Following on from 7 Guidelines for Using Flashcards with Beginning Readers, here are some ways to use flashcards with your 4 to 6 year old. This is just a start – you and your child may figure out other inventive ways to play with flashcards! If you do, please share them with me in the comment section below!
Flash Them
Quickly go through each card, sorting them into piles as you go: quickly recalled, slowly recalled, unknown
List Them
Place the flashcards in a vertical list and have your child read down the list.
Point To
Place the flashcards in a list or a grid. Ask your child to point to specific words as you say them.
Order Them
Have your child order the cards from shortest words to longest words, then read them.
Turn Over
Start with the word cards face down. Turn them over one at a time. The ones your child reads correctly, he keeps. The ones he gets wrong, you keep. The person with the most cards at the end wins!
Physical Response
Ask your child to find a word and put it somewhere in the room. E.g. “Put ARE on the table. Put MY under the chair.”
Jump To It
Place the flashcards around the floor and have your child jump to/on each word as you say it, or the child can say a word then jump to it.
Tracing
Have your child trace the words with her finger.
Magnetic Letters
Give your child the required letters and have her sequence them correctly to make each word.
Matching Pairs
Create a duplicate set of flashcards, lay them all face down and play ‘concentration’/’matching pairs’.