Powerful Verbs KS2 Synonyms Posters and Writing Worksheets

This pack contains 11 interactive PDF posters to inspire more effective writing from children in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6.

Each features an everyday (‘boring’) verb, or verb phrase, surrounded by more powerful synonyms, illustrated with eye-catching images.

There are two versions of each poster – labelled and unlabelled – as well as pupil worksheets so children can come up with their own synonyms and find, or draw, illustrations for them.

• Posters with text
  The images on these posters are labelled with the words they are illustrating.
• Posters without text
  The images on these posters are not labelled. Children should look at the images and try to identify the words they are illustrating.
• Pupil worksheets
  These templates are blank except for the verb at the centre of the page. Children can use the blank boxes to add their own powerful verbs and illustrations.

What is a synonym?

A synonym is a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase.

Synonym examples

• Nice and kind
• Big and large
• Tiny and minute
• Quick and fast
• Smelly and stinky
• Thrilling and exciting

What is a powerful verb?

If verbs describe an action, a powerful verb is a more interesting version of basic verbs that help to make writing more descriptive, exciting and engaging. Learning these will help expand children’s vocabularies and improve their speaking and writing skills

Powerful verb examples

• Sprinted, galloped or strided instead of ran
• Shouted, whispered or muttered instead of said
• Searched, eyeballed or perused instead of looked
• Snoozed, slumbered or dozed instead of slept

National Curriculum English programme of study links

Students will learn how words are related by meaning as synonyms and antonyms [for example, big, large, little].

This resource is part of the Effective Writing collection.
View more from this collection

• posters with text
• posters without text
• pupil worksheets