Grade by Grade
B. Foundations of Language · Sounds, Letters and Reading Words

Word Meanings: Sorting, Opposites and Word Parts

B2.7 B2.6 B1.5About 35 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can sort words into groups.
  • I can find words that mean the same (synonyms) and the opposite (antonyms).
  • I know some words have more than one meaning.
  • I can use word parts like un-, re-, -ing and -er to figure out what a word means.

Words to know

vocabulary
All the words you know and use.
category
A group of things that belong together, like animals or foods.
synonym
A word that means the same or almost the same as another word: big and large.
antonym
A word that means the opposite: hot and cold.
multiple-meaning word
A word that is spelled and said the same way but has different meanings, like bat.
prefix
A word part added to the start of a word that changes its meaning, like un- in unhappy.
suffix
A word part added to the end of a word, like -ing in jumping.

Words are tools

The more words you know, the better you can understand stories and share your ideas. Today you will learn five ways to explore words.

1. Sorting words into groups

Words can go into categories (groups). Look at these words: apple, moose, carrot, beaver, bread, loon.

  • Animals: moose, beaver, loon
  • Foods: apple, carrot, bread

You can even make smaller groups inside a group. Foods → fruits (apple) and vegetables (carrot).

🫎🦫🍎🥕
Animals or foods? Sort them!

2. Synonyms: same meaning

Synonyms are words that mean the same or almost the same:

  • big → large, huge
  • happy → glad
  • fast → quick
  • small → little, tiny
  • start → begin

3. Antonyms: opposites

Antonyms mean the opposite:

  • hot ↔ cold
  • up ↔ down
  • open ↔ closed
  • yesterday ↔ tomorrow
  • add ↔ subtract (a math word!)
  • float ↔ sink (a science word!)

4. Shades of meaning

Some words are similar but stronger or weaker. Think about the temperature outside:

cool → cold → freezing 🥶

And for happy: glad → happy → thrilled

Picking the best word helps people know exactly what you mean.

5. Words with more than one meaning

Some words have more than one meaning. The rest of the sentence tells you which one.

  • bat: a flying animal 🦇, or a stick for baseball
  • bark: the sound a dog makes 🐶, or the outside of a tree 🌳
  • ring: jewellery for your finger 💍, or the sound a phone makes
  • pop: a loud sound (The balloon will pop.), or a drink (I had a pop.)
bat: a flying animalbat: a stick for baseball
One word, two meanings. The rest of the sentence tells you which bat it is.

Word parts help you figure out words

A base word can get extra parts:

  • un- means not: unhappy = not happy, unlock = do the opposite of lock
  • re- means again: redo = do again, reread = read again
  • -er can mean a person who: teacher = a person who teaches, player = a person who plays
  • -ing means it is happening: jumping
  • Two small words can make a compound word: snow + man = snowman, rain + coat = raincoat
Worked example

Let's figure out a new word

What does unpack mean?

  1. Look for parts you know. un + pack.
  2. pack means put things into a bag or box.
  3. un- means not, or do the opposite.
  4. So unpack means take things out of a bag or box.
  5. Check in a sentence: "After the camping trip, we unpack our bags." Yes, it makes sense!

unpack = take things out (the opposite of pack).

Just for fun

What did the tree say to the dog?

"You have a nice bark, but so do I!" 🌳🐶

Hands-on activity

Kitchen word sort

You need: 10 things from the kitchen (or pictures of them), and 2 or 3 bowls or tea towels.

  1. Gather things like a spoon, fork, apple, banana, cup, bowl, carrot, cheese, pot, napkin.
  2. Decide on your groups, like things we eat and things we use. Sort them!
  3. Now sort a different way, like things that are cold and things that are not.
  4. Play "opposites": a grown-up says a word (full, hot, clean, wet) and you say the opposite (empty, cold, dirty, dry).

Talk about it: "Why did you put that one there?"

Your turn

1

Sort these: dog, red, cat, blue, cow, green. What are the two groups?

2

What is a synonym for big?

3

What is the antonym (opposite) of up?

4

What does unhappy mean?

5

What does reread mean?

6

Put in order from least cold to most cold: freezing, cool, cold.

7

What two words make snowman?

More practice: warm-up

1

What is the opposite of hot?

2

What is a synonym for small?

3

Which does not belong: apple, banana, chair, grape?

4

What is the opposite of open?

5

What does a player do?

More practice: on your own

1

What does bat mean in this sentence? Liam hit the ball with his bat.

2

What does unlock mean?

3

What is the opposite of yesterday?

4

Make a compound word: rain + bow

5

Choose the stronger word: "The soup was ___. I burned my tongue!" warm or hot?

Challenge

1

Use bark in two sentences with two different meanings.

2

A farmer is a person who farms. What is a person who bakes? A person who sings?

3

Sort into 3 groups: bear, mitten, robin, toque, eagle, fox, boot, owl, moose.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which word is a synonym for happy?

2.

What is the opposite of add?

3.

What does unhappy mean?

4.

Which word does not belong with the others: moose, beaver, carrot, loon?

5.

The dog will bark at the cat. What does bark mean here?

6.

Which word is the coldest?

7.

What does redo mean?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Vocabulary grows through talk, read-alouds and explicit teaching (B2.7). Grade 1 students sort words into categories, learn synonyms, antonyms, shades of meaning and multiple-meaning words, and begin to use word parts (bases, prefixes, suffixes) to read and understand words (B2.6). Using new words when speaking is part of B1.5.

How to help at home:

  • Read aloud books that are above your child's reading level. They are full of rich words. Stop and chat about one or two.
  • Use "tier-up" words in conversation: enormous, delicious, freezing, exhausted.
  • Play category games in the car: "Name 5 things that are green."
  • Point out school-subject words: in math (add, subtract, more, fewer), in science (float, sink, living, non-living).

Common difficulties:

  • Mixing up synonyms and antonyms. Use "same" and "opposite" as everyday words first.
  • Picking the first meaning of a multiple-meaning word. Always ask, "What does the rest of the sentence tell you?"
  • Thinking un- always means not. In verbs like unlock and unpack, un- means do the opposite. Both are fine to explain.