41_Flash_Card_Activities_Ideas

41 Flash Card Activities


Preparation
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition
The purpose of flash cards is rather simple and mundane; we use flash cards
to introduce and review vocabulary or concepts. My first language teacher
said, “The only way to learn a foreign language is repetition, repetition,
repetition.” Can’t argue with that. Unfortunately, it can be really… repetitious
and boring. But, if you watch children playing, they’ll show you how to make it
fun.
Here is my list of 41 Flash Card Activities. If you have an activity not on this
list, leave me a comment below! I’d love to hear how you use flash cards in
your own classes!
Images

When putting together flash card sets, use the clearest, simplest images you
can find. As my students range in age from preK thru 6
th
grade, I don’t want to
make flashcards for different age groups. For that reason, many of my cards
are age-neutral in design and can be used with any class, including adults.
Double-sided or single sided cards?
You have to decide which is going to be more useful. If you have single-sided
cards and you want words and images, you’ll have double the number of
cards, double the weight, and need more storage space. If you use double-
sided cards, you won’t be able to play some games, like Pairs, Old Maid, or
guessing games requiring a blank backside. Large cards that I use for big
groups of kids are usually double-sided, just for convenience. Because I like
to divide kids up into groups and play a variety of games, I create small single-
sided cards, some no bigger than a business card.
Multiple Sets
Creating multiple sets of cards is a lot of work, but you’ll REALLY appreciate
the flexibility it gives you in class. I always have 4-5 sets of flash cards, piled
in baskets, ready for any number of activities.
Punch holes in small flash cards and bundle them with metal rings. Rubber
bands will rot. And, above all, laminate your cards! Kids bite, fold, and spill on
them. The last thing you want to do is have to remake cards every year.
3 Types of Flash Card Activities
Matching
Matching is the most fundamental activity you can do with cards. This type of
activity is most recognizable as flipping through vocabulary decks as you try to
associate a word with a picture or translation.
Ordering and Sorting
Ordering and sorting are basic activities teachers most often do with cards.
Ordering can be with an established order, such as the ABCs and numbers, or
a directed ordering, like sorting according to color, pattern, big, small, etc.
Guessing

Discovery, or guessing, is the premise of many games you can play with flash
cards. The more you can keep kids guessing, the better you will keep their
attention. If you play with a sense of fun, children will WANT to remember
vocabulary to keep the game going.
Watching children play, you will see them employing one, two or all three of
these modals in just about any activity or game they play. Keeping this in
mind, you’ll have an endless number of activities you can use with flash cards.
Remember, cards don’t have to be the primary focus of an activity, as long as
they are being employed in one way or another. Use animal cards for team
names, numbers, colors and shapes for ordering, or stacks of cards for board
games. Importantly, find ways to use the vocabulary you’ve taught!
Flash Card Activities
I call these activities, as opposed to games, as they don’t involve dice or rules
of play.
1. Name Cards Make and laminate name cards for your kids. Allow the kids
to have these in their possession that they display on their desk. Occasionally,
you can make the name cards part of the lesson! Working on verbs or
animals? Use their name cards and pair them with various cards! Pull names
from a hat or spell students’ names out loud to determine game order or line
order. By putting their birthday on their name cards, you’ve successfully
transferred months- of-the-year flash cards into their hands!
2. Ordering Ordering students for a game can be just as much fun as the
game itself! Challenge students to order themselves according to birthdays,
the alphabet, age or grade! Hand out verb cards, animal cards or ABC cards,
and have the students line up in alphabetical order. Or have students sound
off in order using numbers or abcs. Then, put a stack of the same cards in a
hat and have students line up in the order the cards are drawn.
3. Word of The Day Put learned flashcards into a hat and allow a student to
choose one from the hat each school day. This is great for review of past
vocabulary you don’t want kids to forget! Did you teach patterns and shapes?
Take a moment to see who is wearing stripes or all the objects in the room
that are square. Try to find a way to repeat the ‘word of the day’ a few times in
class. A special action, such as clapping or snapping their fingers can be done
if they hear the word.

