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Flash cards

Pick a pack or tick the pictures you want, add your own words and print them on A4 with cut lines. Play them on the board as a guessing game, or browse the packs. Free, with no sign-up.

20 cards, 4 A4 pages

Play these

koala

wombat

echidna

platypus

emu

kookaburra

Page 1 of 4. Free flash cards from teachbuysell.com.au

1 of 4

Want a whole set ready to go? Australian teachers sell flash card packs with games, posters and matching activities, most for under $10.

Flash cards by Aussie teachers

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Picture flash cards made in a minute

Pick a pack, or search every picture and tick the words you want, add your own, and print them four, six or nine to an A4 page. Choose from five card styles and five colours, a state school font, a dotted word to trace, and Japanese, Chinese, Italian, French, Indonesian or Spanish words. The word can sit under the picture, go on the back for double-sided cards, or be left off for naming games. Cut lines are printed on every page. Every picture is drawn in the same simple style: one thing, a thick outline and flat colour on white, so it reads from the back of the room.

How teachers and speech pathologists use flash cards

  • Naming and vocabulary: hold up a card and the class names it, then sort the cards into groups (animals that hop, things we eat).
  • Guess the picture: play a pack on the board at the start of a lesson. Shy speakers can answer together before anyone answers alone.
  • Sounds and letters: sort pictures by their first sound, match them to letters, or blend CVC words and check with the picture.
  • Speech practice: print a set of target words for home practice, or use the cards for drill games such as memory, go fish and posting cards in a box.
  • EAL/D and new arrivals: pictures with words for the classroom, the body, food and family give a shared vocabulary from the first week.

Flash card packs

Questions teachers ask

Are these flash cards free?

Yes. Print as many as you like for your class, centre or clinic. There is no sign-up and nothing to download.

How do I print double-sided flash cards?

Set Word to On the back. Every page of pictures is followed by a page of words, laid out back to front so each word lands behind its picture. Print on both sides and choose flip on the long edge, then cut along the dashed lines.

How do I save the cards as a PDF?

Press Print and choose Save as PDF (or Microsoft Print to PDF) as the printer. The PDF keeps the A4 layout and the cut lines.

Can I add my own words?

Yes. Type them into Your own words. Each one gets a card with a blank box to draw or stick a photo in, which suits class names, excursion words and topic vocabulary. Your own words are printed but never saved in the link.

Can children trace the words?

Yes. Set Tracing to Word and dotted for the word with a dotted copy under it, or Dotted only. Choose the school font your state teaches (NSW, QLD, SA, TAS or VIC) and the dots follow that font, the same letters as the handwriting worksheets.

Can I make flash cards in Japanese or another language?

Yes. Choose Japanese, Chinese, Italian, French, Indonesian or Spanish under Language. The word prints in that language with the English small underneath, which you can turn off. Chinese cards show pinyin above the characters, and Japanese cards are in hiragana or katakana.

How does Guess the picture work?

Open Guess the picture on the classroom screen and one big picture shows at a time. The class calls out what it is, then a tap, the space bar or the right arrow shows the word, and the next tap moves on. Opposites such as big and small show side by side, and the taps show the left word, then the right. Choose a pack or the cards you ticked, and shuffle them or keep them in order.

Are the pictures suitable for speech therapy?

The pictures are simple, clear and one object each, which suits naming, articulation and language work. There are packs of L sound words and CVC words, and any set of pictures can be printed or played for a session.

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