Three vocabulary strategies share this 4th grade detective-themed sheet. Students use context clues to work out the bold words colossal and ecstatic, apply the roots tele, auto, and photo to autograph and telescope, and explain the idiom "a piece of cake" before drawing it literally. Each strategy gets its own section, and the third page is an answer key. The tasks line up with L.4.4.a, L.4.4.b, and L.4.5.b, so one sheet reviews all three before a vocabulary test.
L.4.4.a
“Use context (e.g., definitions, examples, or restatements in text) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.”
Questions 1 and 2 give the meaning of colossal and ecstatic through clues in the rest of the sentence.
L.4.4.b
“Use common, grade-appropriate Greek and Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., telegraph, photograph, autograph).”
Questions 3 and 4 use the roots auto, graph, tele, and scope to work out autograph and telescope.
L.4.5.b
“Recognize and explain the meaning of common idioms, adages, and proverbs.”
Question 5 asks students to explain the real meaning of "a piece of cake."
Two multiple choice items. Students use the clues around colossal (an elephant towering above the grass) and ecstatic (Maria jumping up and down after winning first place) to choose the meaning.
Despite the heading, this section is about roots. A box gives tele as far off, auto as self, and photo as light, and students use it to explain what an autograph is and what a telescope helps you do.
Students explain what it means that "the math test was a piece of cake" and draw a literal picture of the idiom in a box.
Test review
Set one section per day in the week before a vocabulary test. Each takes under ten minutes.
Drawing the idiom
Drawing the literal picture in Idiom Illustrator makes the difference between literal and real meaning clear. Hang a few drawings up and add new idioms as the class finds them.
Roots mini-lesson
The telescope item explains scope in the question itself, but tele comes from the box above. Point students back to the box so they join the two parts.
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