Alphabet Flashcard Fun

I am all for using flashcards as teaching tools, but let's be honest here, flashcards can get B-O-R-I-N-G!
I like finding ways to make learning interesting and discovering fun ways to use flashcards. I like to make my own flash cards for the kids. It's cheap frugal, easy to customize, and easy to replace a card when a certain toddler gets ahold of one and decides to taste it or color on it.

I'll share with you a few fun games for little ones who are just learning the alphabet.

Start by simply making the cards.

 I just used some blank index cards and markers. (Frugal Tip: Stock up on supplies during the "Back to School" sales. I bought this pack of index cards for around 40 cents and a pack of markers was less than $1!)
I made 2 cards for each letter, one upper-case and one lower-case. I like to make the vowels stand out, so I  used a red marker for them.

We used the cards to play matching games. A correct match matches the upper and lower case letters together (A to a, B to b, C to c, etc.).
One of our favorite games is "Go Fish".
We also like to play games like "Memory Match"...

And a simple matching game.

 Because there are so many cards, I usually limit the number of matching cards for the memory match game. I simply place them face down and we take turns revealing 2 cards at a time, looking for a match.

For the matching game, I place all of the upper-case letters face up and in order. Then, I shuffle the lower-case cards and place them face down in a stack. My daughter draws the top letter and matches it to the correct upper-case letter. Simple and fun!

Other ways that we use these cards include:

•  a simple recognition (or sound recognition) game using the game board here
• placing the cards near objects that begin with that letter 
• using the vowel cards, find objects that use either the long or short sound, and sort them accordingly
• add an extra card and play "Old Maid"

What games do you like playing with alphabet flashcards?