Throughout elementary school, students work on context clues. Learning to use context clues in reading is an effective way for them to build their vocabulary.
We’ve included worksheets on this topic in both our vocabulary and reading comprehension worksheets sections. Before showing you where they are located on our website, let’s first cover what context clues are.
What is a context clue?
Let’s say your child is reading a story, but she can’t understand the meaning of a specific word. Rather than look it up in a dictionary, she can try to learn what it means by using the clues in the sentence to work out its meaning.
You could think of context clues as hints that are found in a sentence, paragraph, or passage. We use these hints to understand the meanings of new or unfamiliar words.
For example: My friend from Brazil really suffers from the cold during our Chicago winters.
The student needs to work out what suffers means.
The context clues are: Brazil is a warm country, so people who live in Brazil are used to a warm climate and not a cold one. We also see the reference to winter – a season that is cold. Some students may even know that winters in Chicago are bitterly cold.
The friend must, therefore, feel discomfort and feel it’s unpleasant in the cold.
The definition of suffer, therefore, is experience discomfort or be subjected to something unpleasant.
Grade 1 worksheets to practice context clues
In our grade 1 vocabulary worksheets section, we have simple sentences where students choose the correct definition of words in simple sentences:
Grade 2 context clues worksheets
The grade 2 context clues worksheets are similar to the grade 1 worksheets. The sentences are slightly longer and/or more complex.
Grade 3 context clues practice
In grade 3, the worksheets get harder. Now, students are asked to explain the clues they read and to write the definition of the word.
Grade 4 worksheets on context clues
In grade 4, we have context clues worksheets in two section.
Our vocabulary context clues worksheets are similar to the grade 3 worksheets:
In our reading comprehension section we provide entire stories and ask student to use context clues to work out the meaning of words in passages.
Context clues worksheets for grade 5
Similar to grade 4, we have context clues in sentences for grade 5 students in our vocabulary section:
And context clues in passages in our reading comprehension section:
