5 Ways to improve your flashcard games "game"

I’m going to show you innovative ways to teach with flashcards and to improve your flashcard games game! Get, get it?

This is something I learnt recently and I'm going to share it with you. The truth about flashcard games is that they are fun and we all love them. I will share with you just 5 amazing things that will help you reinvent your Flashcard games, increase the performance of your students and make your class more fun. I want you to have a new perspective about flashcard games

FLASHCARDS, Why? What is a flashcard you ask?

So a flashcard is basically something you make to teach kids a particular word or sentence. Flashcards usually have either a picture, a word or a combination of both. It is usually printed on a hard card or in some cases on a normal plain sheet and laminated for longevity. The aim of teaching with flashcards is for the child to see what is on there, to visualize it and also to learn how to say the word or a corresponding sentence. Other reasons would be that it is easy to play games with flashcards and the kids love it. Sounds pretty simple right?

Well yes and no. Yes because, you’re looking right at it, how difficult could it be? And no because looking at something for the first time and saying it doesn’t necessarily make you remember it. You thought it was going to be that easy huh.

So, we play Flashcard games because they are fun and are also ways to practice words and sentences. However without the right understanding the kids can have fun and learn nothing.

1. Understanding Habits

The first tip is understanding habits and using it to your advantage

Overall, the essence of this is to create an imprint on the kids mind which creates an instant expectation the moment you want to start a flashcard game. Remember, kids don’t come to school and learn with the mindset that this is important and it’s going to change their life. Passively, they are thinking what’s in it for me. And that is just human nature.

A habit is a cue that your brain is familiar with and hence takes little to no time to execute.

This is certainly not an Oxford dictionary definition but you essentially get the idea. One way that the mind learns new habits or new things is through rewards and punishment. And this is what we want to apply to our flashcard games. Most people play Flashcard games and it just involves some kind of interaction with the card and that’s it. But what we want to do is define the reward or the punishment (usually a fun punishment) when you’re giving the rules for playing the Flashcard game. For example, we’ll make a list of all the positive rewards our kids love. Such as toys, sweets, running, shouting, high fives, spinning around, etc. and we’ll use that to define the rewards section of the game

Also make a list of positive or fun punishment. It’s fun punishment because we’re going to take the same things they love and make it stressful to get. For example, run to that wall 3 times, jump up 5 times, do push-ups, etc.

So whenever you play a Flashcard game, let the kids know what they are getting out of it and they will readily participate. You can do either a reward per game. Or you can do a punishment per game or both reward and punishment per game. You can also show the kids a gift for the best kid at the beginning of the lesson, and remind them during the game and this will give them an energy boost. This even makes class control much easier. Do this enough and kids will always be looking forward to flashcard games.

2. Exaggerations

Kids are the kings and queens of exaggerations. There is no doubt that they love exaggerations. Kids cry to exaggerate. Kids shout to exaggerate. Kids jump and fall down intentionally as an exaggeration. Kids basically have more fun when things are exaggerated. What you want to do is exaggerate the essential parts of the flashcard game. So it’s not fun when we just let the child tap the card. Rather let the child miss 3 times and you'll find that other kids begin to root for this one kid to score. Let the child hop to tap the card. Let the child tap the card with one eye closed. You can say it loud and say it quietly. You can jump and say the word. During a flashcard game where one kid throws a ball into a basket, have another child stand in from of the basket with a foamy stick and try to deflect the ball. There's really many ways you can exaggerate games for kids to enjoy it even more. Just look out for the key moments and add an extra layer of reaction. Do be shy to act a fool in front of the kids.

3. Who is the moderator of the game?

Let the kids moderate the game. This works like magic. After the first kid gets a go at letting other kids jump and head the card while he or she is holding it, every other child will want to be the one holding it too. This is a very simple and easy trick you can use to take your flashcard games "game" to another level. I've watched many flashcard games of other people and I've never seen anyone doing this. But this is amazing and it gets kids excited all the time.

4. Competition

Kids are very competitive and usually seeking to impress the teacher and gain a favor in some way. Use multiple sets of flashcards to play games and leverage on the competitive nature of kids. Even if they are not looking to be ahead of other kids, they are looking to show the teacher that they are first or the best.

5. Make it a group event

This is different from letting kids compete against each other. The group event is not limited to a set of kids. In the group event, all the kids play the game at once. For example place flashcards in certain parts of the room. Let all the kids do an action in direction of the particular flashcard you mention. For example, let’s all hop to the watermelon. Or swim to the fish makes it more fun for all the kids because they get to show off to each other while they do the fun activity together.

Lilybug TIPS

Finally, these are 5 tips I got for you from lilybuglearning.com about teaching kids with flashcards. You can read it here.

1. Use simple words at first when you’re teaching kids with flashcards. Because that’s a really important and self explanatory point
2. Create a routine for teaching with flashcards and get the kids to be used to the routine. So basically you could  This one is particular interesting because I didn’t use to do this before and I think it’s a good idea so I’m going to try it.
3. Timing. Make sure to use flashcards when kids are at their highest concentration. It’s difficult to play games without attention
4. Repeat, don’t just say it once. Let the kids repeat the words multiple times so that they have a higher chance of it sticking
5. Lastly, keep it Interactive and positive

These are the points I have for you for today. Let me know what you think about flashcards and flashcard games. Do you think they work all the time?