10 Simple Ways to Use Alphabet Flashcards in Your Classroom

Are you a frequent visitor of the dollar store or dollar bins at popular stores? Chances are you’ve seen a set of alphabet flashcards for a buck. You may have even picked up the pack. But have you used it?

Well, I’ve got a list of some simple activities you can do using just alphabet flashcards. Most of these are great for a short time-filler, but some could even be used as a center.

Oh, and if you don’t actually have a set of flashcards, just grab my free alphabet flashcards printable download for your students!

Alphabet Concentration

So this one is pretty straightforward. You can play this a few ways and you might need two packs of flashcards depending on what type you have.

• Letter Match – uppercase to uppercase, uppercase to lowercase, lowercase to lowercase
• Letter/Sound Match – letters to pictures with beginning sounds (you might be able to cut apart a set of flashcards to separate the pictures from the letters)

Place the cards facedown on the playing surface and have the kids flip over two cards at a time. Have the student identify what is on each card and determine if they match. If the cards match they keep them, if not they flip them back over.

 

Alphabetical Order

Give each student a letter from the set of alphabet flashcards.

For beginning learners: Call out three or four consecutive letters in random order (i.e. d, b, a, c). Have those students come to the front of the room and arrange themselves in alphabetical order.

For on-level learners: Call out a series of letters in random order (i.e. h, m, a, s). Have those students come to the front of the room and arrange themselves in alphabetical order.

For advanced learners: Have students work together to put the all alphabet flashcards in order on their own without talking.

 

Alphabet Partners

For this game, you will need a set of alphabet flashcards that has uppercase and lowercase letters on separate cards. Give each student a card. Make sure that you distribute the cards so that each student has a match. If you have 20 students in your class, select 10 letters and hand out the upper- and lower-case cards for those 10 letters.

Then have students walk around and find their partner by matching the uppercase and lowercase cards.

 

Letter Hunt

Distribute the alphabet flashcards so that each student has one card. Go for a walk around your classroom or school. Have students look for things around them that begin with that letter. If you are one-to-one with iPads, this is a great opportunity to incorporate technology too! Students can snap a picture of items they find for their letter to share with the class. You could also make an alphabet book with the photos.

 

Letter Match

This is a fun game to play as a whole class. Distribute the alphabet flashcards to your students. Write a letter on the board and have the student with the matching letter stand up and name the letter and/or say the sound of the letter. Continue this process until every student has had a chance to share their letter.

 

Letter Path

Give a small group of your students a set of flashcards. Students will work together to put the letters in the correct order and then create an alphabet path on the floor. Other students can walk to the path and say the letter names or sounds as they walk.

 

Letter Sort

Give students the set of flashcards and have them sort the letters into groups. There are a variety of options here: vowels/consonants, uppercase/lowercase, tall/short, etc.

 

Name Scramble

For this game, you can have students find the appropriate cards from the deck of flashcards or provide them with the necessary cards (you will likely need a few decks for this one). Then students can build their names. Have students unscramble their names and repeat.

You could try this as a partner game as well. Students spell their names with the cards, scramble the cards, and then swap seats with their partners. The students then try to spell their partner’s name.

This game can certainly be used to spell any word, but for your beginning learners, it might be best to start with their names.

 

Pictionary

Place the flashcards facedown in a pile. Have a student draw a card. The student will think of a word that begins with that letter and illustrate the word for their peers. The rest of the class will guess what the word and letter might be. This works best in small groups.

 

Pop Goes the Letter

Hand out a flashcard to each student (if you have extras, give some students two cards). Call out a letter name or say a letter sound. When the student hears their letter, they pop up from their seat and show their flashcard.