Teaching Synonyms and Antonyms in first grade

I recently taught my first grader synonyms and antonyms. I've mentioned many times before that one of my objectives in homeschool is to make learning fun. I try to stay away from lecture based lessons, opting instead, for games and other activities that reinforce my teachings in a stress free, fun environment. It seems to work so well for us, so I wanted to share some of my ideas.

I started by making a list of simple words, words at the first grade level. Then, I printed the words in card format and we played Synonym Match Game. It is a very simple game similar to Memory Game. My daughter and I spread out the cards faced down on our table. Then we took turns turning over two cards. The main difference is that we would turn over one card, read the word and say its synonym. Then, we would turn over another card. If that card matched what we said, we would keep both cards and the next player would take a turn. If it didn't match, we would simply turn both cards down and the next player would take a turn.

It was a great learning exercise because my daughter practiced reading and she had to come up with the synonym on her own. She was motivated because she wanted to win; she wanted to make as many matches as she could!

The game actually took longer than I expected or even planned for, but my daughter had so much fun with it, she just wanted to keep going.

When we were done, she wanted to play the Antonym Match Game, which I had planned as a different lesson. But since we were having fun and she was learning, we just kept going.

I have both games here under My Printables. Feel free to print out the cards and play! Please make sure you read my terms of use before you print. As always, these are my original ideas and I would appreciate credit if you mention it in a blog or website.

How do you teach synonyms and antonyms? I'd love to hear your ideas.