Read the sentences and see if you can use the context to decide what the word means. Circle each word that you believe you know.

1. gargantuan - The whale seemed to be of gargantuan size compared to the goldfish.
2. vanquish - The cyanide will completely vanquish the fish population that lives in the near-by waters.
3. quest - It was Miss Maggie's quest to stop the senseless killing of the living reef.
4. cavernous - Miss Maggie saw the cavernous mouth of the whale shark as it opened its huge jaws to swallow up the many fish that were its dinner.
5. perilous - Dude thought that it might be too perilous to swim close to the killer shark.
6. strenuous - It was strenuous work for the men aboard the fishing vessel to pull the heavy fish nets aboard the boat.
7. billowed - Miss Maggie watched the beautiful sail of the sailboat as it billowed out into the wind.
8. floundered - As the wind became stronger, the tiny boat floundered in the waves.
9. abundant - "There are so many shells on the beach that there seems to be an abundant supply," noted Barbara.
10. emphatically - "I firmly believe that we must protect the beautiful and fragile coral reefs," said Miss Maggie emphatically.

Use the crossword template to make up your own crossword puzzle. Write the words in the squares first. Then go back and make up clues for each word going across and up and down. Use what you learned from the contextual clues to help you. You may look the words up in a dictionary if you need help. Trade papers with a friend and try to solve each other's crossword puzzles. 

Read the sentences and see if you can use the context to decide what the word means. Circle each word that you believe you know.

1. despaired - Miss Maggie despaired when she learned that cyanide was too often used in the ocean to kill fish.
2. jutted - The edge of the rock jutted out into the ocean and this allowed Dude to climb back onto dry land.
3. triumphed - Tomás wanted to believe that good triumphed over evil.
4. galleon - Miss Maggie listened to the people talk about the Spanish ship that had sunk near the coast. They even sold postcards of this Spanish galleon that rests on the ocean floor.
5. torrential - Dude had to shake himself several times when he came into the hut after running out in the torrential rain.
6. panoramic - Miss Maggie's uncle took some gorgeous pictures of the panoramic views he could see from his airplane.
7. massive - Dude quickly swam away when he saw the massive form of a whale shark swimming towards him.
8. sparsely - Miss Maggie looked at the sparsely populated beach and wondered where everyone had gone.
9. vulnerable - The tiny angelfish seemed delicate and vulnerable as the cyanide was dumped into its home waters.
10. solitary - There was only a solitary diver on the reef when Miss Maggie and Dude arrived to explore.

Write a sentence using as many of the vocabulary words as you can. Make sure that your sentence still makes sense. Trade with a friend and see if you can understand each other's sentence! 

Read the sentences and see if you can use the context to decide what the word means. Circle each word that you believe you know.

1. disillusioned - Miss Maggie was disillusioned and saddened to think that there were people in the world who did not respect the reef.
2. ambled - Miss Maggie's uncle ambled out to the plane slowly eating an apple and thinking about the marvelous sights he had seen.
3. scurried - Dude turned his head and watched as the little crabs scurried over the sand.
4. duration - Uncle told Miss Maggie to keep her seatbelt fastened for the duration of the trip.
5. plunged - Dude watched as his precious bone plunged into the ocean and sank out of sight.
6. contemplated - When Miss Maggie found the cyanide container she contemplated what her next step should be.
7. loomed - A dark shadow loomed over the ocean floor when a huge fishing vessel passed overhead.
8. clambering - Miss Maggie struggled to hold onto her camera as she was clambering up the side of the boat.
9. voracious - Miss Maggie and Dude watched as the whale shark seemed to eat a thousand fish. "He certainly does have a voracious appetite," laughed Miss Maggie.
10. formidable - Dude looked at the formidable steel door separating him from his food and thought he would never eat again!

Draw a sketch of an ocean scene. You may want to draw a beach, coral reef, or a solitary island. Label your scene using as many vocabulary words as you can. For example: Miss Maggie is standing thinking and looking at several crabs moving in the sand. Your caption could read - Miss Maggie contemplates the scurrying crabs. Remember you can change the form of the base word by changing endings! 

Read the sentences and see if you can use the context to decide what the word means. Circle each word that you believe you know.

