Brianne Wragg
I’m a bit of a grammar and vocab anarchist. Sure, I love language, but I can’t resist breaking its rules. Why follow them when bending words leads to wild creativity and big ideas?
There’s something truly exciting about watching kids break the rules of language and embrace the absurd. This week, we played the Surrealist Antonym Game in our writing sessions, and it took creativity to a whole new level. What started as a simple wordplay activity quickly turned into a journey through strange, unexpected, and hilarious ideas—some of which sparked deeper conversations about vocabulary and meaning.
The Surrealist Antonym Game is simple: start with a basic sentence and change every word into an antonym, or the closest antonym you can come up with. The goal is to transform a straightforward sentence into something totally surreal by using opposites.
For example, we started with “The cat sat on the roof.” As the kids worked through the sentence, it became:
“A mouse stood under the floorboards.”
Each word was carefully changed to its antonym or something close to it, and by the end, the sentence was completely transformed.
Once that first sentence was changed, we repeated the process five times, creating even more bizarre versions. The key is not to reuse any words from previous versions, so the creativity just keeps flowing.
Here’s how it evolved:
The kids loved the challenge of making something so simple transform into something surreal and unexpected. The more sentences we created, the wilder their imaginations got!
Throughout the week, the game produced some unforgettable and hilarious sentences. Some examples:
The kids had a blast using a thesaurus to discover new words, and it quickly became a tool they used in other activities throughout the week. But what really made the game special were the discussions that followed and the “aha moments.” They began talking about how some words don’t have clear opposites but instead have opposites in tone or feeling. For example, what’s the opposite of “invincible” or “silent”? Does “loud” or “mortal” fit best? This sparked further conversations about synonyms and how, the more you change a word, the more you rely on synonyms to keep the meaning playful and nuanced.
My “aha” moment came from watching the kids tackle articles! Several student even changed ‘a’ and ‘the’ to ‘Zee’—which blew my mind. Or “A” to “Z” or “M”! I’ve played this game with adults, and we always just swap articles back and forth, but these young writers? They got seriously creative.
If you’re feeling inspired to try the Surrealist Antonym Game at home, here’s how it works:
1. START WITH A SIMPLE SENTENCE
I’ll give you a basic sentence. For example:
“The cat sat on the roof.”
2. CHANGE EVERY WORD IN THE SENTENCE
You will change every word in the sentence, one at a time. Each change can be an antonym, a random word, or something unexpected. The goal is to make it completely different from the original.
For example:
Original: “The cat sat on the roof.”
Changes:
New sentence: “A mouse stood under the floorboards.”
3. REPEAT THE PROCESS FIVE TIMES
Once you’ve changed the sentence, repeat the process five times to create new and increasingly surreal sentences. You cannot reuse any words.
For example:
4. CREATE A STORY OR A POEM FROM YOUR FINAL SENTENCE
Now take your final, surreal sentence and use it as a prompt to create either a story or a poem. Let the sentence guide your imagination—whether it’s a strange world, a mysterious character, or an abstract feeling, let your creativity flow. The more bizarre, the better!
Example of a Story Prompt:
“A dream sang above the ocean, guiding a group of explorers toward a hidden island where all their wishes come true—but only if they can decipher the song’s secret meaning.”
Example of a Poem Prompt:
“A tree danced under the river, its branches swaying in the moonlit currents, telling stories only the water could hear.”
While the Surrealist Antonym Game might seem silly on the surface, it’s a fantastic tool for stretching creative thinking. One of the big takeaways from the activity was how much the kids began to rely on the thesaurus—first as part of the game, then as a tool they used in their writing throughout the week. I noticed them consulting it more and more during other creative tasks, and they became more aware of the nuances of language.
Another fascinating aspect of the game was how it got the kids talking about words that don’t have clear opposites. This led to deeper discussions about tone, feeling, and meaning. For example, does “brave” really have an opposite? Or “invincible”? They explored how some words have opposites for tone, like “happy” vs. “sad,” while others change meaning in less obvious ways. The game also introduced a lively conversation about synonyms because the more the kids experimented with changing words to their antonyms, the more they realized they needed to rely on synonyms to get just the right word.
Playing creative and vocabulary games like the Surrealist Antonym Game isn’t just about having fun—though that’s a big part of it! These activities push the kids to think beyond the literal, to experiment with language, and to embrace the unexpected. In our Writers’ Workshop, these games become tools that stretch their imagination and deepen their understanding of words, meanings, and storytelling. They remind us that writing isn’t just about getting the right answer—it’s about exploring the infinite possibilities of the written word.
So, next time you’re looking for a creative challenge, give one of these surrealist games a try. You might just discover a whole new world of ideas waiting for you!
About the Author
Brianne Wragg is a deschooled English teacher. She started as a copywriter, ghostwriter and editor for companies and individuals after leaving schools. She returned to education, working at Synthesis School before running a creative writing & mentorship program for kids aged 10-15 years old.
Read On
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