Uses for Old Business Cards
posted by "An Anonymous Reader"
I have about 450 old business cards that I hate to throw away but have no use for. Any ideas as to what to do with them?
Responses:
Use them for a writing activity. Students choose a card and write a story or paragraph from that person's point of view. Have them tell what they do each day at their job, even if they don't really know. It would be interesting to see what the kids think a CEO might do. They could write about what kind of education is necessary to fill their position. Just an idea! [posted by ldteacher/IN]
What about letting your students use them for bookmarks? They could decorate the blank side. [posted by Vir Ü]
You could send them to me. :-)
Seriously, don't throw the cards away! Because they are all the same, old business cards are really useful. They can be used to make all sorts of card games, for educational purposes.
e.g. Happy families, with classes of words for reading, classificaiton in biology, family vocab for foreign languages, etc.
Pelmanism. eg For tables practice, you could have the children write (6 x 7) on one card, then (42) on another. Then they take turns turning over two cards, and then turinging them back again, trying to collect pairs. Or, for foreign languages, the English on one card and the foreign equivalent on its pair. For history, a date and the name of the event, perhaps. And so on.
You can use them with a basic game of Snakes and Ladders. eg Have a pile of cards. Turn one over and read the word on the card. Or have your partner look at a card and read it for you to spell. Or the tables revision again. Or cards for practice on any concept you want. When you have "done' the card, you get to shake the dice and move up the board. Attaching a board game to basic practice such as this helps with motivation.
Perhaps you could make phonics dominoes. Or math or FL dominoes. If you have a look at the catalogs of companies that sell teaching games, you'll get lots of ideas, I'm sure.
And someone else mentioned flash cards. With so many cards, each child in your class could cut them in two and make his/her own set of tables cards, or whatever.
Students often like to help with the making of this sort of thing. I don't know whether you are in a school where a foreign language is taught. But if you truly can't use the cards, you might offer them to the language teachers before you throw them out, as they are really useful for making cards for vocab practice, if nothing else. [posted by Mattie]
When I get any, I use them for games -- board games, jeopardy, etc. for custom made algebra problems. [posted by Bitsy NC]
flash cards--store in Altoids tins (anon.)
Bits and Pieces Quick Links
