How To Make a Pocket Activity
What?
Pocket Activity, or Pocket Game, is an interactive strategy where students take definitions and
place them in the “pocket” of the vocabulary term.
How?
Why?
This strategy helps students at all levels of comprehension to acquire critical vocabulary
through interaction and practice.
Prep Work:
This strategy requires the following for each game set:
One piece of colored card stock for the game board with the title on top
One set of definition rows - Fill out - run off on card stock (the same color as the
game board) - cut out separated
One set of vocabulary term game pieces - fill out - run off on card stock (different
color than the game board and definition rows - cut out and separated
Run off a sufficient number of game sets.
Place the game board on a flat surface
Carefully space out the definition rows and tape the bottom and sides for each row
onto the game board (if you tape the top, there will be no pocket) (Fig. 1)
One the rows have been taped to the game board, it should look similar to (Fig. 2)
Place all of the game pieces in a zip-lock baggie and paper clip it to the game board.
Using it With Students:
Divide students into pairs.
Give one game board and one set of term pieces to each team.
Explain to students that their job to is match the (color such as blue in the example)
vocabulary game piece with its definition on the game board by sliding the piece in the
corresponding pocket. (Fig. 3)
Allocate sufficient time for teams to complete their tasks.
Adapted from C.Y. Hernandez (1992)
®SAISD Social Studies Department
Reproduction rights granted only if copyright information remains intact.
How To - Pocket Activity
Page 1
How To Make a Pocket Activity
Fig. 1
Definition Row
Definition Row
Game Board
Definition Row
Definition Row
Definition Row
Tape the Bottom and Sides Only to the Game Board!
Fig. 2
Definition Row
Term
Definition Row
Term
Term
Term
Term
Term
Term
Term
Term
Definition Row
Definition Row
Definition Row
Term
Game Board
Adapted from C.Y. Hernandez (1992)
®SAISD Social Studies Department
Reproduction rights granted only if copyright information remains intact.
How To - Pocket Activity
Page 2
How To Make a Pocket Activity
Fig. 3
Term
Term
Term
Term
Definition Row
Term
Term
Term
Term
Definition Row
Term
Term
Term
Term
Definition Row
Term
Term
Term
Term
Definition Row
Adapted from C.Y. Hernandez (1992)
®SAISD Social Studies Department
Reproduction rights granted only if copyright information remains intact.
How To - Pocket Activity
Page 3
Colonization Game Board
Tape Definition Row #1 Here
Tape Definition Row #2 Here
Tape Definition Row #3 Here
Tape Definition Row #4 Here
Tape Definition Row #5 Here
Adapted from C.Y. Hernandez (1992)
®SAISD Social Studies Department
Reproduction rights granted only if copyright information remains intact.
How To - Pocket Activity
Page 4
Definition Rows Template
The practice of sending
settlers to distant lands to
provide the mother
country with raw materials
The first successful
colony in British America
The first formal
agreement to create a
government in the
American Colonies
(Plymouth)
Rhode Island,
Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and New
Hampshire
DO NOT USE
The first representative
government in the
American Colonies
(Virginia)
The system between the
Americas, Africa, and
Europe - Also known as
Triangular Trade
A large farm
The practice of the
owning and selling of
other people
DO NOT USE
Document written in 1215
that limited the power of
the king and granted
certain rights to the
people
Delaware, New Jersey,
New York and
Pennsylvania
Founded the colony of
Connecticut after being
exiled from
Massachusetts
Those who originally
settled the Plymouth
Colony
DO NOT USE
Economic practice of
having your colonies
providing raw materials
and a market for finished
goods
To travel to lands you
have not been to before Usually in search for
materials and natural
resources
Gained a charter to
create a colony as a
refuge for the Quakers
A agricultural product that
makes you a large profit
DO NOT USE
People who migrated to
places like Pennsylvania,
Maryland and
Connecticut wanted this
type of freedom.
Adapted from C.Y. Hernandez (1992)
®SAISD Social Studies Department
South Carolina, North
Carolina, Virginia,
Georgia, and Maryland.
This document was
First written constitution in
written in 1689 to provide
the American Colonies
freedoms for Englishmen
Reproduction rights granted only if copyright information remains intact.
How To - Pocket Activity
Page 5
Vocabulary Game Pieces Template
Colonization
Jamestown
Mayflower
Compact
New England
Colonies
House of
Burgesses
Plantation
System
Transatlantic
Slave Trade
Slavery
Magna Carta
Middle Colonies Thomas Hooker
Puritans
Mercantilism
Exploration
William Penn
Cash Crop
Religion
Southern
Colonies
English Bill of
Rights
Fundamental
Orders of
Connecticut
Adapted from C.Y. Hernandez (1992)
®SAISD Social Studies Department
Reproduction rights granted only if copyright information remains intact.
How To - Pocket Activity
Page 6