6 Reasons Why I Love Boom Cards

What are Boom Cards?

Simply put, Boom Cards are digital activities that allow students to learn and practice any skill imaginable! They are decks which are made up of slides. Each slide may have some teaching or a question on it. Students select their answer and it will automatically mark it correct or incorrect.

6 Reasons Why I Love Boom Cards

1. Students love it because they get immediate feedback (Ding!)

Who doesn't love positive feedback? Students quickly learn (or already know) that computer and tablets will give them immediate feedback. Boom cards ding when you select the correct answer. It is very satisfying. 

2. You can get a lot of practice in quickly.

The slides change quickly, so you can get many repetitions of practice on a skill quite quickly. Boom cards automatically shuffle up the cards and shuffle up the answer choices (depending on the deck) so students will not be able to memorize the answer order. 

Boom cards are also actually great for teaching. You can easily make a slide deck to teach a skill and then put some practice questions in. They have the option to not shuffle in the first few cards (however many you specify). So in other words, I can write some instruction on the first 5 slides, then tell it to only shuffle up cards 6 through 15. See this example.

3. You can assess a student easily.

I've used Boom cards for formative and summative assessments many times. Since the students like using them it's a great way to assess for certain rote skills like letter identifications, number identification, etc. 

4. You can prevent students from getting feedback for a wrong answer.

If you tell the slides which answers are wrong, they will say, "Whoops!" when the student selects a wrong answer. Some students like to hear the "Whoops!" sound so they will intentionally pick a wrong answer. However, if all you do is specify the right answers, they will get absolutely no feedback from picking a wrong answer. Nip that in the bud. 

5. They are easy to create. No cutting and laminating required!

They are essentially the same as creating any print resource except for the last 3 steps! No printing! No cutting! No laminating! No cutting again!

6. Variety.

There are different types of activities: you can have students click a button, drag and drop, type in an answer, or record their voice. Some people have gotten so creative with them! There are also a plethora of subjects you can find in the store. Anything from Spanish, to early childhood, to music! I even have a few on social/emotional skills for special ed!

How to Set Up a Free Boom Learning Account

The starter account is FREE and allows you to have 5 students. Having an account is great because your students' data will be automagically saved. However, you can have more students by using Fast Pins. This is just a short link or code that students can type in or click on that will take them to the deck. They can play, but their report will not be saved. However, this does let them get in the practice. 

You can import students from Google Classroom, Classlink or Clever, or you can manually add them. Or if you are only using Fast Pins, you don't need to add them at all. 

Many Boom Creators have free decks so you can see what the platform has to offer. I made one of my most popular decks free! Check that out here!

Check out the Quick Start Guide for Teachers or join one of their free webinars on how to get started. Those are on the first Wednesday of every month. 

The lowest price point is only $2.09 per month and allows you to have 150 students!

To use Boom Cards, you must be connected to the Internet. Boom Cards play on modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge). Apps are available for modern Android, iPads, iPhones, and Kindle Fires. For security and privacy, adults must have a Boom Learning account to use and assign Boom Cards. You will be able to assign the Boom Cards you are buying with "Fast Pins," (a form of play that gives instant feedback to students for self-grading Boom Cards). For assignment options that report student progress back to you, you will need to purchase a subscription. If you are new to Boom Learning, you will be offered a free trial. Read here for details: http://bit.ly/BoomTrial.