Ten blanks run through "The Camping Trip," a three-paragraph story about a family weekend in the mountains. 3rd grade students choose words such as dusk, famished, devoured, and slumbered from a 12-word bank, using the clues in each sentence. Two words are extras. A final prompt asks them to use blazing or sprinted in a sentence with context clues of their own. It practices L.3.4.a over 3 pages, and the answer key quotes the clue for every blank.
L.3.4.a
“Use sentence-level context as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.”
All ten blanks depend on clues in the same sentence, and the final question asks students to write clues of their own.
Directions and a word bank that includes pitch, frigid, glowing, creatures, dawn, and stumbled, with a warning that two words are not needed.
Students fill ten blanks as the family sets up a tent, gets cold after sundown, eats hot dogs by the fire, watches fireflies, and sleeps until morning.
Students write a sentence with one of the unused words and include clues so a reader could guess its meaning.
Each answer comes with the phrase that gives it away, such as "stomachs were growling loudly" for famished.
Clue underlining
Ask students to underline the words that helped before they write each answer. The key lists the same clues, so checking is quick.
Tricky pair
Dusk and dawn cause the most mix-ups. Point out that one blank mentions the sun going down and the other mentions the morning sun.
Read-aloud extension
After the sheet, read a camping picture book aloud and stop at a hard word. Students use the same clue strategy out loud on new vocabulary.
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