Ditch Those Overused Words for Vibrant Synonyms

If you’ve ever found yourself pouring over a stack of student writings and can’t seem to get through them, chances are you’re looking at a pile of ‘very’ repetitive sentences and paragraphs that desperately need spicing up with some new synonyms. We can help!

Give them Other Words for ‘Very.”

What are the most common words used in writings produced by early learners? If you ask teachers, they’ll probably give you a top-ten list. Nice, happy, sad, big…Those are on the list, but one word often stands at the very top because it’s ‘very’ annoying to read over and over again. Any ideas?

The word of the day is ‘VERY’. Kids love the word, and while ‘very’ has its place, sometimes it just needs to go. It’s boring, and there are so many other words to use in its place. We’ve put together a handy little tool to help your students vary how they can say ‘very’.

The students can cut out this vibrant word wheel and glue it to the back of their writing journals.

Students can refer to this wheel to help them choose the best words to use when writing descriptive language.
The words in the centre ring guide finding alternative ‘very’ words. The words in the second ring are common ‘very’ words. The words in the outer ring are more descriptive and can be used instead of adding very.

Download and Print

This resource prints as a PDF file. It is available in colour and black and white. Use the dropdown arrow on the download button to choose the file you prefer.