Context Clues
Topic
Main Idea
Terms
Wild Card
100
What are context clues?
clues to help to define an unknown word.
100
What is the topic?
This word helps you to locate the main idea sentence in a paragraph.
100
What is the main idea?
what the passage is mostly about.
100
What are supporting details?
details that support the main idea.
100
Fact or Opinion... The modern pizza was invented in Naples, Italy.
Fact
200
What is a word with a similar meaning?
a synonym
200
Identify the topic... Before you put on that Angry Birds costume and exhaust yourself roving from door to door pandering for candy, take a minute to reflect on the tradition in which you are taking part. Halloween is believed to have come from an ancient Celtic festival dating back some 2,000 years. November 1st was the Celtic New Year and marked the end of summer to the Celts, so they celebrated on its eve by wearing costumes made of animal skins and dancing around bon fires. Over the next two millennia, this primitive celebration grew to be candy fueled costume ball that we know today.
Halloween
200
What is the main idea? Americans like toast, eggs, and cereal. In China people eat congee, a thick rice. People in Japan often have a soup called miso. Pancakes made from lentil beans are favored in India. Bread and coffee with milk are the most popular breakfast foods in France. Breakfast around the world is a matter of different tastes.
People from around the world enjoy different breakfasts.
200
What does it mean to differentiate?
to tell the difference between
200
What does it mean to visualize?
to create an image in your mind.
300
What is a word that has an opposite meaning?
an antonym
300
Identify the topic... Mount Rushmore is a huge carving in a stone cliff. The carving shows the faces of four U.S. presidents. They are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. Mount Rushmore is in South Dakota. Each year many people visit this amazing sight.
Mount Rushmore
300
Why is finding the main idea important to good readers?
It helps the reader to better understand the passage.
300
Give an example of a pair of synonyms.
....
300
Fact or Opinion... The best pizza in the world comes from Italy, not America.
Opinion
400
What are illustrations that help make a new word clear?
examples
400
Identify the topic... It takes a lot of trucks to get an airplane ready to fly. Fuel trucks are very important. They fill the fuel tanks of planes. Baggage trucks carry people’s suitcases to and from planes. Still other trucks deliver food.You might also see mail trucks and cargo trucks. Also standing by at airports are repair trucks.
Trucks
400
What question can you ask yourself in order to find the main idea?
What is this passage mostly about?
400
Give an example of a pair of antonyms.
....
400
Fact or Opinion... The first pizza place in America opened up in New York’s Little Italy in 1905.
Fact
500
What two things do we put together to make an inference?
background knowledge + information from the text
500
Identify the topic... The year was 1850. The place was New York City. A gentleman was on his way to a wedding. He was all dressed up. However, it had just rained, and the streets were muddy. The man turned up the bottoms of his pants to keep them clean. At the wedding, he forgot to turn them down. That is how the fashion for cuffs on pants got started.
Pants
500
What is the main idea? Dolphins are mammals that live in the ocean. Mammals are different than fish, reptiles or birds. As a mammal, dolphins breathe oxygen, even though they live in water. Because they are mammals, a dolphin mother gives birth to a live baby, unlike reptiles and birds who lay eggs. A dolphin mother also feeds her baby milk like other mammals.
A dolphin is a mammal.
500
What is the difference between main idea and topic?
topic is one or two words describing the subject of the passage while main idea is a statement that explains what the passage is mostly about.
500
What are sensory details?
details in the text that appeal to the five senses.
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