Other Flashcard Games

 Other Flashcard Games

Here are some more flashcard games, this time explained in less detail. These are a bit hit and miss, some work better than others.

Winner Stays On

A set of flashcards are put in a line along the floor. One student from each team stands either side of the first FC of the line. Then, saying each flashcard in turn, they progress to the end of the line. Once there, they do a “paper, scissors, stone”. The losing student returns to their seat. The winning student can play again against a different student from the opposing team.

Loser Stays On

By reversing the above game you have an excellent activity that involves all the students and can be played for points.

For this version the game must begin with the two #1 students. They slowly say the FCs together as they progress to the end of the line of FCs. When they reach the end and do a “paper, scissors, stone”, the winning student can sit down while the losing #1s must go back and play again against the other team’s #2s. Again they play a “paper, scissors, stone” once they reach the end and the winner sits down while the loser has to go back and do it again, competing against the next student from the opposing team. The first team to have all its students play and win is the winner. The game can then be played again with the #6 students playing first.

Last Man Standing

The teacher blindly hands out one FC to each student. The teacher knows what these FCs are but does not know which student has what FC. The students now all stand up in front of their chairs. The teacher calls out the FCs one by one. When an FC is called out, the student holding that FC must sit down. The last student standing is the winner and receives points for their team.

Hot Seat

A student is chosen to come and sit in a chair with their back to the whiteboard. A random FC (but one they have already learnt) is selected and attached to the whiteboard behind them. The student asks questions to the class to help them guess what the FC is. They can ask any question other than, “What is the FC?” The ‘hot seat’ student is also allowed to ask for hints (thinking of questions to ask the class is sometimes difficult so if this is not really working, you can just get the hot seat student to say, “Hint,” and point to students in the class to help them – most students will be raising their hands, keen to give the hot seat student a hint). When the hot seat student finally guesses what the FC is, another student takes a turn in the hot seat.

(In fact, when using ‘hints’, this game becomes more than a little similar to Taboo Games Version 3.)

Chain Drill

Similar to Pass the FCs but not played for points. The students sit in a circle on the floor. One student is given an FC to pass to the student on their [left] who in turn passes it on. Just like with Pass the FCs, as the FC is passed on, the student asks the desired target language question (e.g., if the FC is of a cat, the student may say, “Do you like cats?” or “What is it?”). As the FC is received, the student receiving the FC must answer appropriately (e.g., “Yes, I do/No, I don’t” or “It is a cat”). Once you have one FC going round the circle you can feed in more FCs. You can even have FCs going round in different directions to add to the fun.

If you would like to play for points, one idea is to have two FCs going round, when the teacher says, “Stop!” the two students holding an FC must race to the whiteboard to write down a sentence using the FC that they have. (The teacher cleverly says, “Stop!” at a time when one student from each team is holding an FC.)

Rotating Students

The flashcards are put in a line along the centre of the classroom. There should be one FC for each pair of students. The team A students stand on one side of the FCs (let us say on the left side of the line) while the team B students stand the other side (the right side). The students face each other.

The teacher selects the left side to be the ‘question side’ while the right is the ‘answer side’. All the team A students now ask an appropriate question of the team B students facing them. For example, if the FCs are for colours, the team A student standing by the red FC would ask, “Is it red?” with the team B student responding with, “Yes, it is.” The team A student standing by the green FC would ask, “Is it green?” with the team B student responding with, “Yes, it is.” The teacher then shouts out a command such as, “Move along!” and all the students move to the FC on their left. Thus, the students as a whole will be rotating around the FCs. They will have a new partner to ask or answer to and a different FC. Gradually, as the rotating continues, all the team A students will finish up on the ‘answer side’ with all the team B students facing them on the ‘question side’.

For this game you can use FCs of the same topic with the same Q&A or, for higher levels, you can mix the FC topic and Q&A.

Racetrack

A long line of FCs are put along the centre of the classroom floor. Two students are selected to play, for example the two #5 students. “Paper, scissors, stone” to see who can go first. The #5s from [team A] wins. They throw a dice. It lands on a six. They move along six FCs, saying each FC as they step on (or by) it. Now it is the turn of the #5s from [team B]. They throw a four. They move along four FCs, saying each FC as they go. The first student to reach the end of the ‘racetrack’ is the winner and receives points for their team. A different pair of students is selected to play and the fun begins again. If a student does not pronounce an FC well enough, you can try making them go back one space. You can also make extra FCs just for this game such as go back one space, go forward two spaces, do ten star jumps, advance to the finish line, etc.

