Fantastic Mr Fox is a great story to target vocabulary development as students are weaned off structured readers. The author, Roald Dahl, has used the characters, the action and story structure to keep young readers interested right up to the last chapter.

I use this book regularly and have made quite a few resources to support early skill development. This game is one of my most popular because it's quick, simple and fun. Students don't even realise they are learning about the concept of 'opposites', but their oral language and writing will reflect their progress.

This is a matching game that you can use for pre-teaching for those students who need extra support and language development. There are 45 cards in each game with 22 pairs and a Donkey card that adds the fun.

THIS IS THE FREE GAME

Game 1 Chapters 1-3: down/up, rich/poor, nasty/nice, mean/generous, enormous/tiny, short/tall, shallow/deep, full/empty, thin/thick, plump/skinny, bigger/smaller, lowered/raised, anything/something, dark/light, night/day, near/far, quickly/slowly, best/worst, shut/open, careful/careless, known/unknown, entrance/exit

THESE GAMES COME IN THE COMPLETE RESOURCE

Game 2 Chapters 4-6: tenderly/roughly, stop/go, better/worse, small/large, night/day, alive/dead, lucky/unlucky, awake/asleep, positive/negative, never/always, loud/quiet, tight/loose, sharp/blunt, quicker/slower, started/finished, downwards/upwards, deeper/shallower, front/back, dirty/clean, good/bad, overhead/underneath, louder/noisier

Game 3 Chapters 7-9: slowly/quickly, never/always, tender/tough, powerful/powerless, tight/loose, armed/unarmed, impossible/possible, escape/capture, closer/further, refuse/allow, long/short, little/big, sadly/happily, strong/weak, with/without, can/can't, defeated/undefeated, death/life, carefully/carelessly, are/aren't, still/moving, bottom/top

Game 4 Chapters 10-12: downward/upward, failed/succeeded, raise/lower, stop/go, possibly/impossibly, slowly/quickly, hard/soft, under/over, quiet/noisy, pushing/pulling, something/nothing, last/first, sadness/joy, part/whole, properly/improperly, plump/skinny, smallest/biggest, unreal/real, weakness/strength, in/out, usually/unusually, unfortunately/fortunately

Game 5 Chapters 13-15: painful/painless, silence/noise, forward/backward, sharp/blunt, nasty/nice, interesting/uninteresting, below/above, pushed/pulled, fattest/skinniest, expert/novice, gently/roughly, lowered/raised, carefully/carelessly, peace/war, simple/complex, old/new, private/public, biggish/smallish, weak/strong, beautiful/ugly, highest/lowest, drunk/sober

Game 6 Chapters 16-18: right/left, straight/crooked, few/many, glad/sad, upstairs/downstairs, appeared/disappeared, impudent/polite, swiftly/slowly, rotten/fresh, hollow/solid, final/first, raising/lowering, started/stopped, serious/trivial, outside/inside, entirely/partially, enemies/friends, safe/dangerous, longer/shorter, underground/overhead, silence/noise, beginning/ending