Students discover how to use a thesaurus. In this language arts lesson plan, students explore thesauruses as they look up words and write sentences for the new words they encounter.

Give your class the advantage of Thesaurus Power! They will use a thesaurus to understand word meanings and relationships. They focus on how a thesaurus functions and how it gives the entry word, definition, synonyms, antonyms, and part...

Thirty-six pages familiarize scholars with the story and vocabulary of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. After reading and listening to an abbreviated version of the holiday tale learners show what they know about the sequence...

Kids are asked to choose the one option that is not a synonym for the provided keyword on a synonym worksheet.

Finding engaging ways to help your middle schoolers build their vocabulary is not easy to do. The activity presented here offers a great way to motivate them to build vocabulary by making it into a game. Teams of pupils use a dictionary...

Using Visual Thesaurus software, class members participate in a computer-based spelling bee. Then they work in groups to analyze the words and use deductive reasoning to infer spelling patterns. They then present one of their "rules" to...

Young scholars investigate new vocabulary words with a fun, collaborative activity. Given a deck of word cards, pairs of students flip over one at a time and independently look up the term in a dictionary. They then take turns rolling a...

Introduce your high schoolers to some tough vocabulary. No, I'm not talking about the SAT list! Revisit Victorian literature to find tricky words we still use today. Using the Visual Thesaurus, learners will preview vocabulary in a quote...

Celebrate Opposite Day by using a Visual Thesaurus to match words to their antonyms. They match a list of vocabulary words to their antonym counterparts using the Visual Thesaurus, and then they play Antonym Bingo with the words from...

Students become familiar with the Thesaurus as a resource.  For this Thesaurus lesson, students complete a worksheet by finding other words to replace the given word and use the  word in a sentence.

The star on the top of a Christmas tree can be beautiful, or it can be gold, or it can be shiny—or, in fact, it can be all three! A picture of a decorated Christmas tree encourages pupils to choose from a list of 18 adjectives to...

Scholars work together to define words and answer questions using a dictionary cube.

Use the Visual Thesaurus to predict the subject matter of Rick Riordan's book The Lightning Thief. A pre-reading activity encourages middle schoolers to use context clues and word meaning to discover what the book is about. After...

Lois Lowry's The Giver is one of the most engaging and thought-provoking works of literature in the middle school curriculum. Round out your novel unit with a collection of reading activities, comprehension questions, memoir and...

Students love the opportunity of going to the library to jump into that one comfy chair in the whole room with a book, or be a lucky one to get to the computers before anyone else. But knowing how to locate books and other reference...

Shape shifters recognize characteristics of polygons. Embracing language arts skills in addition to math, they use a thesaurus to pinpoint specific attributes of a set of polygons. They also participate in a 21-question guessing game...

Students use a thesaurus to expand their usage of language in their written work.  In this thesaurus lesson, students work with the reference book to add variety to their word choices. Students then adjust their spoken ,...

Here is a lesson which may be best suited for a library science teacher, or one that can be done by a regular teacher when in the library. In it, learners explore the best ways to use print and electronic resources to find information...

Augment your language arts units with a set of vocabulary worksheets. The packet is an excellent support to your vocabulary instruction that covers a variety of skills, including context clues, Greek and Latin roots, reference materials,...

Students examine synonyms and practice finding appropriate synonyms in a thesaurus. In this use synonyms to make your writing vivid lesson, students identify the correct usage of synonyms. Students replace incorrect synonyms in...

Students navigate the Visual Thesaurus to find keywords for research.  In this keywords lesson, students use synonyms, hypernyms and hyponyms to find keywords. Students understand why some searches are effective and some are...

Students review key physics terms using a Visual Thesaurus. In this science lesson, student groups compete against each other to correctly identify "imposter" words from a list of related physics vocabulary terms.

Use a Mad-Libs like activity to create modern poetry! Writers will identify different words and their parts of speech and study "The Red Wheelbarrow" by Williams Carlos Williams. Then, use the sheets attached to craft your own poem! An...

Learners explore the food pyramid. In this nutrition lesson, students identify the 5 food groups and sort foods according to the group in which they belong. Learners use the Visual Thesaurus to complete a food groups worksheet and...