Understand the Meaning of Words in a Story

Read the two sentences below:

 

Toby looked at the big mountain.

Toby looked at the colossal mountain.

 

 

Which sentence sounds better?

 

The sentence using the word colossal creates a clearer picture in our heads of a huge mountain.

The word big isn’t as exciting.

 

Using interesting vocabulary, like the word colossal, adds detail to stories and helps the reader imagine what is going on.

 

Read the sentence below:

 

Sprinting through the overgrown grass, Henry tried to catch his dog.

 

 

What does the word sprinting mean in this sentence?

Sprinting means running.

We could replace this with even more adventurous words such as dashing or darting.

 

Read the story below.

In this activity, we will be answering questions about the meaning of words in this story.

We need to read it carefully and think about the word meanings before we begin.

 

 

Goat on the loose!

After eating breakfast, Ivy excitedly put on her wellies and puddle suit. She wanted to be ready for when her dad arrived. He hadn’t taken her to Daisy’s Farm for over a year now and she couldn’t wait to return. As she grabbed her backpack, she wondered whether they would have any piglets this year. They made the sweetest little squeaking noises when she saw them before.

The ding-dong of the doorbell echoed around the house as Ivy leapt 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 enthusiastically.

‘You can open the door then,’ her stepdad said. Ivy had already opened the door and hugged her dad before her stepdad could even finish his sentence.

Looking out of the car window at the green fields of Yorkshire, 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 suggested. They walked on a grassy path between the sheep pen and the Golden Guernsey goats.

Holding her hand steady 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 came running towards the fence as he really wanted Ivy’s farm food. He was so hungry he used his front hooves to climb half way up the fence to get as close to her as possible.

 

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 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!