Flashcards are effective and easy to use, making them an ideal resource in the primary classroom.
Here are ten simple ideas for using flashcards to present or revise vocabulary. If you have confident children in the class, get them to take over your role as teacher.
1- Point
Put six flashcards in different places around the room. Say a word, and children point to the relevant card.
2-Clap hands
Hold up a flashcard and say a word. If the word is the same as the item on the card, the children clap their hands once. If the word and the flashcard item are different, they must keep silent.
3- Odd one out
Take a lexical set of flashcards, e.g. animals or food. Include one card that is not in the same lexical set as the others. Hold up each card in turn and children say the name of the item. When you show the card that is not in the same lexical set, children call out 'Odd one out!'
4- lip reading
Put six flashcards on the board. Choose one and mouth the word without making any sound. Children look at your lips as you mouth the word and say what it is.
5- What's missing?
Put ten flashcards on the board. Ask children to close their eyes. Remove a card from the board. Tell children to open their eyes and ask 'What's missing?' Children say the missing card. You can make the game more difficult by removing two or more cards each time.
6-Copy me!
Hold up a flashcard and say the word. Ask children to copy you. Say the word again, this time very softly. Children repeat the word softly. You can say the word in lots of different ways, e.g. loudly, slowly, quickly, sadly, angrily. Each time children must copy the way you say it.
7- Guess the card
Choose a flashcard without letting children see it. Children ask questions to guess the word e.g. 'Is it a (dress)?' Answer 'Yes, it is/ No, it isn't' as appropriate until children guess the word.
8- What's your card?
Take five or six lexical sets of flashcards, e.g. food, clothes, animals. Give each child in the class one card and explain that they must find children with cards in the same lexical set as their own. Children walk around the class asking each other 'What's your card?' When they have found all the members of their set they sit down. You can make it more fun by setting a
9- time limit.
Kim's game
Put ten flashcards on the board. Children look at the cards for two minutes. Remove them and ask children to write down as many words as they can remember.
10- Commands
Take six flashcards. Hold them up one at a time and write the word on the board. Beside each word write a command e.g. 'Jump!' or 'Touch your nose!' Hold up each flashcard in turn. Children look at the card, choose the correct command from the list on the board, and carry out the command.
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