Dictionary skills: golden mole
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) Golden moles inhabit the dry deserts and sandy grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa.
2) With eyes that are covered in fur, the golden mole is completely blind, so it uses its senses of hearing and touch to detect danger or prey.
3) Golden moles are solitary creatures.
Did you know?
The golden mole is actually more closely related to an elephant than it is to other moles! It is also so rare to find one that scientists have gained most of their understanding of these tiny mammals by looking at their remains in owl pellets.