1. anchovies - There appeared to be a silver streak in the water as the small anchovies swam by.
2. bombarded - The small children bombarded each other with handfuls of sand as they played on the beach.
3. omen - Miss Maggie saw the brilliant sunset and felt it was an omen that tomorrow would be a lovely day.
4. hospitable - The local people were quite hospitable and asked Maggie and Dude to join them for their annual feast.
5. beckoned - Miss Maggie beckoned with her hand for Dude to come.
6. spacious - When Miss Maggie walked into the lab she saw a few testing stations and a large aquarium at the far end of the huge room. "There is quite a lot of room in your lab. It is spacious," she observed to the marine biologist.
7. restraint - Dude showed a lot of restraint when he just sat quietly and watched the cat walk in front of him.
8. forbearance - Despite the fact that Miss Maggie wanted the harbor police to investigate immediately, she showed a lot of forbearance by waiting until they felt the time was right.
9. reminiscent - The beautiful paintings in the foyer of the museum were reminiscent of a time when the coral reefs were not in danger.
10. sluggish - As the cyanide took effect, the shark become sluggish and then hardly moved at all.

Use three of the vocabulary words from Chapter 4 and write a paragraph about any animal.

Read the sentences and see if you can use the context to decide what the word means. Circle each word that you believe you know.

1. mosaic - Miss Maggie's uncle watched as the workers laid the tiny colored stones on the floor to form a beautiful mosaic.
2. retorted - The fisherman retorted in a loud voice, "I will not stop dumping cyanide," when he was ordered to do so by the harbor patrol.
3. infirmary - The little boy who had broken his leg, lay in bed in the infirmary waiting for it to heal enough to use crutches.
4. edible - Dude began to drool when he smelled the lunch bag and discovered something edible was in it.
5. reverently - Miss Maggie watched as the townspeople folded their hands and reverently walked into the church.
6. whittled - The woodcarver took out his knife and whittled a carving of a parrotfish for Miss Maggie.
7. luxurious - The boat with the fancy furniture, carpeting, and well-equipped eating area appeared luxurious next to the tiny fishing boat.

Make up a word search using these words and any others from previous chapters. Give clues as to the word's meaning rather than merely telling what word to look for. Trade with a friend to do the word searches!

Read the sentences and see if you can use the context to decide what the word means. Circle each word that you believe you know.

1. vaulted - As Matthew ran to catch the boat, he vaulted over five old tires that were in his way.
2. incredulously - John couldn't believe his ears when he heard about the cyanide poisoning of fish. He looked incredulously at the scientist as she explained it.
3. combustible - The wood that was soaked in oil was in danger of catching on fire so the beach patrol put up a sign that said "Keep Out - Combustible!"
4. strutted - Miss Maggie laughed as the rooster strutted up and down the barnyard. It was as if he knew he were being watched.
5. lunged - As the homerun baseball flew into the stands, the crowd lunged forward to catch it.
6. din - The songs of the band could hardly be heard above the din of the crowd that had gathered in the street.
7. cascade - When Miss Maggie visited Africa, she was impressed by the cascade of water as it fell over the rocks at the lovely waterfall.
8. spectacle - It was such a funny spectacle to see the animals dressed in costumes and being paraded down the street by their owners.

Many of the words from this chapter can be illustrated in simple cartoons. Draw cartoons to show at least three of these words. Display your favorite cartoon and see if others can guess the word it illustrates.

Read the sentences and see if you can use the context to decide what the word means. Circle each word that you believe you know.

1. merge - "Meet me at the point where the two rivers merge into one," called Miss Maggie's uncle to the scientist.
2. romped - Dude and the dogs on the island romped together in the morning sunshine before flopping, exhausted, under the tree to sleep.
3. honing - The fisherman was honing his knife against the piece of stone in preparation for cleaning the fish.
4. wafted - The smell of the popcorn wafted into the classroom and all the students begged the teacher to get the newly popped treat for them, too.
5. pondered - After Miss Maggie found the cyanide, she sat on the beach and carefully pondered what her next move would be.
6. exquisite - The lacy and delicate coral was so exquisite that Miss Maggie snapped several pictures of it to show to her uncle.
7. luster - "I love the way that the rocks take on such a luster when you put them in the water. They truly shine and you can see the colors so clearly," noted Miss Maggie.
8. choreography - It was as if the tiny fish had watched dancers and were imitating the choreography of the ballet as they delicately moved about the reef.
9. alighting - The tourists laughed when the sea gulls were alighting on the deck of the sight-seeing boat and stealing the snacks dropped by the children.
10. sculling - Miss Maggie picked up the oars from the bottom of the small boat and began sculling to the island.

Use as many of these words and words from previous lists to construct a crossword puzzle for a classmate. Be sure to give great clues!

