Opposites Worksheets

About this resource

Hot and cold. Up and down. Big and small. Opposites are one of the first word-meaning ideas children meet, and they are easiest when a child can match, circle and write the words themselves. This is a full opposites kit for kindergarten and first grade, with word tiles a child can read, primary handwriting lines, and room to work on every writing page.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (35 pages)

• 18 student pages in 6 page types (below), each with a big "My name" line and one short instruction
• 24 opposite pairs (48 words), each word short enough for a first reader (the longest is six letters); 96 items on the practice pages, in 4 sets of 6 pairs
• 24 contrast sentences (48 short clauses joined by "but"), all invented
• 1 word list, 3 answer keys generated from the same pair table as the pages
• 1 tracker (16 rows), 1 class progress grid, 1 team note, 1 home page, 1 filled example (an invented student), 1 phrase bank (17 starters)
• 1 binder cover and 6 divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here, a how-to-read-a-page page, and a back page

THE SIX PAGE TYPES (dots show the level, never color)

1. Opposites Helper (1 dot) — hot and cold with pictures, up and down with pictures, and big and small shown by their size.

2. Match the Opposites (1 dot, 4 pages) — six words on the left, six opposites on the right; the child draws a line to join a pair.

3. Circle the Opposite (2 dots, 4 pages) — one word and three choices; the child circles the opposite.

4. Write the Opposite (2 dots, 4 pages) — a word, a word box of six answers and primary writing lines; the child writes the opposite.

5. Finish the Sentence (3 dots, 4 pages) — one sentence in two halves, joined by "but": the first half has an underlined word, the second has an empty box for its opposite ("The soup is hot, but the ice is ___").

6. Draw the Opposites (3 dots, 1 page) — happy and sad, day and night, full and empty: draw a picture for each word, then write a pair of your own.

The words come in four sets of six pairs (A to D), easiest words first. Every pair is on one page of each of the four practice types. Finish the Sentence deals the pairs its own way (still four pages of six), so that each page has one pair from each of six meaning groups.

One Right Answer On Every Page

Some words have more than one true opposite: big is the opposite of small and also of little. On these pages every choice a child sees (the right-hand column, the three circled words, the word box) has exactly one word that is an opposite of the given word. To make that true, all 48 words were checked against a thesaurus's antonym entries for every meaning; 16 of them are linked in some meaning to a second word in the pack (for example big lists short, and slow lists short), so those pairs are never on the same page. Pairs a child could mix up (up and down with top and bottom, in and out with on and off) are on different pages too. On the sentence pages the empty box comes after "but" and each page holds one pair from each of six meaning groups (where, size and amount, how it is, speed and sound and time, people, things), so among the six words in the box only the opposite of the underlined word makes sense as a contrast. True opposites that would give a second answer (little, shut, young, start, come and 18 more, named on page 5 of the file) are not in the pack at all. If a child writes one of them, it is a real opposite; the key names the word from the page. No page asks what "opposite" means: a word is right when it is the opposite of the given word among the choices printed on the page.

Built For The Child Holding The Page

A big "My name" line, one short instruction with a picture, large rounded letters, and every box a child writes in on primary lines or a drawing box, at least 0.6 inch tall. The word a child is given is always teal and the choices are always coral, so a child can see which is which. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult. The only cutting in the file is the binder tabs, which touch edge to edge (7 pieces).

Type In, Or Print

The name and date lines, the tracker, the class grid, the team note, the home page and the word-list note box are type-in fields in any PDF reader. The words a student writes in the boxes are pencil work. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

Kindergarten and first grade classrooms, self-contained and resource rooms, and any teacher working with an older student who still needs opposites. The home page sends the same job to a family; the team note hands off what changed since the last meeting.

What This Is, And What It Is Not