RIP Tired Worn Out Words

A fun activity to do around this time of year is to encourage students to broaden their vocabulary and let those overused boring words RIP.  I began by discussing the importance of learning new words and increasing our day-to-day vocabulary.  I put the word good on the smart board and asked the students to brainstorm some synonyms which could be used in its place.  After the students shared as many synonyms as they could think of for the word good, I pulled out the thesaurus to see if we could add anymore.   Following this whole group activity, I partnered the students up and had them chose one word from a given list.  These could be any commonly used words which you would like to let RIP.  Some examples are: sad, said, happy, angry, friend, etc.  Together, the partners brainstormed synonyms for their word as well as using a thesaurus.  Next, they traced a tombstone onto construction paper and wrote in their retired word along with its replacements.  I hung the tombstones out in the hall for a very cute fall/Halloween display.