Teaching Resource

Dictionary Dig Activity Cards

PDF, Word | 3 pages|Grades: 3 - 6

A set of 24 dictionary activity cards.

Print, cut and laminate the activity cards for students to use individually or in small groups. Students use a dictionary to complete the activity listed on the card.

Use this teaching resource when learning about dictionary skills or as a literacy group activity when developing spelling skills and strategies.

An editable version of this resource has also been provided to include your own dictionary activities.

As answers for this task will vary, no answer sheet has been provided.

NSW Curriculum alignment

EN2-5A
Uses a range of strategies, including knowledge of letterâ€“sound correspondences and common letter patterns, to spell familiar and some unfamiliar words
In English Stage 2 A. Communicate through speaking, listening, reading, writing, viewing and representing
EN3-4A
Draws on appropriate strategies to accurately spell familiar and unfamiliar words when composing texts
In English Stage 3 A. Communicate through speaking, listening, reading, writing, viewing and representing

Victorian Curriculum alignment

VCELA296
Recognise homophones and know how to use context to identify correct spelling
In English Level 4 Writing Language
VCELA312
Understand how to use banks of known words, syllabification, spelling patterns, word origins, base words, prefixes and suffixes, to spell new words, including some uncommon plurals
In English Level 5 Reading and Viewing Language
VCELA354
Understand how to use banks of known words, word origins, base words, prefixes, suffixes, spelling patterns and generalisations to spell new words, including technical words and words adopted from other languages
In English Level 6 Writing Language

Australian Curriculum alignment

ACELA1513
Understand how to use knowledge of known words, base words, prefixes and suffixes, word origins, letter patterns and spelling generalisations to spell new wordsElaborationstalking about how suffixes change over time and new forms are invented to refl...
In English Year 5 Language Phonics and word knowledge
ACELA1526
Understand how to use knowledge of known words, word origins including some Latin and Greek roots, base words, prefixes, suffixes, letter patterns and spelling generalisations to spell new words including technical wordsElaborationsusing a dictionary...
In English Year 6 Language Phonics and word knowledge
ACELA1779
Understand how to use knowledge of letter patterns including double letters, spelling generalisations, morphemic word families, common prefixes and suffixes and word origins to spell more complex wordsElaborationsapplying generalisations for adding a...
In English Year 4 Language Phonics and word knowledge

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Comments & Reviews

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love this!

Karina Guerrero-Tapia · Feb 11th, 2021

Thanks, Karina! We’re glad you like it!

Paul (Teach Starter) · Feb 12th, 2021

Thank you so very much to everyone at TeachStarter. Once again, you guys have responded to a request and fulfilled what I had asked beautifully. A well-deserved 5-stars all around!!!

David Brew · Mar 26th, 2020

Hey David, thank you for sharing your lovely feedback. It is nice to see these activity cards are meeting your expectations.

Royce (Teach Starter) · Mar 26th, 2020

Hey —I just had another thought —could this resource be adapted to be a thesaurus quest? Like “Dictionary Dig” maybe it could be titled a “Thesaurus Trek” or “Vocabulary Voyage” (I can see pirate graphics or treasure chests or similar etc.)

David Brew · Mar 8th, 2020

Hi David,

Thanks for your feedback! Please feel free to request a resource at our ‘Request a Resource’ page.

https://www.teachstarter.com/request-a-resource/

Requests are voted on by the Teach Starter community and we create the top requests. Please let me know if you have any further questions, I’m more than happy to help.

Paul (Teach Starter) · Mar 9th, 2020

Thank you TeachStarter Team for this fabulous resource. I have used it in both for small group and independent/individual literacy activities. The included editable version also means that I can up-level or simplify the questions and answers to suit any of my students, making this resource useful across the grades. My only criticism of this resource is that all the graphics are girls. There are no boys shown at all. Could this be amended so our boys feel included too?

David Brew · Mar 8th, 2020

Hi David,

Thank you for your comment! We’re always happy to hear how our resources could be even better!

So we can keep all of our suggestions and requests together, can you please submit a change request to this resource using the Changes & Updates tab above? This tab can be found near the comments section.

Thanks again!

Paul (Teach Starter) · Mar 9th, 2020

Thank you SO VERY MUCH for this activity. Thank you for helping us in such a creative way.

Zuriette Du Plessis · Nov 26th, 2017

Thank you for the feedback, Zuriette! So happy to hear that these will be useful for you 🙂

Scott (Teach Starter) · Jan 10th, 2018

Lovely resource for an independent Reading Group Activities to consolidate the use of Dictionaries. Thank you.

Zuriette Du Plessis · Nov 19th, 2017

Hi Zuriette,

Thank you for your lovely comment! It is great to hear you are finding this resource useful in your classroom.

Kind regards,
Nikki

Nikki (Teach Starter) · Nov 20th, 2017

Resource Updates

The images have been updated to include a boy.
Change by Paul (Teach Starter) Mar 25th, 2020
Updated to include editable version of resource
Addition by Nikki (Teach Starter) Nov 20th, 2017

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If any of our resources do not have 100% accurate American English (en-US), simply click on the 'Report an error' tab above to let us know. We will have the resource updated and ready for you to download in less than 24 hours. Read more...