Word Wise: 102 Words to Know

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This year in JS, your students will find the meaning and context for 102 social studies terms. Look for the "Words to Know" boxes in each issue. After students have read the issue, they can try our "Words Wise" quiz on the back page. Here are the words that have appeared in our issues so far this year.

• advocacy: support and aid for a particular group (Sept. 21)
• asteroid: small, rocky celestial body (Nov. 23)
• authoritarian: when power is held by a single leader or group (Oct. 5)
• celestial: of or by the stars (Oct. 5)
• civic: of community affairs (Nov. 23)
  
• civilian: one who is not on active duty, such as in the military (Nov. 9)
• Cold War: rivalry between Communist and non-Communist nations (Nov. 23)
• Communist: relating to a government that controls land and businesses (Oct. 5)
• cutter: small armed vessel (Oct. 5)
• depression: severe economic downturn (Sept. 21)
• executive: leader in charge (Sept. 7)
• federal: national (Sept. 7)
• felony: serious crime (Nov. 9)
• fjord: narrow inlet of the sea between cliffs (Nov. 23)
• helot: slave of Sparta (Sept. 21)
• iconic: powerfully symbolic (Sept. 7)
• judicial: referring to courts of law (Sept. 7)
• legislature: lawmaking body (Sept. 7)
• mutiny: revolt of forces against their leader (Nov. 23)
• pension: money paid regularly to a retiree (Nov. 23)
  
• persecution: harsh treatment of a particular group (Oct. 5)
• phalanx: organized mass of people (Sept. 21)
• prosecutor: government attorney (Sept. 21)
• prospector: one who searches for valuable minerals (Nov. 9)
• recession: period of diminished economic activity (Sept. 21)
• reservation: defined area of public land (Nov. 9)
  
• saga: long story (Nov. 9)
  
• truce: suspension of fighting (Nov. 9)
  
• tyranny: oppressive rule (Sept. 7)
• vagabond: wanderer (Oct. 5)

Activity Plan 4-5: Making News!
Children will make their own news stories and build communication, writing and vocabulary skills in this ready-to-use teaching idea for four- and five-year olds. Activity: Language.

That's Cheeky! Lesson Plan based on The Ravenmaster's Secret, by Elvira Woodruff
Students can check their understanding of special English words from history by matching each word with its meaning.

Round-the-Clock Vocabulary
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