Read the sentences and see if you can use the context to decide what the word means. Circle each word that you believe you know.

1. peered - The hungry child peered into the dark room hoping to see the chocolate chip cookies he loved to eat.
2. delicacies - My mother likes the delicacies of lobster and caviar. I just like plain old fishsticks!
3. ingenious - "It was quite ingenious of José to build that whizbang. I was impressed," commented the boy from the soccer team.
4. occupants - Miss Maggie knocked on the door of the beach house hoping to find the occupants home. When no one answered she wondered if anyone lived there at all.
5. thrashed - The huge fish thrashed around in the bottom of the boat after the fisherman pulled it from the sea. "Wow, this one really wants to go back in the water," he noted.
6. crevice - "It's gone," screamed the mountain climber as the camera fell down into a deep crevice.
7. elusive - "The question of why people would want to harm these beautiful reefs is still elusive to me," remarked Miss Maggie to her uncle.
8. accelerated - The fishing boat captain accelerated the motor of the boat in an attempt to outrun the oficiales.
9. docile - "I really like those docile whale sharks," said Greg to Miss Maggie. "You know, I am afraid of the dangerous great white and hammerhead sharks."
10. taut - "Please hold the string taut at the finish line so we can easily see who breaks it first," advised the race official.

Sketch a picture of a scene. Show as many words as you can in your sketch and label the pictures. For example: "This is a boy peering into a crevice." 

Read the sentences and see if you can use the context to decide what the word means. Circle each word that you believe you know.

1. aerated - The repairman said we need to add more air to the machine to make it work correctly, so he aerated it for us.
2. devoid - After the cyanide was sprayed on the reef, it quickly became devoid of life.
3. stealthily - Miss Maggie did not want to be seen by the people on the large commercial fishing boat so she moved stealthily along the deck.
4. queried - Miss Maggie wanted to know more about diving in the area so she queried the local people for information.
5. agility - The gold medal skater was graceful and moved with great agility on the ice.
6. cordially - Because he is always polite, Miss Maggie's uncle cordially answered the mean questions of the airport official.
7. regally - People say that Melissa reminds them of royalty because she always stands regally.
8. condescending - The students didn't like it when the teacher seemed not to respect their opinions and spoke to them in a condescending voice.

Make up three characters and write a one or two sentence description of each. Use at least one vocabulary word for each character.

Read the sentences and see if you can use the context to decide what the word means. Circle each word that you believe you know.

1. ebbing - Because the tide was ebbing, the children were able to find many shells on the beach that had recently been deposited there.
2. lingered - Miss Maggie loved the beautiful display showing the history of the people so she lingered there much longer than she should have and was late to meet her uncle.
3. stride - The three year old child tried to match the stride of the older boys, but he just couldn't walk that fast.
4. dismantled - Jill looked at the dismantled washing machine and wondered if Tim would ever fit all the parts back together again.
5. jostling - The mother held tightly to her little girl's hand and moved her through the jostling crowd that had gathered to meet Santa Claus.
6. musing - After viewing the play, Tomás spent a few moments musing over the meaning of the struggle between good and evil.
7. pivoted - When he heard his name called from the opposite direction, José pivoted to see who wanted him.
8. succumbed - My two year old sister refused to take a nap, but after an hour battle, she finally succumbed and hugged her teddy bear as she slept.
9. prevailed - A.G. wanted a new puppy but his parents said no. After two weeks of begging he finally prevailed, and his dad brought home a cute yellow lab.
10. laden - Because I was so hungry, I felt great relief when I saw a food cart laden with all kinds of goodies.

Write 3 sentences. Try to use two of the vocabulary words in each sentence.

Read the sentences and see if you can use the context to decide what the word means. Circle each word that you believe you know.

1. jubilant - When the soccer team won the state championship, the players were jubilant all during the bus ride home.
2. charred - The beachcombers came upon the charred remains of the bonfire that had taken place the night before on the beach.
3. crooned - The audience laughed as the out of tune singer crooned a love song to his dog.
4. caressing - The old woman sat in the rocking chair and was lovingly caressing the picture of her new granddaughter.
5. pungent - The children ran from the house when their mother began cooking the cabbage because they couldn't stand the pungent odor.
6. infectious - "I like the scene in Mary Poppins when Uncle Albert begins laughing. It is so infectious that soon everyone is giggling with him," laughed Jennifer.
7. meridian - The mother wanted to get her children into the shade before the sun reached the meridian at noon.
8. conquistador - We were studying the Spaniards who conquered Mexico, and I had to do a report on the conquistador, Cortes.
9. quell - It was difficult for Miss Maggie to quell her horror when she found the container of cyanide.

