Flashcard Sentences | ESL Speaking Game for Kids

This Flashcard Sentence activity is a very simple ESL Speaking Game for Kids. It’s a nice one to have in your book of tricks for those last-minute classes where you have no time to plan.

Or, bring a deck of flashcards with you to class (most ESL Textbooks for Kids have corresponding ones for each unit) and do this activity if you have a few minutes to kill at the end of a class.

It’s better than wasting your time with Hangman most certainly! So, keep on reading for all the details you need to know about these ESL flashcard games for kids.

Flashcard Sentences ESL Speaking Game for Kids

Skills: Speaking
Time: 5-10 Minutes
Level: Beginner-Intermediate Kids
Materials Required: Flashcards

This flashcard ESL speaking activity for kids is the perfect way to review whatever grammar and vocab points you’ve been studying. One thing it works particularly well with is prepositions (more ideas here: ESL Preposition Games) and conjunctions (check out: ESL Conjunction Activities).

I usually do it at the end of class in the last few minutes. Or, you could begin a class with it, reviewing material from the previous lesson. It’s a nice warm-up activity.

Procedure for this ESL Flashcard Game

Go around the room, giving each students, or team of two a chance. Here’s how it works.

Pull a flashcard from your pile and then the student has to make a sentence using the grammar point specified with that card.

For example. The flashcard you pull out has a picture of a pizza on it, and the grammar point you specified is the simple past.

The student might say, “I ate pizza last night for dinner.” Or, if you’re teaching about comparative adjectives, the student might say, “Pizza is more delicious than carrots.”

A correct sentence gets the card which means 1 point. If it’s not correct, the card goes back at the bottom of the pile. The winner is the person or the team with the most points by the time the pile is done.

This ESL speaking game is fun for about a maximum of three rounds, depending on class size so think 5-10 minutes as opposed to 15 or 20.

Teaching Tip for Large Classes and ESL Flashcards

If you have a class of say more than 10 students, you may want to consider getting multiple decks of flashcards, or just dividing the one you have into the required number. Then, put students into groups of 4-6 and they can play in smaller groups. This is ideal for increasing student talking time and making it less teacher centred.

This activity is ideal for a holiday theme as well. For more tips and tricks, check out: ESL Thanksgiving Activities.

Learn About Teaching English with Flashcards

Even more ideas for ESL interactive games and activities that use flashcards for teaching English in this short video below:

Need More Ideas for Teaching English to Kids?

Do you like this idea about using flashcards for teaching English to children? Then you’ll definitely want to check out this book on Amazon: 101 ESL Activities for Kids, Ages 6-13.

There are dozens of games and activities to keep your students entertained, having fun, and best of all: learning a lot of English!

Mix things up and don’t get stuck in a rut with your lesson planning. Your students will love it and you’ll have more fun with teaching too.

101 ESL Activities for kids is well-organized into sections: speaking, reading, listening, writing, 4-skills, warm-ups, grammar, etc. so you’ll be able to find exactly what you’re looking for quickly and easily.

The book is available on Amazon in both print and digital formats by downloading the free Kindle reading app. You can read it on any device this way, including your PC, phone or tablet.

Keep a copy on the bookshelf in your office as a handy reference tool. Or, take a copy with you on your phone or tablet for lesson planning in your favourite coffee shop.

It really is that easy!

Sounds like exactly what you need to make your classes more engaging and useful? It probably is, if you teach English to kids.

Check out the book for yourself today, but only if you want some serious ESL awesome in your life.

—>101 ESL Activities: For Kids 6-13<—

What’s your Top ESL Speaking Game for Kids?

Leave a comment below and let us know what your #1 ESL Speaking Game for Kids is. Do you do the ESL flashcard thing? Have a game you’d like to recommend for that? We’d appreciate it!

Also be sure to give this article a share on Twitter, Pinterest or Facebook. It’ll help other teachers, like yourself find this useful teaching resource.