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Cave Vocabulary

This cave vocabulary set includes words and definition to help students build understanding.

Download this cave vocabulary set to accompany your study of caves.

This free set is designed to help students build a vocabulary of cave terms before beginning to study caves.

This is another free resource for teachers and homeschool families from The Curriculum Corner.

Cave Vocabulary Set

Studying Caves

A study of caves came about in my classroom due to a Scope story we were preparing to read.

The article on the Thailand soccer team lost in the cave was recommended by another teacher. As I prepared to focus on this story in my classroom, I realized few of my students had been into a cave or had much background knowledge.

I created a set of resources to help build schema before we read the story.

I found that this was a high interest topic for my students. Because they were interested in the subject, my students worked hard.

Cave vocabulary

This set includes vocabulary words along with the definitions. You will see clues on some of the cards. These include phrases that will help students determine the definition or word parts that are underlined. For example, speleology has “ology” underlined because I knew that my students were familiar with the meaning of this suffix.

I also included six picture cards that students could match with the definitions.

There is a recording page. Students can use words and pictures to explain the meaning. There is also a column for clues. I explained that not every word would have a clue.

Students began this activity without resources that would help the find the definitions. I found that this led to good conversations among groups. Students found that using reasoning, they were able to determine the meaning of most of the words correctly.

Since they were not using devices, I filtered around the classroom and talked with students as they worked. I offered assistance and asked questions as students worked.

You can download this set by clicking on the apples below: