A hand held teaching aid is made of three layers of card. The grip has a panel projecting from the grip and a pocket slides on the panel. The grip carries a picture of an item whose name is to be taught, eg. an apple, and the panel bears the name of the item, eg. APPLE. When the grip and pocket are pushed together, the picture is visible but not the word. When the grip and pocket are slid apart, the word comes into view. In a variant, numerals and simple calculations replace pictures and words.