The California Gold Rush

By Elizabeth Van SteenwykOpen Court Reading

Unit 6 Lesson 6Word Knowledge and Vocabulary

http://www.opencourtresources.com

Word KnowledgeGrade 4, Unit 6 – Lesson 6

These words have the suffix –er.Line 1: trapper settler owner rancherThe suffix –er means “a person or thing that performs the action of”

All of these words contain short vowel soundsLine 2: established citizenship product unimpressede, a, i, o, u

Root wordsLine 3: applied frenzied copies discoveriesThe root words end with y and the y was changed to i

All these words contain the comparative and superlative endings –er and -estLine 4: noisier curlier speediest liveliestWhat adjectives were these endings added to ?

Sentence 1: The owner of the Star was an enterprising man.

Sentence 2: They had followed trails established by trappers.

Sentence 3: Sutter applied for Mexican citizenship.

Sentence 4: Even the speediest boat trip to California took months.

settler

citizenship

frenzy

lively

Story VocabularyStory Vocabulary

• Em-i-grants

• Per-se-cu-tion

• A-ban-don

• Pros-pec-ting

• Ver-i-fied

Use a variety of skills in the following slides like context clues, apposition, and word structure to determinethe meaning of each word.

em-i-grants

• Meanwhile, overland emigrants from the United States were starting to arrive in the valley.

• The emigrants wrote to relatives they left in their homeland.

emigrants- people who have left their homeland to settle in a new one

Use context clues, apposition, or word structure

emigrants

Context clues? Prediction ?

Definition ?Part of speech ?

per-se-cu-tion

• They had sailed around Cape Horn hoping to escape from the religious persecution they had experienced in the East.

• The Pilgrims left England to escape persecution.

Use context clues, apposition, or word structure

persecution

Word Structure? Prediction ?

Definition ?Part of speech ?

persecution- the mistreatment or harassment of a person orgroup of people

a-ban-don

• They discovered enough to abandon their regular work and begin mining in earnest.

• Settlers would often abandon their houses when they moved westward.

Use context clues, apposition, or word structure

abandon

Context Clues?

Definition ?

synonyms?

Part of speech ?

abandon- to give up something; to stop working on something

pros-pec-ting

• Those who had already been prospecting displayed their pouches of gold dust as they prepared to dig for more.

• After two weeks of prospecting we still hadn’t found any gold.

Use context clues, apposition, or word structure

prospecting- searching for gold or some other valuable productprospecting

Context clues? Prediction ?

Definition ?Part of speech ?

ver-i-fied

• He said that the news of California’s gold discovery had been verified.

• I called Grandma and verified that she had received the package I sent.

Use context clues, apposition, or word structure

verified

You create your own Circle Map. Use the skills that you’ve been taught this week.

verified- declared real, authentic, or true

Gold Rush Virtual Tour

Gold Rush VideosClick on me to watch a video!

No! Click on me to watch a video.