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Clues in the Town Archive: Greek and Latin Roots

Read a story set in a town archive and use Greek and Latin roots such as graph, auto, bio and chron to read long words like autobiography.

Grade 4ELAInteractive · Printable

Aligned toRF.4.3.a

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What’s included

Single worksheet
Auto-graded online
1 Common Core standard
Printable answer key
12 questions
Classroom-ready

Details

Format: Interactive · Printable
Grade: Grade 4
Subject: ELA
Question types: Fill in the blank, Multiple choice, Matching, Circle the answer, Sorting, Short answer

About this worksheet

What students practice

Students use Greek and Latin roots such as graph, photo, auto, bio, chron and manu to read and define unfamiliar words.
Students count and divide syllables to read long words such as autobiography.
Students use roots and context clues to work out long words in a story.

How to use

Read the story aloud together, then go over the root key before students begin. Let students underline the roots they find in the story as they work.

Curriculum

Common Core standard covered

RF.4.3.a

Use letter-sound knowledge, syllable patterns, and word parts such as roots and affixes to read unfamiliar multisyllable words, in and out of context.

Preview

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Name Date

Clues in the Town Archive: Greek and Latin Roots

Use Greek and Latin roots and syllables to read long words.

Read the story

Read the story. When you meet a long word, look for roots and syllables you know.

The Box in the Archive

1Every Saturday morning, Paloma helps Mr. Abernathy in the basement of the Brightwater Historical Society. Mr. Abernathy is an archivist. He takes care of the town's archive, a quiet room full of old letters, maps and photographs. The room stays cool and dry all year long, because heat and damp air can make old paper crumble.

2This Saturday, a cardboard box was waiting on the long wooden table. "A family gave us this box yesterday," Mr. Abernathy said. "Everything inside belonged to Hazel Brandt. She taught fourth grade here in Brightwater a long time ago. Before anyone can study her papers, we need to sort them."

3Paloma pulled on a pair of cotton gloves so her fingers would not smudge the photographs. Inside the box, she found a stack of pictures, a bundle of handwritten letters and a small book with a faded blue cover. Mr. Abernathy asked her to put the letters in chronological order, from the oldest date to the newest. Some of the dates were hard to read, so she looked at them through a magnifying glass.

4The blue book turned out to be an autograph book. On each page, one of Hazel's students had signed a name and written a short message. One girl had signed her name in calligraphy, with graceful swoops and curls on every letter. A boy named Walter had drawn a tiny map of the schoolyard beside his name. "Remember me whenever you see the big oak tree," he had written.

5At the very bottom of the box, Paloma found a thick stack of paper tied with string. The first page said, "My Life in Brightwater, by Hazel Brandt." Mr. Abernathy's eyes grew wide. "This is a manuscript," he said. "Hazel wrote every page by hand. It is her autobiography, the story of her own life." Paloma read the first paragraph out loud. It told about the night the first electric streetlights glowed on Main Street.

6"Someday, another writer could use these papers to write a biography of Hazel," Mr. Abernathy said. "A book like that would share her life story with new readers." Before Paloma went home, he made a photocopy of Hazel's first page for her to keep. As she climbed the stairs into the sunshine, Paloma smiled. The archive was not just a room full of old paper. It was a kind of time machine.

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