Performance-based assessments are tasks conducted by students that enable them to demonstrate what they know about a given topic. The difference between this type of "test" versus the traditional method is that students are given the opportunity to better communicate what they learned. Therefore, the beauty of performance-based assessments is that they focus on affording students the opportunity to apply their knowledge by engaging in tasks requiring critical-thinking strategies. This article describes two performance-based assessments that were developed by the author for use with second graders and the results of these tests. (Contains 1 figure and 3 resources.)