Boom Learning Questions and Answers for SLP's - Speech Time Fun: Speech and Language Activities

Boom Cards are a hot topic right now with virtual learning. There are so many different ways you can use them whether it be sharing your screen, assigning them through things like seesaw, email or google classroom, or using them live and in person. Boom Cards have been a game-changer when it comes to virtual learning this year!

Now let’s start from square one for those of you who are not familiar with boom cards.

What are Boom Cards?

Boom Cards are interactive task cards that stream directly from the Boom Learning platform. Boom cards are awesome because they don’t require any prep, you can get them for any topic or skill, they are great for a “hands-on” activity without having students actually put their hands all over manipulatives that have to be sanitized and they help with engagement because it’s just like playing a game and students think it’s fun!

Where can I get Boom Cards?

You can get Boom Cards directly from the Boom Learning site or you can get them from TPT. I tend to get my free ones from Boom and I get my paid ones from TPT because boom uses tokens as currency and I’m the type of person that doesn’t want to mess with it. I would rather just purchase things from TPT, but that’s just my preference. Do whatever works best for you!

How do you get boom cards from TPT to the Boom website?

As long as you have a boom account, you can get boom cards from TPT to the Boom website. When you buy a resource from TPT, click the button to download as a PDF. Open up the PDF and scroll through it to find where it says “Click Here”. When you click there, it will automatically open up Boom Learning and prompt you to add it to your library.

The free Boom account will work perfectly to be able to use the resources. If you want to upgrade to the paid version for some added bells and whistles, it will only run you around $30 for the whole year.

What is this Boom Learning Library?

Here is an example of my library below. All the decks that you either get for free or purchase will be housed in your library. You can sort it into folders if you want to as well. I’m a type B personality so mine isn’t in folders but it is on the to-do list for someday!

I use the boom cards in the preview mode which is actually in the usable mode. Each Boom Deck creator will make their boom cards slightly different but navigation and such is pretty straight forward. The students will click on their answer (or tell you which one to click) and it gives immediate feedback and self-correction abilities to the student once an answer is clicked.

The library is just one tab in the Boom store. There are different tabs on the Boom website.

The Store is where you can find decks to purchase, Reports is where you can find score reports and Classes is where you can find your class or import from google classroom.

How do I assign Boom Decks?

Regardless of where you want to assign it(google classroom, email, etc.), all you have to do is go into your library, click “action” and then click “fast pin” and it will give you a link that you can share with the student to do on their own. You can also have the student share their screen in a live session and you can watch them while they do it.

The only thing to think about when assigning a Boom deck on a different platform is that it doesn’t give a score report so you won’t be able to see how students did unless you have them do it during a session with you. Also, the link is only valid for 14 days so keep that in mind when assigning.

You can also click the action button and instead of clicking “fast pin” you click “hyper play link”. This is a great option because it will give you a score report to know how the student did. However, with this option, you will need to make each student an account. So, if you don’t have the time for that or if you have a student who struggles with entering login information correctly, this option may not be the best but it is a nice option.

What age range are Boom Cards good for?

All grade ranges k-12 can use boom cards. Below are two examples of decks I use with older students. One is literal and inferential questions and the other focuses on social skills.

What is your favorite boom deck to use to keep students engaged?

One of my favorite activities that I used to do in a file folder version before I made the boom deck is called Capture the Criminal. Students love this Boom Deck because it is just like playing a game and they don’t even realize that they are learning and practicing skills like listening comprehension, inferencing and vocabulary.