My New Favorite Way to Use Learning Cards

{This post was initially shared in 2014 at Upsidedown Homeschooling Blog where I was a contributor. That blog can now only be found using the Wayback Machine, so I am resharing the post here for easier access.}

Between homeschooling and tutoring, I make and use a lot of learning cards! Vocabulary cards, spelling cards, math cards, Alerting Activity ABC Cards, 3-Part Movement Cards, Saint Symbol Cards, Life of Mary Sequencing Cards, 3-Part Bob Book Cards, M and N Discrimination Cards, Act Like and Elephant Cards… You name it. Week in and week out, my children, my tutoring students and I use all types of cards to tackle new learning objectives and to review old ones.

Almost any learning objective becomes hands-on and interactive when learning cards are involved.

Of course, being so card crazy, we have developed a regular repertoire of 10+ games and activities for using learning cards, and, we love adding to it!

Even when little ones are too young to play with siblings, they can with your help. My youngest likes to place markers when I play with my oldest.

Over the past two weeks, we did just that!

We revamped the simple strategy game of Tic Tac Toe to be a learning card game

Playing is easy, effective and engaging.

Winning rounds happens quickly, which keeps the game pace moving along and motivates children to keep learning and reviewing.

To play, you need nine or more learning cards and two piles of distinct markers. (We use Bingo chips, but coins of two different colors or any distinctly colored or shaped small objects would work.)  Set your cards up in a 3 x 3 grid.  Then, you are good to go.

Playing Learning Card Tic Tac Toe

1. Have Player One start the game by selecting a card. If Player One can read the card, spell the word on it*, solve the problem on it, state a key fact related to it, make a sentence with the word written on it, name the part of speech of it, answer the question posed on it or do whatever the learning objective of the card is, Player One may put a marker on it.
2. Player Two then chooses a card and does likewise.  Play continues until a player has three markers in a row or until all the cards are covered.
3. At that point, players shuffle the places of cards within the grid, or trade new cards into the grid, and play another round.
4. Whoever wins three out of five rounds is the winner.

It’s that simple!

A Note on Playing with Spelling Words

Flip the cards over to use Tic Tac Toe as a Spelling game.

To use Tic Tac Toe to practice spelling words, place all cards face down.  Have Player One hand a card to Player Two, who reads it to Player One.  Player One then must spell the word correctly in order to place a marker down.

Learning Card Tic Tac Toe is adaptable, too!

Just like learning cards themselves are, so is Learning Card Tic Tac Toe, and that is one of the reasons I love it.  I am constantly coming up with new variations and uses for this easy card game:

• Learning Card Tic Tac Toe can become Four-in-a-Row or even Five in a Row to cover more material in one round.

• For students who need more movement in order to meet sensory needs, the game can be super-sized with full-sized sheets of paper as cards and stuffed toys as markers. 

•  To make this game equally valuable for multi-disciplinary review as it is for focusing on one specific learning objective, cards used can target a single subject or a mixture of subjects and skills – English Language Arts, Math, Science, Character and Virtues, Social Studies, just about any topic...

• Students who are reluctant to practice handwriting or spelling can be encouraged with the “carrot” of making game cards.

• Almost any age can play.

In fact all three of my children, plus two of my tutoring students, have played round after round of this game with me in the past couple weeks.

My three year old used Learning Card Tic Tac Toe to practice basic phonic sounds; my six and eight year olds mastered spelling, vocabulary and reading words with it; my high school tutoring student learned and reviewed SAT materials with it; and my fourth grade tutoring student practiced parts of speech, sentence building and target reading words with it.  In doing so, all of us found Learning Card Tic Tac Toe quick, easy and effective at providing lots of learning through enjoyable repetition.

Learning Card Tic Tac Toe is a keeper!

So, what are you waiting for? Grab some cards and markers and go play a quick game with your learner today.