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Using interesting vocabulary (words) adds detail to stories and helps the reader imagine what is going on.
Sometimes when we are reading, we come across unfamiliar words.
To help us understand the meaning of these words, we can use the rest of the sentence as a clue.
Example:
Jack was so hungry that he couldn’t understand why his mum had given him such a minute dinner.
We may not be familiar with the word minute, but clues in the rest of the sentence tell us that minute means small. Jack was hungry, yet he was confused as he was given such a small dinner. He wouldn’t be confused if he had been given a big dinner.
Can you think of another word to replace minute in the sentence?
How many replacement words can you think of?
Here are a few suggestions:
- Small
- Tiny
- Insufficient
These all mean the same as minute.
In this activity, we will answer questions about the meaning of words in the story below. We need to read it carefully and think about the word meanings before we begin.
Goat on the loose!
Ivy finished her breakfast and happily put on her coat and wellies. She wanted to be ready for when her dad arrived. He hadn’t taken her to Daisy’s Farm for ages and she couldn’t wait to go back. She put on her backpack and thought about the cute piglets she saw last year. She loved their squeaking noises!
The sound of the doorbell made Ivy leap towards the front door. ‘Don’t answer the door until you’ve checked you know who’s behind it!’ Ivy’s mum shouted from the kitchen.
‘Dad’s here. Dad’s here!’ She repeated happily.
‘You can open the door then,’ her stepdad said. Ivy opened the door and gave her dad a big hug.
On their drive to the farm, Ivy thought about all the animals she was going to see. Her dad had nursery rhymes playing in the car and he made funny animal noises while he drove. He always knew how to make Ivy laugh.
When they got to the farm, they paid for their tickets and put their wristbands on. “Let’s buy some animal feed and go to see the goats,” Ivy’s dad said. They walked on a grassy path between the sheep pen and the Golden Guernsey goats.
Holding her hand still to feed one of the Golden Guernsey goats, Ivy giggled as the goat’s tongue licked the food off her hand. It really tickled! Another golden goat climbed up the fence to get close to Ivy and her animal feed. These were very hungry animals.
Suddenly, Matt and Ivy could hear the sound of a tractor’s engine behind them. It was farmer Daisy checking up on all the animals. When she looked inside the Golden Guernsey goat pen, she saw that two cheeky pygmy goats from the pen next door had managed to sneak in. Farmer Daisy opened the gate to the Golden Guernseys' pen and went in to try and catch the escaped pygmy goats.
The pygmy goats were so quick and kept running away from farmer Daisy. Every time she got close, they ran in opposite directions. As she turned around, she saw that one of the goats had managed to get back into its own pen. There must be a hole in this fence somewhere, she thought. Farmer Daisy decided that running after the goats wasn’t working and she needed to sneak up behind them.
‘Look dad!’ Ivy suddenly shouted, pointing at the gate farmer Daisy had left open, ‘That golden goat is about to escape!’
Ivy’s dad was about to shout and tell farmer Daisy, but it was too late. The goat was on its way out!
Looks like it was Ivy and Matt to the rescue!
Right, let's get started on the questions now.
Remember that you can look at this text again at any point by clicking on the red help button on the screen.
