BOOM cards are a popular addition to classrooms for teachers of all age groups and subjects.
What are BOOM cards?
Boom cards™ are a type of interactive lesson created by teachers worldwide and within every discipline. A set of boom cards, like the ones I’m going to be detailing below, is called a boom deck. Boom cards are entirely digital, so they require hardly any prep (if you’re using mine, of course). Children rave about this type of activity, so you know that your lessons will be super popular with both you and the kids – I’m sure they’ll be begging for more after trying them.
1. What's Hiding? Summer
These summer-themed Boom cards are perfect for practising and consolidating vocabulary linked to this season. Based on the beach, children need to search for words hidden in the sand, such as sandcastle and sunscreen. Once the items have been discovered, you could ask students to write them down or use them in a sentence with a partner, I have found a bottle of sunscreen, for example.
Critical thinking is something that all children should be encouraged to do, whatever their age and in whichever language they are learning. These Boom cards expect children to consider which of two options they would rather, such as a pet they would prefer to have over the other option. Once all students have considered their answers, you can use the data to create a graph showing the children’s choices and the most popular options. Furthermore, to challenge more able pupils, you could expect that they explain why they would have one option than the other. You could also ask children to come up with their own ‘Would you rather...?’ cards, going around the school, asking other members of staff and students for their thoughts on the matter.
This Reveal the Pictures – Action Verbs set of Boom cards is fantastic for practising verbs as well as guessing what a picture might be before it has been entirely revealed. Characters appear on the right-hand side of the screen, with children having to say what the character is able to do based on the picture. For example, she can sing and he can run. While there is no need to write with these Boom card activities, creating a bank of verbs and writing some sentences about class members could be a good follow-up activity. Why not give your students access to a camera and get them to take photos of their classmates doing some of the verbs from the word bank? Next, print them off and type a sentence to match each, such as Isabel can dance. It would make a fantastic display. For your more able learners, why not expect them to add an adverb to their sentences, e.g., Isabel can dance gracefully.
These What doesn’t belong? Boom cards are an enjoyable way of practising key vocabulary in English. Students are presented with a screen full of a certain category, such as pets or vegetables. They must look at the screen and find the odd one out, the item that does not belong. It would be useful to have your children working in pairs for this task, naming items to their friend as they work through the screen. As a fun independent follow-up activity, try getting the kids to make their own versions using words instead of pictures, perhaps.
These pet-themed Boom cards are a lot of fun for younger children. Using the binoculars on the screen, the aim is to find one of the pets. It is a fantastic way to practise the names of animals in English and can be used brilliantly for individual or paired work. To push the children to use more English vocabulary, you could expect them to respond verbally with I have found a dog. For more able, they could describe the appearance of the pet, such as I have found a black and white cat.
Boom cards are an excellent way to engage your students in the ESL classroom. They are interactive, fun, and easy to use. With a little bit of creativity, you can use them to teach any grammar point or vocabulary word. If you are looking for a new way to engage your students, give boom cards a try!
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