Do you want to make learning and review fun and engaging for your students by using flashcards? but flashcards are boring right? Wrong! Flashcards are a great tool to use in the classroom to help your ESL students stay focused and motivated. There are many creative and innovative ways to use flashcards, such as making games out of them or using technology to adapt them. According to Northwestern University, using flashcards can increase language learning by as much as 2.5 times. In this article, you’ll learn 15 fun and engaging ways to use flashcards in the classroom. From using them to play movement games and quizzing, to drilling students on vocabulary and helping improve spelling, these ideas will help your students comprehend and retain information more easily. Get ready to make flashcards part of your teaching routine!
As teachers we know that not all students learn in the same way. There are 4 main types of learning. Auditory learners learn through listening, and learn best through lessons that are spoken or include discussions. Read / Write learners learn through repeating the actions of reading information and writing it down. Activities that include drilling and lists work well with this learner. Kinesthetic learners learn through actively doing and connecting actions with information. Practical, movement and experimental activities work best for them. Visual learners learn through seeing and connecting pictures with words. The use of diagrams, photos and text in different colours are most effective for this learner.
Whether you're a school teacher in a classroom of 30 kids or a tutor with a smaller group we will always have a mix of different learners in our classrooms. So how can we cater to all of these learning styles at the same time?
Flashcards are a great way to include all of the learning styles and are interesting for children. Plus if you teach ESL like me, pictures work great when there is a language barrier.
Pros of using flashcards | Easy to set up. Print, laminate and cut once and use them forever. |
| Inexpensive (printing once) and reusable year after year, regardless of age or level.
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| You can play / do so many activities with just one set of cards meaning hours of teaching thus saving the teacher valuable time. |
| Active learning = quicker understanding and faster memorization for students. |
| Great for differentiation and ESL learners of mixed language levels. |
| Quick and easy planning for teachers.
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Cons of using flashcards | Can be boring if you only use them one way and always the same way.
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BUT you don’t have to be boring because here are 15 different engaging and fun ways to use them. So get a pen and paper to take notes now, and thank me later!
Games and Activities using Flashcards
Listen and recall - Ok so this is your standard use of flashcards, but it always needs to be done for students to identify. So you show them the picture and say the name and students recall it back to you. With my younger students I love to use different voices to make it funner! For example you could use characters, pirates, princesses, vampires, animals and monsters or emotions. It's a great way to mix it up.
Match up - Give a student a set of cards (writing or pictures) and then lay out the other set on the table / floor and they have to match them up. To make this more engaging I give all the cards to one student and they complete it as quickly as possible, then the next students tries to beat their time. They love doing this and it creates some excitement in the classroom.
Memory - Your standard memory game. Mix up the words and picture flashcards and lay them out. Students take it in turns to try and find the pairs. If they find one they keep the cards and the student with the most cards at the end wins. Simple but great for connecting images with written names.
What's missing? - Lay out flashcards on the table. You can use as many or as few as you want. Give the students as much time as you want. I usually do 5 seconds and then they close their eyes. You need to remove some of the cards. Then students open their eyes and tell you the cards that are missing. Students can do this activity with you as a group or in pairs and take it in turns being the teacher (removing cards). I actually have found most students enjoy being the teacher the most in this game.
Read it, act it - Make sure you have a good space for this one. Teacher stands at the front of the room with the writing flashcards. Hold one up for everyone to see but don’t say it. Students read it and then start doing an action connected to that order. Works well with verbs, jobs and emotions vocabulary. Great for kinesthetic learners.
See it, write it - For this one I use magnetic letters or scrabble letter tiles, but you could just do it with pen and paper - though that wouldn’t be as fun or hands on. Hold up a picture flashcard and students in teams or individually write the name using the letters / or tiles. Perfect for read / write, visual and kinesthetic learners - 3 out of 4 styles! Win!
Heads up - Students play this in pairs and each have a flashcard. They don't look at it but take it and hold it to their forehead. Then the other student can either describe the flashcard or you can play 20 yes / no questions to guess your flashcard. When finished they change the flashcard. Great for speaking and listening with ESL students and definitely works best with nouns flashcards. Animals, food, clothes, sports, etc.
Hangman - Let’s check their spelling. Give the students a picture flashcard and they set up and play hangman. They write a blank line for each letter and students guess which letters are needed if they don’t guess it by the time the hangman is drawn then they lose a life.
Describe it - A listening game that works well for concentration and auditory learners. Students take a flashcard from the pile and describe it out loud. The first student to guess keeps the cards and the student with the most cards at the end wins.
Broken telephone - (AKA Chinese whispers) Sit everyone in a circle. The first person takes a flashcard from the pile, looks and gives it to the teacher. Then they whisper the name to the next student, then that student whispers it to the next and so on. The final person has to stand up and say the word out loud and the teacher can show the flashcard. If it matches the group wins a point. As the teacher we can challenge the class to get x amount of points. To make it more difficult you can only allow it to be said once with no repeats and if the student doesn’t hear it then they have to invent. A fantastic concentration game to relax and chill students out, whilst practising vocabulary.
Pass me - An excellent listening game for young students. Lay all picture flashcards out and ask students to ‘Pass me the…… please’. Students listen and pass you the card. Great for comprehension check.
Flashcard run - I love this fast and active movement based game and it works well with all ages. Set the flashcards up at different points around the room. Then call out flashcards and students have to run to it. I like to make this game a little more interesting by adding different movements too. For example, jump to the ………. Crawl to the …….. Swim to the…… It’s frantic but funny and my ESL learners absolutely love it!
Flashcard basketball - Split students into 2 teams and stand them in lines so each team has one student at the front. Hold up a picture, first team to put the hand up, spell it out. If correct they win 2 balls to shoot into a bin or box or draw. They get a point if they get it in. The team with the most points wins. A fantastic way to practise spelling that kids love.
True or false? - Assign one side of the room as true and the other as false. Students stand in the middle. Teacher holds up a picture and says a name. If the name is correct for the picture they students move to the true side, if it’s false they move to the false side.
Flashcard dice - You can buy inflatable dice online with pockets to put flashcards in…. Or you can always make your own. Stand in a circle and each student rolls the dice into the middle and either they say the name, or the whole class says the name.
Now…. Do you want some free flashcards? Well, I’ve got you, Here you go. Download for free and don’t forget to sign up to my newsletter today to receive freebies and teaching tips straight to your inbox.
As you can see by making vocabulary and sight word learning fun with flashcard games, students and ESLs are better able to retain and recall information. Flashcards not only allow for easier learning and memorization, but also help to make studying and learning more interactive and enjoyable. With a wider understanding of the benefits of flashcard games and the knowledge of how to use them, educators are able to provide students with fun, effective, and engaging learning experiences. As Marie Curie said, “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”
Flashcard games are a great tool to help students understand, learn, and build confidence in the educational setting. It’s time to open the door to using these wonderful tools to help students be successful.
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