20 Fun and Non-Traditional Ways to Use Flashcards

I remember when I first decided I wanted to teach my daughter to read.  I went to the dollar section at Target and found flashcards galore.   I purchased number flash cards, sight word flashcards, phonics flash cards and more.  I thought my daughter would love learning with them.  Little did I know she would have no interest in sitting down with me to learn using  flash cards in the traditional way.  Every time I pulled out the flash cards she became disengaged and when I let her have them she would either thrown them in the air or spread them all over the floor and just make a big mess playing with them.  That is when I realized I had the wrong approach for her learning style.  I had seen many videos of babies and toddlers sitting quietly with their parents as they reviewed flash cards, however I could not use the same approach for my child.  We still used flash cards, but not in the traditional way.  Below I will share some fun and non-traditional ways to use flash cards for lots of learning and fun.  These ideas can be used with purchased or homemade flash cards as well.  Enjoy.

1. Place your cards on a table or on the floor.  Call out the name of the card, (sight word, letters, shapes, or numbers) and have your child swat them with a fly swatter as they are being called out.

2.For math cards, put them on the wall, have your child stand about ten feet away from the wall.  As you call out the equation, have them run to the wall and slap the card and say the correct answer.  You can also use the fly swatter with this one as well.
3. Match alphabet cards with magnetic letters.
4.For sight words cards-have child get magnet letters to spell words
5. Sing songs while watching lyric videos.  Then hold the sight word card up when that word appears in the song.  This works great with sight word cards that have common words like "the" "there' "like" "they" and other common words.  There are lots of lyrics videos on youtube, one upbeat song is "Just Stand Up" and a slower song is "Not Even the King"  Find appropriate music your child enjoys, preview the lyrics and look for the common words that appear in the song, then sing, dance and learn.
6. Scavenger Hunt-Hide the cards in secret locations and have your child find and collect them.  After the collect them read and identify what's on the card together.
7. Spread the cards all over the floor.  Call out a letter and have your child jump or stomp on that letter.  This is great for kinesthetic learners.
8. Slap Jack-For sight words, choose words that begin with the letter A, to be the “jack”.  In this video we choose two digit numbers to be the "jack."



9. For alphabet cards, pick one card a day and try to find as many objects that begin with that letter in your home
10. For sight words cards, pick a card and come up with words that rhyme with that word, or ways to use the word in a silly sentence
11. Charades-use the cards as a starter for a charades game
12. Throw them in the air and have your child catch one-then read/identify the one they catch the cards.
13. Spread them all out on the floor, then set a 30 second timer and see how many they pick up in that time.  Read all those cards, put them back and race again.
14. Trace - Place tracing or tissue paper over the cards and have your child trace the letters, numbers or shapes.

15. Work together to arrange the cards in alphabetical or numerical order.
16. Match alphabet cards with sight word cards.
17. Make a painting out of each card and frame it.
18. Create a pretend mailbox from an old box.  And pretend each flash card is a letter that needs to be mailed.  You can put the cards in envelopes, and seal them as well.  After your child puts all the envelopes and letters into the mailbox, take them out, open the envelopes and read the letters.  You can take this activity even further by making up stories about who the letters came from.
19. Hide one flashcard at a time and play 21 questions with the cards.  All questions must be able to be answered with a yes or no.  The person holding the card answers up 21 question about the card before the other person (s) tries to guess what is on the card.  Model the game first by having your child hold the card and ask question like: Are you a five letter word? Do you rhyme with milk? Do you begin with a vowel? The switch roles.
20. Play a memory/concentration game with the cards.  If the cards you purchased didn't come with a match, purchase another set so you will have matching pairs.

  

Do you use flash cards with your children?  What age do you feel is appropriate for flash card learning ?  What has been your experience with flash cards?  Please share. : )