Teach English in Quting Zhen - Linfen Shi

Based on my teaching experience, flashcards play a very important role in teaching vocabulary for students, especially for kids and young learners to illustrate meaning more quickly and effectively than through verbal explanation while teachers could reduce their talking time. There are unlimited interesting activities and games that teachers could create using flashcards, in here I would like to describe five interesting activities with flashcards to teach English for children. The first activity, I would like to call it: “Racing by flashcards”. This game is very active and enjoyable for the large classroom, the more students participate the better it is. It’s perfectly suitable for revise lesson so the teacher could use all flashcards shown all the vocabulary of one unit or can be three units if it is revision for the midterm or final test. The class will be divided into two teams and students will stand into two vertical rows, the first two students standing upfront will be starting firstly. You hold on hands all the flashcards and quickly show to these two students, who can give the quicker correct answer is the winner and get one point for his/her team. These two students run backward to the end of their rows and another two students start their round so then the activities will be continued until you see that all students could memorize and be revised all vocabulary. The team has more points will win the game and you can reward them by stickers or small prize and do not forget to appreciate and encourage the losing team for their effort. You also should drill the pronunciation of these words to check and correct any mistake of students. The second activity named: “Rock, paper, scissors game”. This game also is very productive and interesting for drilling the vocabulary and checking students’ pronunciation as well as it is a great way to review or repeat words that the teacher’s already been working on in a fun and fast. Before the beginning review the vocabulary words that the teacher wants to practice and put them on the board in a horizontal line. It’s best if we can put more than ten cards on the board. Divide the class into two teams with a line on each side of the horizontal line. The first student in each line will begin when the teacher says “Go”. They must walk down the line touching the flashcards and saying the vocabulary words out loud until they run into each other. When they meet they will play one round of rock, paper, scissors. The student who wins will continue down the line touching the flashcards and saying the vocabulary words aloud while the student that loses will return to the back of the line. The other students must pay attention because if the student in their line loses the next person must be ready to go down the line saying the words for the flashcards until they meet up with the winner and challenge them to a rock, paper, scissors match. A point is awarded when a student makes it down the entire line to where the opposite team is standing in line. You could use stickers or give some small prizes to reward the winning team. The third activity named: “Hide and seek”. The classroom needs to have space for students to run around and seek the flashcards. You will ask the whole class comes to stand next to the board then students must close their eyes while you come around the class and hide the flashcards under the chairs, the table, on one of student’s backpack or any suitable places that students need the effort to find these cards. Whenever this step is done, you will loudly say to students: “Open your eyes and find – CAT” for example, all students will run around the classroom to find the correct flashcard for the word “CAT” and bring back to the teacher. It’s continued another round until students have collected all hidden flashcards, each time the student has found the correct cards, you can cheer and reward he or she by a “hi-five” or a sticker. The teacher or teaching assistant should be careful with any objects in the classroom could harm to students’ safety. This activity is fun and cheerful to small kids, especially at kindergarten ages. The fourth activity named: “Memory games”. You should use 5-10 cards per time based on the ages and levels of each class and should not use too many cards due to the difficulty in memorizing these cards. All students will be assigned sitting like a circle and the teacher will be sitting in the center of the circle in term getting the whole class’s attention. Then, you will show all flashcards to review and drill pronunciation, for example, the teacher uses 5 different flashcards this time. We default the flashcard which includes a picture face and a plain face (white face) so the teacher only shows students the plain face to guess the content of the flashcards before teacher reveals the cards. After shuffling the flashcard, you put these 5 cards in a row then point to the 1st card and ask: “What is it?”. All students will shout out their answers and you will reveal the 1st card then give compliment or “hi-five” to students who gave the correct answer. Next, you point to the 2nd card and asks the same. Surely, the 2nd card will be more difficult to guess so if none of the students can give the correct answer you would reveal the 2nd card and request them to repeat the 1st and 2nd cards. You will again hide the picture faces of 1st and the 2nd card then the new round is started. Easily, students can shout out the 1st and 2nd card then they all need to guest the 3rd card. The same ways are processed for all cards. This activity is extremely enjoyable and fun for kids as well as be challenging to students’ memory. The firth activity named: “Bring balls to basket”. This game is a perfect choice for the revision lessons when students need to be revised all words of the course then be ready for the final test. Moreover, this game also encourages teamwork skill of students effectively because they must work in pairs. The school or teacher as you need to prepare a full basket of plastic balls, more than 20 balls will be better, an empty basket and of course, flashcards. The empty basket will spot in a certain place which called the destination spot and it has a quite long distance from the destination spot to the start spot that teacher wants students moving to. The teacher, the basket full of plastic balls, and the students will be standing at the Start spot. Then, all students will be lined up in two vertical lines and automatically two students in front become one pair. After that, the teacher shows the flashcard to these first 2 students and make sure that they know the word and have the correct pronunciation. You have to correct immediately any mistake of students if needed. When that reviewing step completed, the fun step will be started. These 2 students will work in pair and find the way how to hold the flashcard with 1 ball is put on it then walk to the Destination spot together. Thus, the flashcards now play the role as planks to hold the plastic balls. If the students could not hold the ball steadily on the flashcard and drop the plastic ball, they must go back to the Start point and start again, the students will complete their turn whenever they can bring the ball then throw it into the destination basket, then the next pairs will start the new turns. You should not forget to cheer up the students by “hi-five” action. It seems easy to imagine how fun and exiting of this activity could bring to the lesson. Flashcards are one of the most useful tools and can take the language off the whiteboard and bring to interesting activities and games that kids and teachers both love to play with. Whether teachers are warming up, cooling down, introducing new material, repeating vocabulary words, reviewing the language or practicing, they can be incorporated into every lesson. Teachers can use current flashcards of the schools or able to create their own flashcards. Not only 5 above activities but also more than 50 activities can be created by flashcard, absolutely there is no limit for the creativity of teachers.