Flashcards are a great resource to play countless fun games to get your kids engaged and learning. The best thing about them is the unlimited ways you can use them! Below is a list of our 7 flashcard activities. If you have an activity not on this list, please let us know. We’d love to hear how you use the ESGI flashcards.
HeidiSongs: Cube Game (AKA Word Bowling)
How to Play: Ask the child to read the word on the flashcard. If he gets it right, roll him a cube. If not, he does not get a cube. Each time the child gets a cube, they stack it on top of the last one. Then, each time the teacher rolls him a new cube, the teacher tries to roll it so that it will knock down the child’s tower! If it gets knocked down, then the kids just rebuild it and wait for their next turn, when this happens again. The game ends when the child runs out of flashcards, or whenever the allotted time is up. When I play this, if a child misses a word, I put that flashcard back on top of the others so that the child will get the very same card again the next time. This is important, because that we the child must try to answer the very same question again on their next turn. I tell them to look at it and try hard to remember what it was, because they will get the very same card next time! This really helps a lot to motivate the children to learn!
KFUNdamentals: Sink That Skill!
How to Play: Choose a few flashcards and have your child cut them out using fancy scissors to make it more fun and to build fine motor skills as they are usually a little trickier to use. Have them cut around the “perimeter” 1st (a great word to discuss) 3. Place 2 flashcards, back-to-back, inside a sandwich size zipper bag. 4. Remove the air from some of the bags and seal. 5. Add air, by inserting a straw and blowing air into the bag, to some of the bags and seal. 6. Now, let’s play! And use the bags without air to stick skills to the tile. And don’t forget to talk about sinking and floating to get a bit of science in too! 🙂
SIS 4 Teachers: Virtual Math Series
The Virtual Math Series is FREE and comes with all kinds of tutorial videos and FREE downloads for families with children at home and for teachers to share with their students’ families. SIS 4 Teachers Facebook Group
What’s Missing?
How to Play: Lay out flashcards on the floor, or display them on the board. After going over them, ask students to close their eyes. Remove one card. Students open their eyes and say which card is missing.
Memory
How to Play: You will need the picture flashcard and the written word card for this game. This will only work if you have worked on word recognition with your child. If you aren’t already familiar with Memory this is how it works: Lay all cards facedown on the floor. Child take turns to flip over two cards in hopes that they get a match. If not, they are flipped back down for the next person to try.
Quiet-Loud
How to Play: Hold the flashcard in front of you and squat down. Whisper the vocabulary word. Rise up slightly. Say the word quietly, Rise up more. Say the word in a regular voice. Continue on until you when you hold the card over your head and are standing straight up the students shout the word.
Fast Flash
How to Play: Having the flashcards facing down and away from you, start low and raise the flashcard above you head quickly so that the image shows but only for a second. Child tries to guess what it is they saw. You can do this in different ways to make it more exciting, such as from side to side and a simple flash turnover.
Lip Reading
How to Play: Use the flashcards so that you know which word to say and to show child if they are correct. Silently mouth the vocabulary word. Make it as exaggerated as needed.