I woke up to freezing rain conditions, no school, and time to be creative. I need to switch my bulletin board away from the December/January winter theme to something for February. I like to be able to get some language value out of it as well. The Pear Tree (previous post) has always been very successful for making students think of homonyms. I thought something similar for antonyms would be great. I’ve decided to make the title “Antonyms, a Love and Hate Relationship. I will cut out hearts the student can decorate with a stickers, stamps, or drawings. They can label them with antonym pairs and post them on the board. It could be made more interactive by cutting the hearts apart in puzzle fashion to be matched or making two different colors of hearts that are joined by a piece of yarn or string.
Antonyms are a good way for students to learn vocabulary and the ability to compare and contrast. The mind seems to remember words better when we manipulate the meanings in our mind. Older students learn how to use suffixes and prefixes to make words that are opposites. I have made up a list of antonyms that is in pdf form or excel. There is an advantage of being able to sort the excel list, but I’m not sure it will open for everyone. The number to the right of the word is my way of giving a level. The 0 level is typical preschool kindergarten beginning knowledge. I have K through 5th grade in my building. The basic antonyms are developed in primary grades and there may be fluctuations in the grades they are learned depending on what material is covered in class. I’ve found that by making a list I can write objectives in their Individual Education Program (IEP), show progression and know what the student has covered. Click here for the excel list, click here for the pdf list.
I found glitter to be quite motivating. I put glitter in a coffee can so I could seal it with a lid. I let them put glue around the outer edge of the heart after they wrote the antonyms on them. They slipped the heart into the coffee can and shook it. The heart came out decorated with glitter and looked good no matter what the skill level. It only took a few minutes per child and surprisingly there wasn’t much clean up. This is how the board is looking.

The Antonym Board