4. Spell it out! Hand out flash cards to students. The teacher vocally spells
out a word. The student with that card hands it back to the teacher. This
activity can be used to line kids up or divide kids for games. Variations on this
could be spelling out student names, writing the big letter on the board and
the student with the small letter brings her card forward. Giving students word
cards while the teacher shows the picture cards works just as well.
5. Circle Pass The students and the teacher sit in a circle. The teacher starts
by passing a picture card to the student on his left, saying, “This is a horse.”
The student takes the card and passes it to the next student, saying, “This is a
horse.” The card is passed around the circle. When the card returns to the
teacher, the teacher puts that card aside and introduces a new card in the
same manner. To up the challenge: a) wait until a card has reached the
halfway mark, then introduce a second card going in the same direction; b)
introduce cards at the same time going in opposite directions; or c) send 3-4
cards around the circle in the same directions with little pause between each.
6. Discovery Slowly uncovering a picture or letter for students to guess what
you have is a classic activity. You can uncover the picture from different sides
or even have an envelope with a hole in which students see only a part of it.
Try this game with words, slowly uncovering the front, back or both sides of
the word.
7. Match! The teacher shows a flashcard and calls out a word. If the spoken
word and the card match, students must say the word.
8. Story Time! Distribute one card per student and tell them that you will tell
a story. Each time they hear their word they have to clap. Make sure you have
a list of the words or that you write the story beforehand in order to make sure
that each word is said several times.
9. Hide n’ Seek Have one student go out of the room and hide flashcards in
various locations. Have the student come back into the room and look for the
cards. As she finds each one, she must tell you the name of the card.
10. Missing Cards Place three cards face up in a row. Turn around or close
your eyes and ask the students to turn one card over. You then try to guess
the ‘missing’ card. Up the challenge by adding another card and repeat. Then,
turn two cards over. If you’re working with ABC cards, you can keep the order
or mix the cards up. If you play this with 10 or more cards other than alphabet
cards, put the cards in alphabetical order. Students have to think of the
missing card in relation to the ABCs. This game works well as a whole class
activity or in small groups.

11. Guess! Put three picture cards on the board, and label them A, B, & C or
1, 2, & 3. Give hints as the students try to guess the card you are describing.
Try this by acting out a verb or animal. Use color cards and call out things in
the room that are all the same color.
12. Q&A A student chooses a card and places it on the board behind the
teacher. In a ‘20 Questions’ fashion, the teacher asks the students questions
like, ‘Is it blue?’ or ‘Is it big? This works well with clothing, food and animals. If
working with words, ask questions like, “Is there an ‘a’ or a ‘z’ in the word?
13. Stacked Adjectives Start early teaching kids by example about stacked
adjectives by combining several sets of different cards. Make phrases like
‘one black cat’ or ‘two happy elephants.’ As kids become familiar with this
activity, you can slowly add adjectives, like ‘three angry striped black cats.’
Once kids start learning to put words together to create larger concepts or
sentences, keep words and pictures on a board so that students can play and
arrange the cards themselves.
14. Alphabetize This seems rudimentary, but it works really well for early
finishers, or when you have time after a lesson. Simply have kids put a set of
flash cards in alphabetical order. Later on, dictionary practice is a vital part of
my older kids’ work. Start getting them ready as soon as they understand the
ABCs and order.
15. Write Around The Room Put cards around the room, give students a
blank piece of paper on a clipboard, and have them search around the room
for cards to write on their boards. Once all the words are ‘found’, students
then have to write the words again in alphabetical order. This is a classic
‘Write Around The Room’ activity and good for getting kids out of their seats.
16. Write on it! Laminated flash cards can be used to write directly on the
cards with a white board marker. Hand out markers and stacks of cards to
practice writing in an unusual way.
17. Notebooks Give students stacks of cards to write the words and draw
pictures in their notebooks, creating their own pictionary or to add to their
interactive notebooks.
18. Silly Fun, show a picture like ‘apple.’ Then, every sentence that you say
has to contain the word apple! You say: “How apple are you?”, the other
person says “I’m apple fine.” Small children especially love these kinds of
word games.

Games
19. Relay Play a relay game to match the upper and lower ABCs. Place upper
ABC cards on the board and students must write the lower case letter below
each card. Place images on the board and students must write the words
below the cards.
20. Relay II Write 5-6 letters on five large cards in random order. Set the
cards in a spaced row with a basket in front of each card. Put stacks of ABC
cards in front of two teams of students for a relay race. On start, students
must take a card and put it in the basket that matches their card. The first
team to finish all their cards wins.
21. Race Place two cards on the floor at the front of the classroom. Divide the
class into two teams and have them line up. Give the two students at the front
of the lines one eraser each. When the teacher calls out one of the cards, the
two students race to put their erasers on the correct card. The first student to
do so wins a point for his team. Repeat several times, and then add a third
card. Play with three cards for several turns, and then add a fourth card, a fifth
card, and so on.
22. Pairs/Concentration This is a game that will work with any type of cards.
With two sets of the same cards, lay them face down in a grid. Depending on
the age and skill of the students, you can work with 4-12 pairs. Students take
turns flipping over two cards looking for a match. The student must say the
word before taking the cards. This game can also be used to match two cards,
e.g., big and small letter, opposites, or a picture and word cards.
23. Go Fish or Old Maid This is another pairing game where students are
looking to match two of the same cards. Use language like, “Do you have
a….?”
24. Bean Bag Toss Place cards face down on the floor. Students toss bean
bags on a card and must be able to say the word or letter to keep the card. If
she can’t say the word, it gets turned over and another student gets a try.
25. Point to it! Place 6-9 cards on the board. Using a pointer or long stick, a
student points to each card as it is said by the teacher. This same activity can
be played in pairs amongst students. This is also a great warm up to the next
game.
26. Slap Game/ Karuta Spread cards out on a table face up. The teacher or
designated student says a word and students try to be the first to grab or slap

