1. Hot Potatoes The interactive educational activity generator
Paola Pflucker
EDUC 5306

2. What is Hot Potatoes?
It is a free downloadable software that allows interactive activity generation.

3. What can I do with Hot Potatoes?
It allows you to: Create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for free.

4. Application in the classroom
Students can use the hot potatoes software to create word puzzles utilizing the vocabulary for the unit. They can mix and match concepts in a sentence form, match vocabulary definitions to their meaning, create a quiz for the lesson and fill in the blank exercises. All this activities emphasizes vocabulary mastery and content application.

5. Application in the classroom
The hot potatoes software can be utilized for any grade level. All lessons involve new vocabulary attached to it as well as new content information. Students can create puzzles and exchange them among them to check for vocabulary mastery. They can also expand into mix and match activities to check for content mastery. It is a fun way of learning. It can be used across the curriculum and at any grade level.

6. Let’s get started!
For this activity I will be creating a word puzzle utilizing the vocabulary words for the lesson. The words are:
Weathering
Erosion
Decomposition
Delta
Mechanical weathering
Deposition

7. Creating a Word Puzzle Step 1:
You need to download the software first.
After installation click on the desktop icon
That looks like this
You will need to select which activity you want to work with. For this exercise I chose “JCROSS”
(puzzle generator).

8. Creating a Word Puzzle
Step 2: Once you are on JCROSS you can start by entering the title of the activity in the box and your vocabulary. Click on the button that indicates “add clues” to ad clues for each one of the words. Make sure you save your work always.

9. Creating a Word Puzzle
Step 3: After you finish inputting all the vocabulary words, your word puzzle will look like This.

10. Creating a Word Puzzle
Step 4: Go to file and scroll down to the option “Export for Printing”

11. Creating a Word Puzzle This is how your final product will look like.
It has the word puzzle on top and the clues at the bottom.