Download Thesaurus Activities for Elementary School

Thesaurus Activities for
Elementary School
By James Mascia, eHow Contributor
• S
tudents usually learn how to use a dictionary very early on in
their school career. Learning how to use a thesaurus,
however, is often overlooked, as many teachers do not see a
thesaurus as a necessary part of a child's education.
Following this simple strategy, you can teach elementary
students of any grade level how to use a thesaurus properly
to help in their overall success.
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Explain the Thesaurus
The first step to showing children how to use a thesaurus is
to explain to them exactly what a thesaurus is and what
it's used for. You must dispel the myth that a thesaurus
is like a dictionary. The first time a child takes a look at
a thesaurus, this is what he is going to think. You need
to explain to your students that they won't find any
definitions in the thesaurus, just synonyms.
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
After explaining what a thesaurus is used for, a great first
activity is this writing exercise. Give each of your
students a copy of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and a
piece of paper with the following words written on it:
twinkle, little, star, wonder, up, above, world, high,
diamond, sky. Have your students go through the
thesaurus, find three synonyms for each word and
write them on the paper. Then have them rewrite
"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," replacing each of those
words with one of the three they wrote down. Explain to
them that not every word they find will always fit, so
they need to choose words that will still make the poem
make sense. Have your students recite their new
poems to the class.
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Friendly Letter
Another great activity for students is to have them improve
upon a writing sample. Give each of your students a
letter that you have typed up beforehand (a great idea
would be a letter that a character in a story you have
read recently might have written). When you create the
letter, use incredibly weak words -- words that are
overused or are not "forceful" in their meaning -- so
your students will have no choice but to improve the
writing. Tell your students to read the letter, explaining
that it is weak and needs to be stronger, which can be
accomplished by using better words. Have them use
the thesaurus to find words to replace the weak words
in the letter and rewrite the letter with their improved
words.
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