HOW TO LEARN NEW WORDS

Strategies for Building Vocabulary

Unit 12

Learn About Homophones

Sometimes two words sound the same. But they are not spelled the same, and they have different meanings. These words are called homophones.

Activity 1. Study the pictures and the boldfaced words below the pictures. Then finish each sentence with a boldfaced word.

1. Pete’s fly ball broke the ________ in Mr. Garcia’s window.
2. The _________ and her fawn drank water from the lake.
3. Grandma put the bread _________ into the oven.
4. The _________ of his broken arm made David cry.

Answers: 1. pane; 2. doe; 3. dough; 4. pain

Activity 2. Below are more sentences with homophones. Read each sentence.
You carry sand or water in a pail.
If you are sick, your face may look pale.
You can dig up the root of a plant.
Your route to school goes through the park.

Now finish each sentence with a boldfaced word from above.
1. We followed a _____ that took us over the mountains.
2. We carried the fish we caught in a large _________.
3. Dad thought I looked a little _________, so he took my temperature.
4. The _______ of a plant soaks up water from the soil.

Answers: 1. route; 2. pail; 3. pale; 4. root

Jack-in-the-Box’s rule number 12 for learning words:
For each word you learn, try to think if the word has a homophone.

Activity 3. Finish each sentence with a homophone from the Word Box. Then write each word in the crossword puzzle. Be sure to follow the numbers across and down. The letters in the puzzle will help you.

Word Box

Across:
2. The farmer pulled a _________ from his garden.
5. Mother __________ us to go ice-skating.
6. I don’t have one ______________ to spend.
7. Dad stopped the car by putting on the hand ______________.
8. Susie ate the last ______________ of cake.

Down:
1. Dad let me _______________ the cream for the cake.
3. Everyone wants ____________ in the world.
4. Skunks have a strong ________________.
5. Fred laughed _______________ at the funny joke.
7. Oh, no! Did Mom _______________ another dish?

Answers:
Across: 2. beet; 5. allowed; 6. cent; 7. brake; 8. piece
Down: 1. beat; 3. peace; 4. scent; 5. aloud; 7. break

Learn About Homographs

Now that you know about homophones, let’s meet homographs.
Sometimes two words are spelled the same but don’t sound the same. They don’t have the same meaning either. These words are called homographs.
The word close is a homograph. Close means “nearby.” Close means “to shut.”

Activity 4. In each sentence below there is a homograph. Read the sentences. Be sure to pronounce each homograph correctly.
1. Sally wears a bow in her hair. After the play, the star took a bow.
2. A dove can build a nest in the fir tree. Everyone clapped as Cindy dove into the swimming pool.
3. I live in New York. Jerry’s pet is a live snake.
4. Aaron tries to read every day. Last week he read five books.

Now finish each sentence below with a homograph from Activity 4.
1. Penny put a big red ___________ on the package.
2. Yesterday I ________________ a good story.
3. The ________________ flew into the air.
4. Carlos _____ into the pool and came up with a penny.
5. What story will the teacher _________________ next?
6. After her song, the singer took a ________________.
7. Where do you _________________?
8. My sister pretends that her teddy bear is a ______________ bear.

Answers: 1. bow; 2. read; 3. dove; 4. dove; 5. read; 6. bow; 7. live; 8. live

Jack-in-the-Box’s rule number 13 for learning words:
For each word you learn, try to think if the word has a homograph.

Test. Show All You Know About Homophones and Homographs

Underline the correct homophone for each sentence below.
1. The (doe, dough) darted across the open field.
2. Dad makes (doe, dough) out of flour and water.
3. The medicine helped Mom’s (pain, pane) go away.
4. The (pain, pane) in the window was cracked.
5. The Tigers football team (beat, beet) the Lions, 12 to 6.
6. Grandma put a huge (beat, beet) in her soup.
7. The teacher read the story (allowed, aloud).
8. We are not (allowed, aloud) to go swimming after supper.
9. Lee ate the last (peace, piece) of cake.
10. The teacher wanted some (peace, piece) and quiet in the room.
11. We knew where the fox was hiding by its (scent, cent).
12. Lisa found 1 (scent, cent) on the bus.
13. To stop the car, Mom pulled the hand (brake, break).
14. Did your little sister (brake, break) my balloon?

Answers: 1. doe; 2. dough; 3. pain; 4. pane; 5. beat; 6. beet; 7. aloud; 8. allowed; 9. piece; 10. peace; 11. scent; 12. cent; 13. brake; 14. break

Underline the correct meaning for the homograph in each sentence below.
1. Sarah tied a bow in her hair.
a. the shape of a ribbon tied into loops
b. to bend from the waist as a sign of thanks
2. The dove pecked at the bread.
a. went into the water headfirst
b. a kind of bird
3. There are many live animals in the zoo.
a. not dead
b. to have a home
4. Dad wants to read the newspaper.
a. to look at and speak aloud
b. to look at and understand written words

Compiled by Erin Bouma