Reference Materials
Third Grade
Language Arts Lesson
0301.4.3 Use Reference Materials (e.g. Atlas,
Encyclopedia, Dictionary, and Thesaurus)
Four Types of Reference
Materials
 Encyclopedia
 Atlas
 Dictionary
 Thesaurus
Encyclopedia
Why do we use encyclopedias?
 An encyclopedia is used when someone
wants to find information about a
person, place, or thing.
 You may want to find out information
about George Washington. You can
learn about him from reading
information in an encyclopedia.

Atlas
An atlas is a map.
 If you want to find a specific place,
street, road, city, or state.
 Many people use an atlas when they
are going on vacation or traveling to
another place.

Dictionary
We use a dictionary to look up words.
 You will find the meaning of words in a
dictionary.
 For example, when you do not know
the meaning of a word in a story. You
may use a dictionary to look up the
meaning of the word.

Thesaurus




In a thesaurus, you will find synonyms for
words.
First, you look up the word in the thesaurus.
Next to the word you will find a list of words
that mean the same things as the word you
looked up.
Like wonderful –great, magnificent, excellent,
terrific, cool, and fantastic
Also in a thesaurus you will find an antonym
for the word. Like horrible or awful would be
an antonym for wonderful.
Do you know?
For the next couple of slides I will
describe a situation. You must decide
what type of reference material would
be used in this situation.
 Do you know what reference material to
use?

Challenge Question
One
My teacher has assigned a report on
the country of Mexico. I need to find
information on when the country began
and who lived there in ancient times.
 Where would I find this type of
information?

Answer
Encyclopedia
Great
Job!!!
Challenge Question
Number Two
My family is planning a vacation to
Florida. We are going to Universal
Studios. I am so excited! My father is
trying to decide what interstate he
needs to take. Or how to get their from
Tennessee?
 What reference material should he use
to find this information?

Answer
Atlas
Great
Work!!!!
Challenge Question
Number Three
Jimmy is working on writing a sentence
with each of his spelling words. He
comes to a word he does not know.
How can he find the definition of the
word? What reference material should
he use to find this information?
Answer
Dictionary
Fantastic!!!!!
Challenge Question
Number Four

I am writing a story about my
experience at the Spelling Bee. I want
to find another word to use instead of
saying great. Where can I find a word
that means the same as great? What
reference material would I use to find
this information?
Answer
Thesaurus
Wonderful
Job!!!!
Challenge Question
Number Five


Jane is working on a research paper for her
third grade class. She is trying to find
information about how people in France
celebrate Christmas. First, she must find out
where her country is located and some of the
major cities. Where would she find this
information?
What reference material would she use for
this report?
Answer
Atlas
Fantastic
Job!!!!
Challenge Question
Number Six
Tracy is learning new vocabulary that goes
along with her reading story for this week.
Her teacher has explained the word to the
class. Tracy would like to find another word
that means the same as the vocabulary word
she is working on. Where can she find this
information? What reference material should
Tracy use to find a synonym for this word?
Answer
Thesaurus
Excellent
Job!!!!!
Reference Materials
Reference materials like encyclopedias,
dictionaries, atlases, and thesaurus help us
find information.
 It would be hard to find the information we
need without these materials.
The internet has all of these reference
materials. So, if you don’t have these things
at your home you will be able to find them on
the computer.
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