Gradients of meaning

Here's another activity linked to Am I Small?

If you have your own classroom here's a fun bulletin board project! Give each student a a paint strip (you can get them for free from your local hardware store: Home Depot, Lowes, etc.) Paint strips have recently gained popularity in crafting and are no longer used as samples. As a result some stores are charging. Rather than take the samples from the paint display, ask the manager if they have any expiring paints that you could grab the sample sticks for when they expire. Or, if they have any expired paint samples ready to toss. 

Once you found your paint strips, write a "boring" adjective on the bottom (the lightest color) then have them choose their own adjectives that mean the same (or similar) but are more powerful. Have them write these on the darker parts. What do I mean by a boring adjective? This post talks about it in more detail.

You can use the story as an example and make a couple sample paint strips using the words from the story.

When your students finish these make great Spring decorations for a bulletin board, door, or wherever you like! You can put a title on it like: "Keep your language colorful" or "Make the world a more colorful place!" and then fill the board with your students paint strips! 

Here are four different "Rich" cards showing different denotations.

Another option is to explore different meanings of the words. Let's look at the word rich. 

Ask what the word means, then give them different examples.

Or, you can get your students to figure out what the different meanings of rich are. It can mean to be well off, to have a lot of something, have a lot of intensity, to be buttery and thick (with foods), to show irony, to be interesting, to be prolific, etc. Once you have the idea see if you can give them some other words.

Divide the class into small groups and give them each the same word. However, tell them to each focus on a different meaning of the word. To get a good idea of words with different meanings you can check out the two part list here. If the groups are bigger then have two students work on the same denotation, but try to come up with different words.

On the bulletin board make brown or yellow circles that contain the "boring" words. Surround these circles with the finished paint strips so the yellow becomes the center of the flower and the paint strips are the petals.

Let your students know that this is their Synonym Garden! Whenever they want inspiration on better words to use, they can look at the different meanings words have and pick a more specific description.


While I think this project words wonderfully with adjectives you can do it with nouns or verbs too! For example, the word run has many different meanings (you can run a computer program, run for office, run a company, etc.) If we were talking about moving quickly: run-speed-hurry-hasten-zoom-bolt.


I don't currently have my own classroom :( So, I am not able to show you how pretty it looks.

If you manage to do this with your class, I would LOVE to see the final product!

Get Students Using Different Words

In fifth grade my teacher Ms. Sipe outlawed “four letter words.” She wasn’t referring to swearing; she didn’t want us to use words like: good, nice, or tall. She thought we could use better words:  noble, pleasant, or towering. Why? Because these specific words gave us a better idea of what we were describing.

This is also very useful when students start paraphrasing something that is useful for many reasons.

Many of our students need help to get out of a vocabulary rut. They tend to use the same words over and over again. In some cases this is fine, whereas in others a larger vocabulary may prove more beneficial.

Here’s an activity that will get your students using different words.  This CAN be adapted to all levels depending on your use of scaffolding and the words you select.

Step 1: Show a picture of something small (an ant for instance). Ask students how they would describe the animal. Once one of them says small, write it on the board and ask what other words they know for small. Here’s a list of the words the book uses: Small, Teeny-weeny, Mini, Tiny, Microscopic. Then show something bigger (an elephant). See what words they use to describe that. Again, the book uses: Big, Large, Huge, Gigantic. If they don’t use a word, you may like to introduce it.   

Step 2: Introduce a cline. The word cline probably looks familiar to you since it is related to incline or decline. A cline is essentially a visual ranking of words. See if your students can rank the words from smallest to biggest.

Step 3: Read, “Am I small?” in the target language. With younger students you may like to read it a few times. Get them to read it. Have them do different listening activities while you read it. Then, see if their cline matches what the author thinks about the words

Step 4a: In small groups give students two opposite adjectives. Depending on the level, these can be easy (tall-short) to more difficult (rich-poor). In groups see if they can create a cline of 5-10 words. NOTE: I would tell them to try this without dictionaries or cell phones, but you may prefer that they use them. *This is an easy task to differentiate. You can give weaker students easier words, require they come up with less words, or you can give the words to them.

Step 4b: Have them identify the differences in the words. For example, the connotations, registers or denotations. For example, childlike and juvenile both mean young. However, childlike is normally more positive whereas juvenile is more negative. Ginormous is normally only used in an informal register. Antique is normally used to describe things, not people.

Step 5: See if they can create a story similar to, "Am I small?" using their own words and a unique character. Depending on the technological capabilities of your class, this can be a book using paper, a video where they act (or use puppets), a book where they cut and paste pictures from magazines, a PowerPoint, or an animated short video. If they make a book see if they can put it in their library so other students may enjoy it as well.

Here are some examples in case you want to give your students words to start.

Rich-Poor: Prosperous, Affluent, Disadvantaged, Wealthy, Well Off, Meager, Flush, Humble, Loaded, Poor, Underprivileged, Comfortable, Needy, Well-to-do, Opulant, Penniless, Destitute

Old-Young: Old, Fledgling, Ancient, Young, Mature, Childlike, Juvenile, Antique, Infantile, Immature, Underdeveloped, Decrepit, Over the Hill

Happy- Sad: Ecstatic, Sullen, Happy, Morose, Cheerful, Content, Comfortable, Unhappy, Miserable, Glum, Jovial, Gloomy

Tall- Short: Tall, Short, Lanky, Elfin, Towering, Petite, Fun sized, Gangly, Diminutive, Small, Big, Puny 

To see another activity that helps students work with different adjectives (and make your classroom pretty), stay tuned for Wednesday's post!