Replace the Overused Word

Year 3 EnglishSynonyms3 pages

About this worksheet

Two replacement tasks for Year 3, over three pages. Task 1 is a short story about a trip to the seaside in which nice appears six times, underlined and numbered. Pupils pick a better word for each from a bank of six, such as sunny, soft and delicious. Task 2 gives six sentences with said, each with a clue to how it was spoken, to replace with words like whispered, shouted and giggled. The key lists all twelve answers and a completed story. It supports England National Curriculum vocabulary work in Years 3 and 4.

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Curriculum objectives covered

Writing - composition

โ€œassessing the effectiveness of their own and others' writing and suggesting improvementsโ€

Both tasks give pupils a weak word to swap, first nice in the seaside story and then said in six sentences.

Writing - composition

โ€œproposing changes to grammar and vocabulary to improve consistency, including the accurate use of pronouns in sentencesโ€

Each replacement has to fit its sentence, so pupils check meaning as well as choosing a better word.

What's inside this worksheet

Replace 'Nice'

A seaside story with six underlined nices, a word bank of sunny, soft, delicious, friendly, refreshing and wonderful, and gaps such as a ___ day and a ___ swim. Pupils write the six words or rewrite the whole paragraph on five dotted lines.

Replace 'Said'

Six sentences of speech, such as Mum whispering so the baby can sleep and the lifeguard calling about a big wave. Pupils choose from whispered, shouted, cried, asked, replied and giggled and write the word in a box.

Answers

The six nice words in order, a sample completed story, and the six said words.

How teachers use it

Shared reading

Read the seaside story aloud with nice in every gap. Ask pupils what they picture, then read it again with the replacements.

Said clues

Ask pupils to underline the clue in each sentence, such as softly, loudly or tears, before they pick a word from the bank.

Follow-up writing

Pupils return to a piece of their own writing and hunt for nice and said. They swap two of each.

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