation. Synonyms of these words will start to come up too.
These worksheet can be used at any time, but preferably after the first antonym crossword puzzle activity, as it adds more words.
When I first introduce the words, I often present it like a game. I divide the class into two teams, and tell them that when I say a word, their job is to shout out the antonym. The person who shouts out the answer first gets a point for their team. I write the words on the board as we go, and give lots of examples for the words that students are unfamiliar with. I also ask them questions using the words. (Are you greedy or generous? Who is someone greedy that you know? What subject do you think is boring in school? What's the most interesting?)
This "Essential Antonyms" section has three parts. You may want to use the first worksheet, then move onto teaching a different story, then come back to the second worksheet to reinforce the words, then move on to another story, and finally come back to the last worksheet, which can be used like a test or simply like a review.
The first worksheet consists of sentences using the antonyms. Each sentence is a good example of how that word would actually be used. There will most likely be new words throughout the worksheet that will have to be explained to the students. The task of the student is to find an antonym for the underlined words.
The second worksheet reviews the antonyms and adds a few synonyms. Synonyms to teach: pretty, unhappy, intelligent, horrible, quick, hard, fix, ordinary, simple, tiny. The second worksheet consists of sentences that are completely ridiculous because the wrong word is used. For example, the first sentence is “A whale is a tiny animal.” Students must choose “enormous” from the words at the bottom to correct the sentence. The other activities involve matching synonyms or antonyms and choosing the right word out of a pair of antonyms to complete a sentence. In some instances, either word could be right as long as the student can explain why. For the sentence “My floor is _____,” most students will say “hard,” but one may say “soft” because he has soft carpet.
The last worksheet, a "test" of sorts, goes over all the antonyms previously taught. In the first activity, students choose something from the side list that fits with each adjective. More than one answer is possible; however, if each is to be used only once, the words all have a “best” match. The second activity is fill-in sentences. The antonym of the underlined word in each sentence is the word that best completes each sentence. The remaining exercises are fill-ins, matching antonyms, and completing the sentence with an adjective that makes sense.
New Words (Antonym Pairs)
fight – get along
strange – normal
heavy – light
sick - healthy
enormous – tiny
delicious – disgusting
tired – energetic
ancient – modern
generous - greedy
smile – frown
love – hate
thick – thin
arrive – leave
rude – polite
brave – cowardly
boring – interesting
short – long
empty - full
lazy – hard-working
win – lose
war – peace
clean – dirty
whisper – shout
correct – wrong
buy - sell
break - repair
lose - find
Words to review
hot – cold
sad – happy
short – tall
good – bad
mean – nice / kind
expensive – cheap
same – different
small – big
young – old
new – old
ugly – beautiful
easy – difficult / hard
thin – fat
early – late
rich – poor
stupid – smart
quiet – noisy
clean – dirty
wonderful – terrible / horrible
slow – fast
weak – strong
Worksheet 1 Answers
Antonyms: 1. easy, 2. fight, 3. normal, 4. light, 5. tiny, 6. weak, 7. disgusting, 8. energetic, 9. frown, 10. hate, 11. thin, 12. healthy, 13. leave, 14. same, 15. rude, 16. late, 17. cowardly, 18. sad, 19. long, 20. beautiful, 21. cheap, 22. boring, 23. stupid, 24. young, 25. modern, 26. slow, 27. empty, 28. wonderful, 29. hard, 30. light, 31. thin, 32. give, 33. enemy, 34. greedy, 35. dry, 36. poor, 37. tall, 38. old, 39. near, 40. cry, 41. mean, 42. wide, 43. safe, 44. save
Worksheet 2 Answers
Antonyms: 1. enormous, 2. light, 3. ancient, 4. healthy, 5. strange, 6. ugly, 7. noisy, 8. wet, 9. interesting, 10. far, 11. smart, 12. happy, 13. old, 14. laugh, 15. win, 16. generous, 17. hard-working, 18. polite, 19. strong, 20. tall
Synonyms: big – enormous; difficult – hard; normal – ordinary; little – tiny; easy – simple; sad – unhappy; beautiful – pretty; fast – quick; intelligent – smart; horrible – terrible; repair – fix
Choose the correct answer: 1. war, 2. hot, 3. dangerous, 4. expensive, 5. hard, 6. get along, 7. lazy, 8. tiny, 9. frown, 10. delicious, 11. tired, 12. fat, 13. clean, 14. love, 15. whisper
Antonyms: dark – light; correct – wrong; smile – frown; thick – thin; leave – arrive; different – same; long – short; empty – full; wonderful – horrible; receive – give; enemy – friend; kind – mean; narrow – wide; spend – save; sell – buy; whisper – shout
Worksheet 3 Answers
Find something that is: 1. a kitten, 2. an elephant, 3. an ant, 4. dinosaur bones, 5. a funeral, 6. a turtle, 7. Neptune, 8. mp3 player, 9. chocolate, 10. a giraffe, 11. a party, 12. Antarctica
Sentence Antonyms: 1. hard, 2. repair, 3. late, 4. find, 5. healthy, 6. tiny, 7. dirty, 8. energetic, 9. rich, 10. light, 11. frown, 12. old, 13. cold, 14. different, 15. safe, 16. fight
Sentences: 1. greedy, 2. whisper, 3. lazy, 4. sick, 5. disgusting, 6. strong, 7. quiet, 8. brave, 9. smart, 10. fat, 11. laugh, 12. rich, 13. polite, 14. empty, 15. wet
Write-in antonyms: 1. generous, 2. shout, 3. hard-working, 4. healthy, 5. delicious, 6. weak, 7. noisy, 8. cowardly, 9. stupid, 10. thin, 11. cry, 12. poor, 13. rude, 14. full, 15. dry
Match antonyms: soft – hard; normal – strange; dark – light; hate – love; thick – thin; leave – arrive; long – short; ugly – beautiful; cheap – expensive; interesting – boring; laugh – cry; mean – kind; wide – narrow; spend – save
Find an adjective: (accept suitable answers such as) 1. boring/interesting, 2. interesting/expensive, 3. smart, 4. soft, 5. dark, 6. beautiful/rich, 7. interesting/funny/sad
