Read a Dictionary Entry With Two Meanings

Pair each page with a real dictionary so your child sees the same parts in print. Have your child read entries aloud, including the part of speech. Check with the answer key.

Read dictionary entries with two meanings and write the number of the meaning that fits each sentence. A dictionary entry gives the entry word and its meanings. When a word has more than one meaning, each meaning has a number. The directions on the page read: Read the four dictionary entries. Then, read each sentence and look at the underlined word. Then, write the number of the meaning that fits on the line. An answer key is included.

Yes, both. We made it for 3rd Grade alphabetizing, and the page works the same whether it lands on a kitchen table or a center rotation. At home, most families go through it together and talk the answers out loud, and that talking is where most of the learning happens with dictionary skills. In class it runs well as independent work while you pull a small group. Print one copy or thirty, whichever the day needs.

An entry shows how a word is spelled and split into syllables, its part of speech and one or more numbered meanings. These sheets have children use each part.

Read the sentence, then try each numbered meaning in its place. The one that makes sense in the sentence is the right one (L.3.4.D). The two meanings page practices this with four entries.

Yes. Children guess the first few letters, look near those guide words and scan for the right spelling. The spelling page shows each word three ways and asks which one a dictionary would list (L.3.2.G).

Yes. All six dictionary skills sheets have an answer key.

First grade alphabetizing usually stops at comparing first letters. Third grade regularly presents words that share their first letter, and sometimes their first two or three letters, so students have to look further into the word to find where it actually differs, like thunder against three against throw. That's a meaningfully harder visual and reasoning task than a first pass at ABC order.

Circle first, cross out last only asks a student to identify the earliest and latest word in a short list, without sorting everything in between, which is a smaller and faster task. Write words in order requires fully sorting five or six scrambled words start to finish, which demands holding the whole list in mind at once rather than making one quick comparison.

It's a genuine reference skill, not just school busywork: looking up a word in a dictionary or glossary, finding a book by author on a library shelf, or navigating any index all depend on it. Third grade is typically when students start doing real research and reference work in other subjects, which is exactly when this skill stops being abstract and starts being useful.