What’s Missing? is a very simple extra activity you can play with any set of flashcards you use.

Quite simply, whenever you use flashcards in class, save this for a quick 5 minute activity at the end just go over the vocabulary you’ve been practicing.

It requires no preparation and the side-effect of the game is that the students unconsciously practice the vocabulary on the cards as they try to remember what they see.

It is similar to Kim’s game except this is more flexible and takes less preparation.

Running the Activity

After you’ve used flashcards for an activity, you can get them and lay them out on a desk at one side of the class. The students come round and check the cards and try to memorize the ones that are there.

Begin this with a few cards, say 7 or 8.

Tell the students to go to the back of the class and while they’re away, take away 2 cards. Now have them come back and identify which cards are missing. You can give points to students/teams who remember the missing cards.

Variations on a Theme

Once the students are familiar with the basic activity you can bring in extra tweaks to make it harder.

• try adding new cards to the mix and ask which cards are missing and which are newly added
• increase the number of cards
• move cards about and ask the students which cards have changed position

Useful Links

Kim’s Game‏‎ for TEFL – great game for practicing vocabulary

Flashcards‏‎ and TEFL – how to use flashcards in your class