Ways to Use Boom Cards in the Classroom
You’ve heard me talk about task cards in the classroom, but now I’m back with another fantastic resource to help spruce up your instruction: Boom Cards!
Boom Cards are self-checking, interactive, digital activities. They come in sets just like task cards. Students see one question at a time, solve it, and are given immediate feedback on their answers. There are so many advantages to using Boom Cards in your classroom.
Here are ten reasons I enjoy Boom Cards:
They are interactive
They are self-checking
They are digital
There are a lot of free options
Free previews! (Try this one out - make sure to hit “full-sized preview” for the full effect!)
Live monitoring (on paid accounts)
Versatile
Easy to assign in many different learning management systems (LMS), since they use links
Easy to differentiate instruction
Many different custom settings
I won’t get too much into the details of how to set up Boom Learning in this post, as this is intended for those who are already set up to use Boom Cards. Today, I wanted to share some ideas of using the Boom Cards you already have - or are already consider getting.
Whole Group Practice
Boom cards are easy to project up on the screen and make a whole group practice game out of! There are several different ways you could do it. Group students to work together, or have them answer individually on a piece of paper to keep their score. You could also go game show style and use buzzers. Have students in groups take turns answering questions and the first one to hit the buzzer gets to answer. (I use these, and they’re so fun. Grab a set for your classroom on Amazon)
Small-Group Practice
Pretty straightforward to use this for small group practice. Have small groups work together to solve theBoom Cards.
1:1 Practice/Practice/Absent Work
Use these for tutoring sessions or for students who need extra practice. Boom Cards are fun for students who were absent one day and need to catch up a little bit too!
Math Centers
Make Boom Cards a part of your math center rotations! They could be used in the technology station or even a task card/boom card station.
Early Finisher
Do you have students who finish too quickly and need something meaningful, but productive and fun to work on? Boom Cards are perfect for that.
Assessment
Feel free to use Boom cards for assessment purposes as well. They are easy to assign to students and may feel less stressful than a traditional written test for students who have test anxiety (something I have definitely seen on the rise lately!).
This could also be used as a quick check-in to see where students are at in a particular lesson. You can determine who can move on and who needs some extra practice
The most important thing to remember is to use the data you collect (if using a paid account, of course) appropriately and target the problem spots if there are any.
Homework
I don’t personally assign homework, but I have experienced that some schools expect that teachers do. Boom Cards are great for assigning as homework, as long as students have accessibility in their homes. The nice thing about Boom is that when students use the fast play option, they don’t have to sign in. Of course, you will not get the statistics when using this function.
Some advantages of Boom cards as homework are:
They are self-checking, and students receive instant feedback
They are engaging and fun
Paperless! No papers to grade and no papers to lose.
Boom Cards are mostly accessible, with many sets offering audio options.
They can be completed from anywhere
So what do you think about these ideas for Boom Cards? Have you used Boom Cards in your classroom? Check out the growing collection of Boom Cards we have in our Teachers Pay Teachers Store, or on Boom Learning!
