Flashcards are a fantastic study aid for introducing new vocabulary without needing to write on the white board. 

If your school doesn’t provide you with any flashcards, there’s no need to worry. You can easily make your own with some simple clip art, or by printing out clear templates like the ones below, and then drawing on them:  

Earlier in the course we covered a few activities which flashcards can be used with – such as drilling exercises. However, there are many other fun ways in which they can be used. If you’re looking for something to really liven your class up, you could try activities like these below:

Faster, faster! Quiz students individually or in small groups as they come through the door, just before formal class time. Go slower the first few days of a new unit, and cycle through cards lightning fast once the vocabulary is more familiar. If your cards are large enough you can slowly reveal pieces of the card and have the student blurt out the word as they recognize the image. A bit of individual attention will make your students feel confident and special, while reminding them what they know and priming them to become more familiar with what they don’t.

On the floor or On the Wall:  Tape up an assortment of vocabulary flashcards around the room, to the ground, or under desks. Then, read out some fill-in-the-blank sentences and have students quickly travel around to find the correct word and stand by it. You can add variations to this game such as having students run to pictures of words which match an object you’re describing.

Flashcards are an incredibly flexible tool that can be used at any time during the class. You could use fast flashcard games as a warm up to wake the students up or as a quick review at the end of class. Concentration or memory activities can be used bring the energy down a few notches, or games with more movement can be used to liven things up. Just make sure that, as with any activity, there’s a clear purpose to include it in your lesson plan.