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20 flashcard games: one card set, a month of activities

A set of flashcards is the Swiss Army knife of kids' teaching: the cards don't make the game, the rules do. Print one topic — and here are twenty rule-sets, from calm to chaotic, most of them working online too if the cards are on the child's side of the camera.

Table games (calm)

  • Classic pairs/memory — face down, find the matches, say each card you flip.
  • What's missing? — lay out six, they close eyes, remove one: 'The duck is missing!'
  • Sort it — animals vs food, big vs small, 'I like / I don't like' piles.
  • Fortune teller — child picks three cards face down, you 'read' a silly future from them.
  • Snap — two mixed sets; when two identical cards land, first to shout the WORD (not 'snap') takes the pile.

Movement games (loud)

  • Card race — cards across the room; call a word, kids run and grab.
  • Slap the card — cards on the wall, two fly swatters, first slap wins (a legend for a reason).
  • Hopscotch words — cards on the floor in a path; say each one you jump on.
  • Hide and seek — hide five cards around the room; found = named.
  • Online version of all four: the CHILD's printed cards on the CHILD's floor — you command from the screen.

Guessing & speaking games

  • Slow reveal — cover the card with paper, slide it down millimetre by millimetre.
  • Behind my back — child holds a card behind your head; you ask yes/no questions, class answers.
  • Card gossip — each child secretly gets a card and must 'sell' it: 'Buy my elephant! It is big and kind!'
  • Two-card stories — draw two random cards, make one sentence with both. 'The frog eats pizza.' Perfection.
Print flashcards (40 topics)

Put it into play

Everything here pairs with our free classroom games — no prep, no accounts.

Open the games

About the author

Kids' teacher · founder of AylaraTalks

Aylara is a kids' teacher who spent years hand-making every classroom game — cutting cards and drawing boards on paper sheets. She created AylaraTalks so no teacher has to start from a blank page again.

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