My New Words introduces four describing words, enormous, gentle, curious, and soggy, one per box. Each box has four parts: what it means, a drawing, something in the student's own life, and the opposite. Enormous is done as a worked example ("The yellow school bus is enormous." with tiny as the opposite), so kindergarten students see the pattern first. It practices Common Core L.K.6 and L.K.5.c. The other three boxes are blank, and no answer key is printed.
L.K.6
“Use words and phrases acquired through conversations, reading and being read to, and responding to texts.”
Students use each new word in the Something in my life box, putting enormous, gentle, curious, and soggy into their own sentences.
L.K.5.c
“Identify real-life connections between words and their use (e.g., note places at school that are colorful).”
The Something in my life box asks for a real-life connection, like being gentle with a pet.
The worked example: "Very, very big! Like a giant.", the school bus sentence, and tiny as the opposite, with space left to draw.
Blank boxes for the meaning, a drawing, a real-life example, and the opposite, labeled "Not gentle".
The same four boxes. Curious is the hardest of the four to draw, so expect to talk it through first.
The last word, in the same layout, with the opposite labeled "Not soggy".
Pair with a picture book
Choose a book that uses one of the words and fill in that box right after reading. Soggy fits any rainy-day story.
Scribe the meanings
Most kindergartners can say a meaning better than they can write it. Write their words in the boxes, or let them draw instead.
Act out opposites
Ask students to walk across the rug in a gentle way, then a rough way. Acting out the opposite helps them fill that box.
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