Mingling FCs

Let us say that the question being taught in class is: “What did you do yesterday?” and the FCs are for various past activities. For this game you need an FC for every student – if two students have the same FC then this is ok. In this game the students mingle around the classroom holding their FCs, asking other students, “What did you do yesterday?” and giving the response prompted by the FC they are holding.

This ‘mingling’ style game can be used for pretty much all FCs that have a Q&A connected to them. Even for something simple like ‘colours’ the students could be mingling around asking each other, “What colour do you have? “I have ...”

FC Shootout

Two students come to the front. They stand back to back. The teacher hands them each an FC to hold visibly in front of them. Each student does not know what the other student has. When the teacher shouts, “Go!” the two students spin around to face each other. The first student to name the other student’s FC is the winner. If they both shout out correctly at the same time then you can call it even, get them to do a “paper, scissors, stone” or give them another go. The game is then repeated with a different pair of students, and so on until everyone has had a go.

Bobbing Students

You need to make two copies of the FCs. Hand out one set to the students (one FC per student). The other set is for the teacher to show and call out (the teacher could alternatively just write the FC vocabulary items on the whiteboard).

This game is a ‘fun drill’. The teacher points to an FC (or written vocabulary item) on the whiteboard and the class say it together. Next the student who is holding that FC must stand up and say it again. They then sit down and the teacher calls out another FC which the whole class repeat. The student holding that FC stands up and repeats that FC again. And so on.… Once you have got into a rhythm, you will accomplish a fun drill with individual students bobbing up and down, repeating the FC vocabulary that is being drilled.

Take a Guess

This is a version of Hunt the Flashcard in which the dynamic is much more focussed on the two teams (rather than two students representing their teams) being pitted against each other.

The FCs are handed out to each student, just like in Hunt the Flashcard. In this version the students are not allowed to look at which FCs the members of the opposing team are holding (being allowed to look at the FCs your own team are holding is optional). All the students remain in their seats. One at a time they take a guess as to which FC an opposing team member is holding. A student from team [A] goes first; then a student from team [B]; then a student from team A again. When a correct guess is made, that student is awarded points. Total scores are tallied up at the end and the winning team receives an award.

As with Hunt the Flashcard, this game works well for Q&A practice. For example, if the FCs are for food, a student from one team may point to a student from the other team and ask, “Do you have lasagne? / Are you eating lasagne? / Would you like some lasagne? / Were you eating lasagne at two o’clock yesterday afternoon?” etc., it all depends on which Q&A that you would like them to be practising.

Spin the Bottle

The students sit in a circle on the floor. They each have an FC. Only their own FC is known to them – i.e., they do not know what FCs the other students have. A bottle (or marker pen) is spun in the middle of the circle. It points to a student, and this student must now point to another student and make a guess as to which FC they are holding. They can use the target language Q&A to make this guess. If they guess correctly, they receive the FC from that student. Following this they can have another turn at pointing and guessing what another student has. If they guess wrong, the bottle/pen is spun again and another student takes a turn.

For this game you will need to write down all the FCs (or stick an extra set of copies of the FCs) on the whiteboard. That is, the students need to know what FCs they have to choose from, otherwise guessing will be near to impossible.

Once all the FCs have been won by other students, the student (or team) with the most FCs is the winner. Note that if the game is taking too long, you can stop at any time and declare the student/team who has won the most FCs to be the winner.

Hot and Cold

In the children’s game, ‘Hot and Cold’ an item is hidden – for example an Easter Egg – and the child must then try to find it, receiving hints from the person who hid it as to whether they are close or far away from the item. If they are far away, looking in the wrong place, they receive the hint of, “Cold!” When they get closer, they receive the hint of, “Warmer!” and when they are really close to the item, they receive the hint of, “Hot!” Possibly a mother has hidden an Easter egg under the kitchen sink. The child goes to the kitchen and looks around, tries the fridge but the mother says, “Cold.” The child walks around the kitchen looking in various places, when they are near the sink the mother says, “Warmer.” The child knows that the egg is somewhere in this area. They walk to the sink and the mother says, “Hot.” They look in the sink but it’s not there. However, they know that the egg is close by because the mother is still saying, “Hot.” The child decides to try the cupboard under the sink and there is the egg.

So the above game can be used in the classroom too. One student goes out of the room. The teacher hides a flashcard somewhere in the classroom. The student is called back in to search for the FC. Rather than saying, “Cold, warmer, hot,” the whole class say the vocabulary item on the FC at varying degrees of volume. If the student is far away, the class say the FC vocabulary item quietly. When the student gets nearer, the class say the FC vocabulary item louder. When the student is really close, the class are shouting out the FC vocabulary item at the top of their voices. Once the student has found the FC, another student can take a turn to go outside while a different FC is hidden.

