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1st grade · English Language Arts · Unit 8 of 19

Describing Words

Opposites and describing words

What your child practices

Opposites (hot and cold) and describing words that tell how something looks, feels, tastes or sounds, including finding the describing word in a sentence.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 1L5 · describing words and opposites

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Describing words tell how something looks, feels or sounds.
  2. Opposites mean very different things: big and small.
  3. Other opposites: fast and slow, loud and quiet.

Example: What is the opposite of “hot”? Hot is very warm. Its opposite is cold. Answer: cold

Describing Words in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 8 of 19 in 1st grade English Language Arts, after Story Time and before More Than One.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Find the describing word: “Priya has a happy puppy.”

    • happy
    • Priya
    • puppy

  2. Question 2

    Find the describing word: “Leo sees a red bus.”

    • red
    • bus
    • Leo

  3. Question 3

    What is the opposite of “small”?

    🐭small
    • 🐘big
    • 📢loud
    • ⬇️down

  4. Question 4

    Which word tells about the picture?

    ❄️snowflake
    • cold
    • hot
    • furry

  5. Question 5

    Which word tells about the picture?

    ⚽ball
    • square
    • round
    • spiky

  6. Question 6

    What is the opposite of “closed”?

    📕closed
    • ⬇️down
    • ⬆️up
    • 📖open

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