Make up a word search with these words and others from previous chapters. Do not give the words but rather give definitions as clues!

Read the sentences and see if you can use the context to decide what the word means. Circle each word that you believe you know.

1. elite - Because the school was only for the elite, the children of the poor were not permitted to attend.
2. askew - The children laughed when Dude jumped on the ice cream vendor and knocked his hat askew. The vendor did not stop to straighten it, but instead bent down and gave Dude an ice cream cone!
3. flourish - In the play the young man was to bow before the princess with a flourish, but the actor fell on his face instead!
4. anguish - "I'm hurt! I'm hurt!" screamed the boy in anguish when he fell from his skateboard while attempting an ollie.
5. evade - Because the crook did not want to tell the truth, he tried coughing so as to evade the lawyer's question.
6. audible - "I think it is amazing," noted Miss Maggie, "that dogs can hear sounds we humans can't. Dude can hear a tiny noise that isn't even audible to me."
7. writhing - "Look! Those two students ran into each other as they were racing to be on time. They are writhing in pain on the floor. We must call the school nurse!" shouted the hall monitor.
8. serenely - All seemed peaceful in the mid-afternoon sun. Even the dogs sat serenely under the tree taking their naps.

Draw a picture for as many of these words as possible. See if a friend can look at your sketches and guess the word you were drawing!

Read the sentences and see if you can use the context to decide what the word means. Circle each word that you believe you know.

1. refuse - The custodian took the refuse from yesterday's school lunch to the trash can.
2. odoriferous - The perfume counter is always an odoriferous spot in any department store.
3. diabolical - The actor who played the bank robber always had a diabolical look on his face.
4. stance - The golfer took great care to get his stance just right as he prepared to make the important putt.
5. parched - Because he had nothing to drink during the day he spent on the ocean, Dude's mouth was parched when they arrived back at shore.
6. precedence - "It is more important for you to get a ticket for the movie so I think you should take precedence over me in the line," said the teacher to her student.
7. bravado - The bully seemed to lose his bravado when the school principal, Mr. Hart, appeared on the playground.
8. deceitful - It was deceitful of the girl to copy from her friend's test paper and then lie to the teacher about it.
9. ally -The United States wanted to help France during World War II. The U.S. was the ally of the French people.
10. mesmerized - The class was so impressed by the great painting that they stood mesmerized in front of it for ten minutes during the field trip to the art museum.

Write a commercial for a product that you make up. Try to use as many vocabulary words in your ad as you can!

Read the sentences and see if you can use the context to decide what the word means. Circle each word that you believe you know.

1. deluged - After the heavy thunderstorm deluged the town, the children enjoyed playing in the big puddles that were left behind.
2. tumultuous - There was a tumultuous roar from the people when José's fantastic Roman candle was lit.
3. abate - Miss Maggie walked out on the balcony when the storm began to abate and saw a beautiful rainbow!
4. yearned - The young orphan yearned for a kind family to adopt him and a dog to play with him.
5. emitted - The secret radio emitted a low buzzing sound and the spies were discovered by the enemy.
6. plaintive - It was midnight at the campground, and Ann tossed in her sleeping bag when she heard the plaintive howl of coyotes in the distance.
7. rookery- It was Emma's job to care for the rookery of penguins at the aquarium. She especially enjoyed watching the babies waddle next to their mothers.

Write down these vocabulary words and words from other chapters on small pieces of paper. Tape each word to a person's back. Make sure they don't see what the word is. Each person must ask others yes or no questions to find out what word is taped to their back. See who guesses quickly. What kinds of questions did they ask? Is it important to find out what part of speech you are?

Read the sentences and see if you can use the context to decide what the word means. Circle each word that you believe you know.

1. burden - The donkey carried a heavy burden of two knapsacks up the steep hill.
2. contempt - "I can't believe that you wouldn't help your little brother," said Kevin with contempt in his voice.
3. abruptly - The well trained dog abruptly turned around and ran to his master when he heard his name called.
4. routed - The defeated army was routed off of their own land by the invading country.
5. gala - Claudia bought seven new dresses for the many gala events she planned to attend that spring.

Make up a multiple choice quiz to give to a friend using as many of the vocabulary words from this book as you can. Good Luck!

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