Learning to write is an incredible process to be a part of! Kids go from writing scribbles to letter sounds to actual words! It’s amazing, right? But, in first grade, ideas begin to sound the same after a while… The repetition of the same boring words can get well, boring!
“I like going to the park.”
“School is fun.”
“My friend is nice.”
While I am super proud to see their progress, it gets a little boring, if I’m honest!
How I Help Young Writers Banish the Same Boring Words
So, after we’ve written for a while, I start to introduce Say What? Word lists. We try swapping out common words for different words to help make their writing less boring!
I laminated the word lists for durability and added a binder ring so they can easily hang in our writing center. Kids can quickly grab the lists if they want to swap out a boring word!
These Say What? Word Lists have made a HUGE improvement in the variety of words kids now use in their journals, letter writing, and stories!
Here are the words these synonym lists cover to help my students banish all those repetitive and dull words!
Words included:
• said
• mad
• good
• nice
• happy
• went
• scared
• pretty
• looked
• sad
• like
• bad
• big
• get
• small
I’ve found that as students are gently “forced” into thinking of new words, other parts of their writing excels as well!
Check out the Synonyms Posters here!
Recap of Banishing Boring Words for Elementary Writers
Like most activities with young students, writing is all about repetition and practice. Having synonym lists handy can help these growing writers learn to think more critically about their word choice!
Plus, it makes it very easy to direct them to the lists if writing assignments come back with too many boring words. These banish boring words worksheets are printable, easy to use, and will help your students’ writing dramatically improve!
Get the lists for your classroom here!
How else have you helped young writers come up with more creative word choices? Let me know in the comments!
Additional Writing & Synonym Resources
Looking for more Synonym ideas? Check out InterACTIVEities Synonyms, Beat the Clock Synonyms and or Cool Words Synonyms & Antonym Match Ups!
And, check out even more word work activities here.
