Using Trading Cards in the Classroom

"How would you use trading cards in the classroom?"

Quinn Rollins poses this question in his book, Play Like a Pirate. Here is a list of trading cards that I can see my students making in my US History and/or Government classes:

Places

• Each of the 13 colonies
• Government buildings
• Monuments in Washington, D.C.

Events

• Battles in the...
• Revolutionary War
• Civil War
• WWI
• WWII
• Vietnam War
• etc.
• A war in its entirety
• The 9 Historical Periods in the APUSH curriculum
• Presidential elections
• Crises
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• Pearl Harbor
• September 11th
• Landmark Supreme Court Case
• Road to the Revolutionary War
• Stamp Act
• Sugar Act
• Townshend Acts
• etc.

People

• Any famous American
• Leaders of a movement
• Presidents
• Congresspeople
• Various cultures

Items

• American symbols
• Types of sources
• Primary
• Secondary
• Historic weapons
• Technology over time
• Communication over time
• Letters
• Telegraphs
• Telephone
• Email