the card. Try this game using fly swatters! To be sure there is no random
slapping of cards, make the rule that if students make a mistake, they lose a
turn.
27. Fishing! Virtually any (small) flash card can be made into a fishing game.
Fix large paperclips to the flash cards and fashion a fishing pole with a
magnet tied to the end of a piece of string. This works well in teams as the
fishing pole is traded off and students try to ‘catch’ the most cards. Once all
the cards are ‘caught,’ they must be able to say all the cards or give them up
to the teacher or the other team.
28. Hopscotch Arrange a hopscotch board on the floor. Students throw a
beanbag on a card and then must hop to the card and say the word to pick it
up.
29. Race Track Set up a large oval shaped ‘race track’ on the floor. Students
roll a dice and go round the track with their favorite object just like a regular
game board. Insert special cards for losing a turn or getting an extra turn.
30. Crash This is a favorite amongst my students and great for repetition.
Place 10-15 cards in a line on the floor. Two students start at either end of the
line of cards. On start, the students say the names of the cards as they move
toward the each other. Upon meeting, they play ‘rock, paper, scissors.’ The
winner stays in place and the loser goes back to his start position and the
game begins again. The first student to reach the other student’s start position
wins! This game will work equally well with small cards on a table where
students point to their card as they say it.
31. Tic-Tac-Toe You can create a tic-tac-toe game putting flash cards in a
3×3 square on the floor. Make two teams each with different colored bean
bags, cards or other type of marker. On ‘Start,’ students race to win the game
by getting three in a row.
32. Bingo If you have a card set with at least 25 cards, arrange the cards in a
5×5 Bingo card. As cards are pulled from a hat or basket, students place a
marker on their cards. Five in a row wins. This will work with even two
students. It’s fun on the floor with big cards or on a table with smaller cards.
33. Draw it! Divide the class into two teams. One student from team A comes
to the board, picks a word flashcard, and draws the image on the board. The
team has 30 seconds to guess the picture. If they can name it, they get a
point. At the end, the team with the most points wins.

34. May I? Have one student stand across the room while another student
holds up flash cards. Each time the student says the correct word or letter,
she gets to take one step or a hop toward the other student, but only after
asking, “May I?” When the student gets close enough to touch the other
student, the game is over. This is an excellent game for ‘this’ and ‘that’
practice.
35. Roll the Dice! Choose six picture cards you would like to introduce and
place them on the board. Give each card a number from 1-6. Divide the class
into two teams. Have one student roll a large dice. The first student to say the
name of the vocabulary card with the same number as the dice wins a point
for her team. If nobody knows the vocabulary word, introduce it and have the
students repeat it. They’ll try hard to remember so they can answer it correctly
the next time. Play until one team reaches a set number of points.
36. HangMan Spread cards with words or pictures on the floor. Play
hangman with one of the words. Be careful that all of the words have the
same number of letters! Children ask the question, “Is there a ‘b’?” or “Is there
an ‘f’?” If the image of ‘hangman’ is a bit too brutal, use simple lines to draw a
house, an animal, or other simple image.
37. Board Games If you regularly play board games in class, simply put a
stack of flash cards next to the board. Before taking a turn, the student must
choose a card and correctly say the word before taking her turn.
38. Musical Chairs Fix cards to chairs and then play musical
chairs! Children must be able to say the card or they give up their
chair! Remember, the cards don’t have to be the primary part of the game!
39. Touch! This is another basic game, but it works well. Place cards
around the room. As the teacher says the card names, students go to that
card. I use this often with color flash cards! As the kids get older, I put place
name cards like ‘post office’ and ‘supermarket’ around the room and send
students with a variety of ‘Go to the…’ commands.
40. Four Corners Place one flash card in each corner of the room. One
student is ‘it,’ closes her eyes and counts to ten as the rest of the students go
to any of the four corners. At the count of 10, the person who is it says one of
the words in the four corners. The students in that corner must sit down. Play
until there is only one student left. The last student then becomes ‘it’ and the
game begins again.

41. Blind Man Divide students into two groups and prepare two sets of the
same cards. Hand out the cards to each group, one student taking one
card. Blindfold one set of students. The non-blindfolded students stand in a
well-spaced line and begin the game by calling out the name of their card. At
first, nobody knows who has the same cards. Students can only RESPOND if
they hear the name of their card, and only by saying the name of the card in a
back and forth fashion. The winner is the first pair to touch.
42. This classic game is great for practicing grammar structures, vocabulary
or topics. Put students in pairs or small groups. Display a copy of a text or
topic you want your students to revise on the wall at one end of the classroom
or outside the classroom if you have the space. One student from the group
has to run up to the text and read and memorize a sentence and then return
to their group and tell the others what he/she read. Then the next student
goes and reads the next line. Students continue until the text is completed.
Then, groups swap their dictations and check how many errors have been
made.