5 Flashcard Games for Younger Students
I have been teaching English to young learners in China for almost a year and I tried to make my lessons with and without flashcards. And I can say for sure, that it’s really hard to teach children (3-12 years old) if you don’t have prepared flashcards for your classes, but only an interactive whiteboard and some stuff to play games.
This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kelly P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
There are some following advantages of using flashcards to teach children:
- You can get your students’ attention more easily
- You can come out with a lot of interesting games
- You can work on pronunciation more effectively (ask the students to say the word chorally and individually)
- It is easier for the students to remember the word if they play some games with it when they can touch the flashcards, rather than just watching at a board all the time and every lesson.
I’d like to reveal a paragraph about games more deeply, because games in a classroom allow you to keep your students motivated and interested in what’s going on.
Also Read: "7 Great Games for Your ESL Conversation Class"
The games I use in my classroom are as follows:
1. Flashcard raise
Show the flashcard to the students lowering it down, raising it, taking in my left hand and right as well, changing my voice tone and level at the same time. When I raise the flashcard me and the students say the word loudly, when I lower it we say it quietly, when I take it to my left hand we say the word with languid voice and, finally, when I take it to my right hand we say it with a squeaky voice. My students like this engaging game and it also helps to drill the words.
2. Basketball with flashcards
Usually, I teach the students 4 words in a lesson, so for this game, I use 4 flashcards, 4 buckets, and a ball. After completing all the introduction, presentation, and practice parts of the lesson I play this game during the production part of the lesson. I put 1 flashcard in front of each bucket and say the word, they need to find it and throw the ball into the right bucket and then pronounce the word 2 times. I play with each student 4 times as I have 4 words.
Also Read: 7 Amazing Games for Learning English with Preschoolers
3. What’s missing
It is also a game for the production part of a lesson. While the students are sitting on their chairs, I put 4 cards on the floor in front of them so every student can see them, and pronounce all the words. Then I tell them to close their eyes. Then I remove one card and hide it behind me, and tell them to open their eyes and ask “what’s missing?”. They need to say which flashcard is missing.
4. Hit the FC
I use this simple game for presentation and practice parts of my lessons. While the students sit on their chairs I go to each of them in order and ask them to hit the flashcard and repeat the word after me. It helps with building good pronunciation and drilling.
Also Read: 7 Suggestions on Increasing Students’ Confidence
5. Find flashcards
I use this game for the production part of my lessons. I ask the students to close their eyes, then turn off the light and hide the flashcards around the room, where they can find them, and turn on the light. When they find the flashcard they need to give it to me and pronounce the word.
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