OK, let’s just face it, most of what happened in school between 2019-2021, we would just like to forget! Can I get an AMEN!!  Yet, interestingly enough, I did find something that I loved, that I will never go back on. 

I started the year virtually, like most people, and had NO idea how to engage a class.  Then my niece turned my on to Boom cards™ as a virtual distance learning activity.  I had been a big fan of task cards for centers, and I have used them a million ways.  But Boom cards™ are VIRTUAL task cards.  So big deal, what’s the advantage? I don’t say this lightly – they are a GAME CHANGERS!!

OK, let’s just face it, most of what happened in school between 2019-2021, we would just like to forget! Can I get an AMEN!!  Yet, interestingly enough, I did find something that I loved, that I will never go back on. 

I started the year virtually, like most people, and had NO idea how to engage a class.  Then my niece turned my on to Boom cards™ as a virtual distance learning activity.  I had been a big fan of task cards for centers, and I have used them a million ways.  But Boom cards™ are VIRTUAL task cards.  So big deal, what’s the advantage? I don’t say this lightly – they are a GAME CHANGERS!!

So What Are Boom Cards?

In short, Boom cards™ are super fun, self-graded digital task cards that are “gamified” for high engagement for students and can provide immediate data for teachers. Here is a video example of a virtual rounding activity.   See Boom Cards in Action.  This deck along with many others is available through my TPT store.  Liana’s Small World.

Why do I need to add Boom Cards to my Curriculum?

• Self-grading!  We all desperately would love to save time grading right? Is that how you spend your weekends?   Do you need to take a grade on a standard?  Just plug in their score! It is as easy as that!! 

• Highly engaging.  Not only do kids love the immediate feedback feature, but there are also digital awards available – and you know kids are “all about” digital awards!!

• Can give IMMEDIATE, concrete, data to the teacher. Ok, if I had to pick my favorite reason for BOOM cards ™, this is it.  After I give a mini-lesson and assign a deck, I watch the scores start to come in immediately.  This data was SO GOOD and sometimes surprising!  We typically watch for our “high” students to continue to score highly and our lower students to continue to score lower.  However, I noticed that this was not ALWAYS the case for each skill.  Once in a while my higher students were struggling, I could intervene immediately and often prevented them from continuing with those errors or getting frustrated. And it was great to be able to acknowledge the lower students who happened to be “killing it” on a new skill.  What a way to boost their confidence!

• No continuing to practice the skill incorrectly!!!  Have you noticed that a lot of times in manual centers, kids have to complete the entire center before they check their answers, so in effect are practicing the skill incorrectly until then!!  Or worse yet, some centers are not checked at all!!!  That never happens with Boom cards, because kids (and you) can know immediately when kids are making mistakes. 

• Pull students for intervention IMMEDIATELY based on what they are doing – the quicker we can catch misconceptions and understand errors, the quicker students can go on to accuracy in the skill.  How do I handle this data?  I watch the results and immediately start pulling a small group who are struggling.  I have them come up to my table with whiteboards and we start a deck together on my device.  They use their whiteboards to show me their understanding.  When they start to “get it”, I send them back to their seats and bring someone else struggling in their place.  Wow!  I’m seeing the CONFIDENCE, in their ability come back quickly.

More Reasons to Use Boom Cards

• Can target a specific skill or STANDARD – I have one deck for each math standard of the year!  Talk about great data!

• DIFFERENTIATION!  You can assign a different deck to different students.

• Gives specific targeted practice and for those kids who need it, repetitive practice. If students can demonstrate mastery quickly, you can assign them other things.  If kids are struggling, after you reteach and support them, they can simply re-do the deck.

• Can be used whole group if students are not one-to-one.  Just show it on your teacher whiteboard and do a whole group version.  I often would have students show me their answer on a whiteboard then I choose the majority answer on the boom cards for the class.

What About the Cost?

• There are different membership versions, including a free one.  This one allows you to give students a “Fast PIN” access – which you can assign through your LMS.  There are free decks available through the Boom Store, but you may want to buy decks (about the same price as an inexpensive task card set) if you want to find decks that exactly match your standards.

• My favorite reason to buy the paid account, is that this is the way to get data on your students, and that has been SUPER valuable to me.

How Can I Use Boom Cards that I Purchase on Teachers Pay Teachers?

Purchase decks or bundles from a TeachersPayTeachers store like Liana’s Small World.

1. Check out just like you normally would!
2. Once you have purchased, you’ll receive a PDF download. Open up the PDF.
3. Inside the PDF, you will find links to a Boom deck.  Add the decks to your Boom library. (You will have to create or log into your Boom account.)
4. Once you have clicked each link once, it will ALWAYS remain in your Boom library for you to access!

To learn more about BOOM CARDS ™, Here is the Boom Video Library

If you would like to see what BOOM card decks, I have available, you can check out my TPT store, here’s the link. Liana’s Small World.

More ways to Transform your Math class.

3 Number Sense Routines Guaranteed to Develop Confidence in Your Students

3 Ways to Promote Math Vocabulary Without Wasting Valuable Class Time