Box 87
Natural disaster answers
Flood
Volcano
Blizzard
Drought
Forest fire
Earthquake
rain, water,
burn,
wind, white,
dry, hot
wind, burn,
crack, shake
river, cloud,
mountain,
cold, cloud,
black, red,
boat
black, cloud,
snow, ice
hot
red, hot
4.14 Pompeii
Level
***
Language focus
Information report, simple past tense
Skills focus
Reading:
words in context
Thinking focus
Analysing
Teaching approach
Promote accuracy – correct errors
Interaction
Small
group work, suitable for large classes
Preparation
Photocopy the information report about Pompeii for each
group. See Box 88.
Procedure
1 Ask the children to quickly skim through
the information report about
Pompeii. Point out that at first they won’t recognise every word, but you
will show them how to use context clues
to make guesses about the
meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary.
2 Ask the children, as they read, to note five
words that are unfamiliar to
them.
3 Then divide the class into small groups and encourage the children, in
their groups, to discuss the meaning of the vocabulary items they have
chosen. Tell them to look at other parts of
the text for clues about the
meaning of these words.
4 Ask the groups to share their answers with the class. Encourage them to
explain what other words in the text helped them work out the meanings.
5 Finally, for words that still remain a problem,
use the textual clues to
show the children how to infer the meanings from the context. See
Box 89.
Five-Minute Activities for Young Learners
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