7 Ways to use Boom Cards™ in the Special Education Classroom
Boom Cards
When the whole world shut down in April of 2020, I started creating Boom Cards™ for my students in my self-contained classroom right away. I knew that a lot of virtual instruction wouldn't cut it for them, and these digital task cards were the perfect solution. But now that we are back in the classroom, a lot of my teacher friends have been struggling with how to use those Boom Cards™ in the classroom.
I want to share with you 7 ways that I am still using Boom Cards™ in my special education classroom.
If you are still wondering what Boom Cards™ are, you can read this blog post that goes into more detail.
1. Whole Group Instruction
Did you know that you can use Boom Cards as a whole group? This is a great time to pre-teach skills, or even use it as a review to end a unit. All you need to do is to project the Boom Card on your smartboard and have students take turns responding to the questions.
In addition, you can even have students write their answers on a whiteboard and then walk around to see everyone's answers and then pick one person to select the right answer on the board. This is super fun and engaging!
2. 1:1 Instruction
Using Boom Cards™ for one-on-one instruction is a dream. I usually will have my paraprofessionals work with students who are not yet able to complete Boom Cards™ independently. Also, you can use this time to reteach skills that students have not yet mastered. There are so many different ways to use them.
3. Assessments!
Using Boom Cards™ to take data has really never been easier. The Boom Learning website takes all of the data for you. All you have to do is assign your student the decks and then sign into the teacher account. There is where you will see what skills the student has mastered. You can use this data for IEP data tracking purposes.
4. Homework
I know many teachers that do not assign homework anymore. However, every now and then, I still get parents asking for homework. They want their child to have extra practice at home. Assigning Boom Cards™ to these students is a great way to give them engaging material and collect data while they are learning at home.
Students can literally do their homework from a parent's tablet or smartphone! How cool is that?
5. Morning Work
When students come in in the morning, they are expected to do a task or activity to get them ready to learn. We call this morning work. A great task for this is to assign them Boom Cards™ for daily morning work. You could even post a Boom fast play link into the google classroom and have them do that when they come in the door. Super fun!
6. Print them Out
This is a little-known secret, but did you know that you can print Boom Cards™? If you go to your Boom library and select a deck, it's under the action tab. Now, some Boom Cards™ are not formatted to print, as in there is a lot of drag and drop features and whatnot. But you can print, laminate, and then turn them into task cards!
7. Using Boom Cards™ in Centers
Finally, the last way that I use Boom Cards™ in my special education classroom is by using them in center rotations. Students get really excited to be using media to learn new skills. It breaks up their days using a lot of paper and pencil tasks.
When they get to this center, you can have students on an iPad, on a computer, or even use your smartboard as a center! They would feel so excited to use something so big!
Another piece of technology that is coming up is virtual reality software like the Oculus. I have messed around a little with mine at home, and I am excited to share that you can play Boom Cards™ on an Oculus and it was very cool! I plan on making a YouTube video about it soon!
Want to try some Boom Cards™?
If you are looking for some Boom Cards™ to try, then head over to my TpT store where I have over 350 Boom decks that you can use from academic skills to functional life skills. I even have errorless Boom Cards™.
If you have never used Boom Cards before and want to try one for free, you can check this one out!
I am a High School, self-contained Autism teacher from Central New York, who is passionate about individualizing student learning. I am a mommy of three, lover of all things Disney, married to my best friend and addicted to chocolate!! I hope that you find great ideas and inspiration here, so welcome!!
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