In our language sessions we sometimes work on antonyms and synonyms. Why is it important for kids to know what things are opposites and what things are the same? Well, one reason is that it helps the child solidify the definition of the word - it helps them understand the meaning better. Their ability to understand antonyms and synonyms is a good indicator of how well they understand the abstract concepts of certain words.
Synonyms and antonyms are often adjectives. These are harder words to learn than nouns, because with a noun you can usually point to it or show a picture of it (Look at the dog! That’s a dog!), but with adjectives it’s not so easy.
For instance, what does ‘hot’ mean? You can’t really hold ‘hot’, you can only touch something that is hot and feel it. What does ‘happy’ mean? You can’t touch ‘happy’, but you can recognize someone who looks happy and you can feel happy. And sometimes it’s easier to describe a word’s meaning by telling it’s opposite. (What does ‘tall’ mean? It’s the opposite of ‘short’!)
Some antonyms and synonyms are easier to learn than others. Most young kids can tell you the opposite of ‘hot’, but maybe not the opposite of ‘plentiful’. Or they might know that ‘happy’ and ‘glad’ mean the same thing, but they may not be able to tell you a synonym for ‘frustrated’. The more of these words that they learn, the bigger their vocabulary will be, and it will also help them to think abstractly about things. This is an important skill for them to develop as they advance through the elementary grades and move on.
There are lots of fun apps you can download to practice synonyms and antonyms. One that I use a lot is called The Opposites by Mindshapes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-opposites/id480194638?mt=8
And a fun site where you can play a game with synonyms and antonyms is here:
http://www.abcya.com/synonyms_antonyms.htm
Good luck!
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