Flash Card Games (your students will love)
Wondering how to help ESL EFL students build vocabulary? Vocabulary is the cornerstone of learning and flash cards are a great tool for them to incorporate new lexical items in a fun and significant way. They promote active recall, which helps learners remember vocabulary in the long term. Flash card games can help to spice up your lesson and motivate students to learn. With that said, here are the games I usually play with my learners using FLASH CARDS!
Pass the flash card
Students sit in a circle. Give one card to every three or four students. Play some music. As it plays, students pass the flash cards around. When you pause the music, the kids with the flash cards stand up and say what they have.
Duel
Have two students stand back to back. Give them each a different card. When you say go, they walk three steps, turn to face each other, and say what the other student has. The winner is the one who says the word first.
Circle time
Have the students sit in a circle with all the flash cards in the middle. The teacher calls out a card, and the student who touches it first is the winner!
Flyswatter Game
Stick some flash cards on the board, read the definition of a lexical item and the student who hits the correct word with their flyswatter gets a point.
Tic-Tac-Toe
For two players or two teams. Write on the board some tic-tac-toe boards. Players take turns picking a card and identifying/solving it. If they get it correct, they write an x or o. The goal is to get three in a row.
Sumo
Students are divided into two teams. Have all the students form one large circle. Two players representing each time stand facing each other in the center of the circle and pretend they are sumo wrestlers. Stick a card to the back of each player. Tell the two players to place their hands behind their backs. Then, when you say ‘go’, the two players move and try to see what flash card is on their opponent’s back. The two students are not allowed to touch each other and they must keep their hands behind their backs at all times. The first player to say what’s on their opponent’s flash card scores a point for their team.
Flashcard Swap
Arrange chairs in a circle. There must be a chair for all the students except one. Ask the students to sit on a chair and give them a flash card. The student without a chair stands in the middle of the circle. Call out two words, and the students with those cards must swap places. The student in the middle has to try to sit in one of their seats while the two students are changing places. If the student in the middle manages to sit on one of the chairs, the student left standing has to give their flashcard to the student who took their place. Then, call out two other words.
Flashcard whispers
Children stand in two lines facing the blackboard. Secretly show a flash card to the last child standing in each line. This child then whispers the name of this flash card to the next child and so on up the line. The child at the front runs to the blackboard and draws or writes the word. The team who does this first and draws/writes the correct word gets the point.
Don’t Sit on that Chair!
You can arrange the chairs in random order. Then, place a flash card on each chair with one that is the ‘correct’ one. Next, teachers can read a definition, a synonym, or an antonym. Students will have to identify the correct ESL flashcard and race to sit on a chair that DOES NOT contain the correct answer. If the loser sits on it, they must form a sentence with the word.
Do you need more games for your language lessons? Check out this blog post! Click HERE!
Alright, I hope you’ve found a bunch of ideas for how to help students incorporate new vocabulary with flash card games! If you have any other game that you play with your students, please let me know!
Ready for a freebie? Download my Weather Flash Cards HERE!
Have a great day!