In this game you are not limited to having the students say the vocabulary item alone. They can all be saying a sentence that includes the vocabulary item, saying this sentence over and over again at varying degrees of loudness. If the search is going on for a long time, the teacher can allow the search to continue but get the class to change the sentence slightly, making use of the time to put the sentence in the past, change it to the third person, etc.

Slap

This works better with small classes. All the FCs are put on the floor face up. The students sit around these FCs. Each student should be able to reach any of the FCs. The teacher describes one of the FCs to the students (they describe it using hints, they do not name it). The first student to slap their hand on the correct FC can collect it. The team who have collected the most FCs at the end are the winners. (If a student decides to slap all the FCs in the hope of getting lucky, you can simply tell them not to be silly and they will understand.)

Quick-fire Review

The teacher stands at the front holding a bunch of flashcards. They quickly reveal the top FC. The first student to say what it is wins their team a point (or a progression along the scoring system). The teacher quickly flips over the next FC. The first student to say what it is can once again receive a point for their team. The teacher flips over the next card. …

Scramble

This game is similar to Fruit Salad. One student comes to the centre of the classroom and the teacher takes away their chair (or turns it around to face the wall). The teacher holds up an FC for the student to say. The student says this FC, and once they have done so, the whole class get up out of their seats and run to find a different chair to sit on. After this ‘mad scramble’ to find a new seat, one student will again be left standing. It is now this student’s turn to say the FC that the teacher is holding up. The student says this FC and the scramble begins again.

To give an example of how this game can work well with saying the FC vocabulary in a sentence, let us say that the FCs are for school subjects. The teacher holds up an FC for [Maths]. The student in the centre of the classroom (without a chair) says, “I like maths.” The other students then point to the student and say, “He/she likes maths.” Then they all change their chairs until again a student is left standing in the middle. The teacher holds up an FC for [Music]. This student says, “I don’t like music,” and then the other students point to him/her and say, “He/she doesn’t like music,” before the whole ‘scramble’ to find a new seat begins.

The kinds of sentences that the students make can optionally come from the teacher’s instructions. For example, the teacher says to the student in the middle, “Give me a past sentence,” while holding up an FC for them to make a past sentence with.

Shoot ’em Up

Stick the FCs on the walls around the classroom, just like with the This, That game. The students gather in the centre of the room. The teacher calls out one of the FCs. The first student to point to that FC wins a point for their team.

You’ll need a quick scoring system for this game in order to keep the pace going. See Association Drill and Hit for examples.

As you’re playing, you can optionally encourage the students to make gun shapes with their thumb and fingers so that rather than just pointing to the FCs, they are shooting them. It is also fun to name the student who was first to shoot the FC each time, thus offering encouragement, etc.

As a follow up to Shoot ’em Up, I often get the students to go round in pairs, pointing to each FC on the wall, asking and answering target language questions. For example if the FCs are for colours, the students could be going round in pairs saying, “What colour is it? “It’s [blue].” If the FCs are for food, they could be asking, “Do you like [Lasagne]?” “Yes, I do.” Or if the FCs are for animals (plurals), they could be asking each other, “What are they?” “They are [giraffes].”

Memorising Orders

A simple concept really. Let's image you're practising months. Standing at the whiteboard, you say January, then point to the student on your right and encourage them to say February. Then to the next student who says March, etc. You go round the class with each student saying a month until one pauses for too long, mispronounces or says the wrong month. When this happens you run back to the whiteboard and award a point (or a progression along the scoring system) to the opposing team.

You begin again, this time you may choose to start with a different student, you go through the months with each student saying the next month until someone makes a mistake.

So this is the game. And now you've played it you might want to try it with different vocabulary. For one of your lower level classes you could try it with days of the week for example. Or for morning, afternoon, evening, night.

How do you use this game with flashcards? Easy. Simply stick a set of flashcards on the board, drill them a couple of times, then play the game going round the class with each student saying the next flashcard in the order you've given them.

Finally remove the flashcards from the whiteboard and carry on playing the game. Students are remembering the FC vocabulary and challenging themselves to remember the order.

Red, Green, Yellow, Blue, White, Purple, Black. (close your eyes, can you remember the order?)

Mountain, Mount Everest, Mount Fuji, River, The Yellow River, The Mekong River, The Jin Mao Tower, Taipei 101 (recently I played the game with these FCs, going round the class with each student having to remember and say the next FC in the order).