Five-Minute Activities for Young Learners

Box 88
Pompeii: information report
Pompeii was a city in Italy. In 79 AD, during the first century, a dangerous
volcano called Vesuvius began to throw out molten rock. This is called lava. The red
hot lava, which looked like a river, flowed down the mountain and over the city.
Sixteen centuries later, people discovered Pompeii and started to dig up the old city.
© Cambridge University Press 2007
Box 89
Pompeii: words and context clues
Words
Context clues
Pompeii
City in Italy
century/centuries
79 AD, first, sixteen centuries later
(Background knowledge: cents, centimetre = 100 . . .) 
volcano
Throw out, dangerous, molten rock, lava, red, hot,
flowed, mountain
Vesuvius
Has a capital letter, so must be a proper noun,
volcano called . . . 
molten
Red, hot, looked like a river
lava
Red, hot, This is called . . . 
flowed
River, it’s a verb describing what a river does
Follow-up
• You may have some children who would like to explore the story of
Pompeii further. Encourage them to do Internet searches or to borrow
from their school library. Ask them to give a short talk to the class about
their research findings.
• For other information reports, see Activities 1.7, 1.8, 1.13, 2.8, 2.18.