Dictionary Skills: hippopotamus
The Grammar Bit!
Learning how to use a dictionary is an important skill. Dictionaries can be used to help you understand the meaning of a word. They can also be used to help you spell a word correctly.
Dictionaries are ordered alphabetically with words that begin with A at the front and those that begin with Z at the back. Once you have found the general location of a word in the dictionary, you will need to look at the second and sometimes the third letters of a word to find its exact location.
Read the three scintillating sentences opposite. With your talk partner, use a dictionary to quickly locate one of the words highlighted in bold. How quickly were you able to do this? What is the meaning of this word?
Scintillating Sentences
1) After dark, the night-time commuters arrived in the South African town of St. Lucia.
2) The crew needed to use the thermal camera to film the massive herbivores grazing.
3) The manicured lawns provided the perfect grazing ground for the one-tonne beasts.
Did you know?
Hippos spend most of their day in lakes or rivers. The water keeps them cool in the blistering African heat.The hippo’s eyes, nose and ears are located on the top of its head, enabling it to breathe whilst still submerged in water.