Read on for ideas on how to get the best out of your flashcards in class, these activities and games are for ESL learners aged 3 – 5 years (and older if you adapt them a little).

Making your ESL or EFL classes fun will make them memorable – activate your students’ limbic systems by zooming in on emotions such as fun and laughter, and this will leave a long lasting impression. Flashcards are a great way to help visual learners absorb vocabulary, so the combination of flashcards and fun – can’t be at all bad!
Most of these esl games and activities I have picked up along the way through my TEFL journey in Spain, I got many ideas from Shelley Vernon’s website, and I’m a big fan of using Kagan structures in the classroom – to make sure every student has equal opportunity to flourish and Montessori education strategies are something I aspire to include in the ESL world wherever possible.
So here is a lovely list of activities you can use with flashcards to teach vocabulary to your ESL students, conveniently organised into the following sections:
- Presenting vocabulary – listening activities.
- Consolidating vocabulary – listening/repeating activities
- Using the vocabulary – Speaking
Some activities are good for big groups, some better in smaller classes – if you are an auxiliary and you can take a few kids off to play with you – that’s great. Please feel free to leave comments if you have any more ideas, or I’d love to hear from you with feedback after you’ve tried some of these games out 🙂
Presenting vocabulary – listening activities for english language learners.
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Illustration or colour dictation
- Let children make their own set of flashcards by either
Homemade bingo card or flash-cards colouring an illustration that you give them, or copying something you draw on the board whilst presenting the vocabulary aurally.
- You can make small flashcards by folding a piece of paper in half 4 times – older students can do this themselves.
- In the case of a colour dictation give the children the same picture and tell them what colour to use for the different objects. “colour the sun yellow, colour the clouds grey”, etc
- Let children make their own set of flashcards by either
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Board relay race – fly swatting (individuals working in teams)
- Present the flashcards and stick them on the board (you could also draw pics if you don’t have flashcards)
- You will need two fly swatters/rolled up pieces of paper (or tell them to use their hand)
Fly swat ESL game for vocabulary - Have the children form two lines – they must be quiet and attentive, or they cannot play and have to sit out the game- give the first person of each team the fly swat.
- Depending on the level of the group, you can either call out the single words or make up a story, each line/phrase containing one of the words on the flashcards.
- The children, when they hear the word have to race to slap the image with the flyswatter/rolled up paper/open hand
- They then move to the back of the line or sit down in their place, having passed the swatter to the next in line.
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Flashcard search ( group activity)
- Present flashcards and either place them about the room with the aid of bluetack or on a table (more relaxed version, good for smaller groups).
- Depending on the level of the group, you can either call out the single words or make up a story, each line/phrase containing one of the words on the flashcards.
- If you have a huge class, it would help to have more than one set of flashcards or split them into teams – “Team A – find the taxi, Team B – find the train” etc.
- The children rush to find the corresponding flashcards either by running around the room or pointing with their finger to flashcards on the table.
- When everyone has identified the flashcard you say “Great! This is a skirt!” so reinforce the vocab.
Consolidating – listening/repeating activities for English language learners
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Circle time
- All the children sit in a circle, you present the flashcards individually and give one to each child, or pair of children, making sure they know what their flashcard represents.
- You chant the vocabulary and the children repeat after you like an echo.
Sunny – Sunny, Sunny – Sunny, Today is Sunny – Today is sunny!
- The child (or pair) with the corresponding flashcard enters the middle of the circle and proudly shows it to all their friends as everybody chants.
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Animal Noises
- If you have time, make headbands and stick the animal flashcards on the band, or just tape the paper animal flashcards to the children’s foreheads ( I would say superglue- but I hear this may have its drawbacks)
- Children sit in a row or circle, you call out the first animal, all pupils with that animal on their forehead stand up and make the sound, then sit down.
- Call the second animal, children with that animal taped to their head stand, make the sound and sit down.
- Get faster and faster
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Bingo
- You need to prepare bingo cards with smaller versions of your flashcard words.
- you can use the illustration/colour dictation above to guide students on how to make them themselves
- fold a piece of paper in half and divide this into 6 sections fo
r 6 images (more for older children).
- hand draw or you could use a computer to copy images from google
- for children who can read – if you are teaching them to read, you can write the words!
- Choose a flashcard, call out the word, give them a chance to think about it, show them the flashcard and repeat the word.
- Remember you need to make the cards different so that you have a winner, but for younger kids especially, call out words until all children have filled up their card.
- You need to prepare bingo cards with smaller versions of your flashcard words.
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Memory game
- Put 5 or 6 flashcards on the board in a row
- chant through them in order a couple of times, pointing at each card as you say the word
- take one away (in any order)
- chant through again, pointing at the space where the missing flashcards is
- repeat, taking down one card at a time until you have no cards left and you are just pointing at blank spaces on the board
- hopefully this helps kids memorise the vocab and builds muscle memory as they repeat the chant!
Using the vocabulary – Speaking activities for English language learners
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Guess the flashcard
- You can play this several ways
- literally flash the card – show it to the children for one second
- keep the flashcard covered, and reveal a small corner of the image, show a little bit at a time
- you can describe the flashcard: ‘I’m looking at a flashcard that has a room with a window, a stove, a fridge‘
- Go through a class register/list of names choosing children to say what they think it is.
- As an extension you can ask them to form sentences using the word ‘I can see a window in the kitchen’ or ‘I can cook a pizza in the kitchen’
- You can play this several ways
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Which one is missing?
- Stick up 6 flashcards on the board (presenting new ones as you play activity 1 guess the flashcard)
- Ask the children to close their eyes and cover their faces
- Tell them to open their eyes – and pretend to be shocked that one is missing – ask them ‘Which flashcard is missing?’
- rinse and repeat
- As an extension you can ask them to form sentences using the word.
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Round/Rally robin (kagan structure)
- Have the children work in small groups (round robin) or pairs (rally robin)
- Students take turns to recall one of the new vocabulary items you have introduced
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fan-N-pick (kagan structure)
- fan out the flashcards face-down
- students take turns to choose one
- they have to name it and/or make a sentence containing it.
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Mix -N- Match (kagan structure)
- Students circulate in the room with cards, quizzing each other and then finding their match.
- They cannot show their card to their classmates.
- Examples:
- the person who has the picture of a shoe searches for the one who has the word “shoe.”
- all the children have to group together according to their flashcards – so members of the family together, weather conditions together, fruit, vegetables, numbers, colours etc.
- they can either ask ful questions such as “Have you got a fruit?” or just say their word to their friends “banana”
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