I have been using a modified for Kdg version of "Hot Seat". The kids just love it and can't wait to have their turn. An older brother came in our room and heard a kindergartner mention the hot seat and was asked what it was. I had to smile as she explained: It's when you get a pink piece of paper with a word written in red and you have to tell about the word. I had used pink sticky notes and a read marker.

Linda, Thanks for posting and sharing your acivities you use with your voabulary instruction. Great ideas. It doesn't take long and it can be as simple as you just stated, but the results can be seen quickly and adjustments can be made from those observations....can't wait to visit on Wed. Thanks for sharing. Talk to you soon ~lynda

My Second graders are given quick assessments for word knowledge throughout the week. Here are a couple of examples. I put 2 or 3 words on the whiteboard and read a definition from the Cobuild dictionary. On their whiteboards they write the correct word, write the number of the word or simply say the word aloud to their partner. You can also reverse this by writing the definition and they have to identify the vocabulary word from their list. They also enjoy any variation of the Snowball activity we used last year in Math. It can easliy be adapted for use with vocabulary assessment.

Kris, Thank you for posting and sharing your activity. What a quick and easy way to get a handle on your students and vocabulary instruction....and they asked to do the activity again...yeah! I am glad it worked so well with you and your students. Talk to you soon. ~lynda

My students loved doing the "Making Choices?" activity. They really
enjoyed saying the word aloud when it matched the statement I said.
We used words like angry, excited, etc. This was a great quick
assesment to use. It was very easy to see if the students understood
or not. They asked me if we could do this activity again later in
the day! I will use this activity again soon.

Marge, Great idea. This would give your kids a stonger connection by the use of "real" objects. Thanks for posting and sharing your idea. I can see this working with all ages...can't you? Talk to you soon. ~lynda

I had my small group match our new vocabulary words with real objects and they loved it. Many of our new words began with blends--like twist and glob--and they learned them so easily. I used the words from Greg's Mask and they worked wonderfully for this activity.

Deb, Thanks for your response. It is nice to see we are on the right track when we find something that we are already doing in our classsroom. I know I always liked that "yeah, I must be on the right page if I'm doing the same thing" feeling. I am glad you are doing what you are doing...kids like the novelty, too. Talk to you soon ~lynda

There were some vocabulary activities in the menu of instructional activities that we had already been using. That surprised me.

We used some of the vocabulary activities in our spare time and the kids enjoyed doing something new.

Lynda,
Yes, the students really enjoyed the illustrating with vocabulary words. I have done this before focusing on one vocabulary word, but never focusing on four at a time. I will bring some to our next SEEDS to show you.

Dawnette...thanks for posting. I really liked your idea of having your students illustrate their vocabulary words. Did they enjoy this activity/assessment? It was a quick way to see if they did understand the meaning of the word. Would you mind bringing a couple with you to our next SEEDS? Thanks again for sharing, see you soon. ~lynda

One vocabulary activity I did was Applause, Applause. The students loved that activity and this is so versatile because you can use it with any age group. An assessment piece I did was to have the students illustrate vocabulary words. I gave them a piece of paper divided into 4 squares. After I had read a book and focused on 4 words, then I had them draw a picture for each of those words as I said it.

Here are the Quick Topic prompts for Day 3:

Think and Reflect:

1)What form of vocabulary assessment are you using with your students to demonstrate understanding?
2) Share what you are doing with the assessment piece of your vocabulary instruction.
3)Post at least 2 entries sharing your example and experience of using the assessment piece. What worked and what would you change.

I used the book Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse. The boys and girls loved the book. I decided to use the lesson as printed for our first text talk experience. It went well, but for kindergarten I think I might condense it slightly. I also found my students were familiar with one of the tier two words - searched. So we spent some time on the word "pebble" which most did not seem familiar with. It was a good experience, one I would choose to do again.