About this activity
Twelve Spanish antonym pairs: grande and pequeño, frío and caliente, lleno and vacío, arriba and abajo, abierto and cerrado, rápido and lento, limpio and sucio, alto and bajo, dentro and fuera, día and noche, feliz and triste, duro and blando. Opposites are learned in contrast, which is why the pairs stay together rather than being taught one at a time.
How to use it in a session
Say both members of each pair aloud together. The contrast is what teaches, and a word matched silently teaches nothing. Once matching is easy, give one word and ask for its opposite without the cards, which is retrieval rather than recognition and considerably harder. Alto and bajo are worth a note — they cover both height and volume in Spanish, which is a useful ambiguity to point out. Eight minutes covers the twelve.
What to listen for
Listen for the no strategy. A child who answers no grande when asked for the opposite of grande has the concept and lacks the word, which is a retrieval issue rather than a conceptual one. Watch dentro and fuera, which are spatial rather than descriptive and often come later than the physical property pairs.
Carrying it home
Opposites are everywhere in a Spanish-speaking home: la puerta está abierta, ahora cerrada; el vaso está lleno, ahora vacío. Saying both halves in the same minute is what builds the contrast.
Questions
- Is this board in Spanish?
- Yes, all the words are Spanish. This page is in English so an English-speaking clinician can find and evaluate it.
- Is it free?
- Yes, no account and no card needed.
- What grades is it for?
- Kindergarten through third grade, for Spanish-speaking students building early vocabulary.