Animal & Food Matching

Activity Overview

Why are matching games such a staple in the preschool learning environment? Matching activities help strengthen a child’s visual discrimination skills and through the recognition of objects that are the same and different. In this practice, children also begin to understand patterns, sort ideas and objects into categories, and learn how expressive language can be used to describe these things accurately. Being able to match items and explain why they go together is important to improve language, concentration, and working memory – all of which are key cognitive skills children employ to match sounds to letters, and which will become integral to the generalization of reading skills as they develop into this capability.

What You Need

• Two sets of the Animal & Food Matching Game Cards printed on cardstock or durable paper (if desired for future use)

• Coloring utensils

• A large open space to play the game, such as a a rug or the floor

Steps

1. Print two sets of the Animal & Food Matching Game Cards. Cut the cards in half so that each card has an image and its corresponding word together.

2. Look through the cards with the student. Ask them what they see in the images and encourage them to describe what they know about each image.

3. Allow the student time to color the images if they like.

4. Play a matching game together. Place all the image cards face up. Guide the student to match cards of the same image together (for example, if the student has a card with an image of a rabbit on it, ask them to find the other card that has an image of a rabbit). Place the match to the side. Guide the student to continue finding matches, either independently or in turns with a peer or adult.

Guiding Questions

• What do you see? Is it [a person, an animal, a place, a food]?

• What do you know about [a rabbit]?

• Have you ever seen [a rabbit]? Where have you seen [a rabbit]?

• What food does [a rabbit] eat?

Extensions

• Depending on the interest and skill level of the student, this same activity can be performed with different objectives:

  • Match the same images together (image of rabbit and image of rabbit).

  • Match the animal with its corresponding food (image of rabbit and image of carrot).

• Using the provided blank cards, the student can draw their own animal and food matches. If they are unable to write the words, an adult can help them (but make sure to let them try on their own – maybe they can write the sound of the first letter, maybe more).

• Alternatively, this game can be played as a memory game in which two students or a student and adult place all cards face down and take turns flipping them up to find matches.

• For a more advanced challenge:

  • Print the Challenge Animal & Food Matching Cards.

  • Cut the cards in half so there is only one word or one image on the card.

  • Choose a new way to play:

    • Match the image to its word (image of rabbit and word “rabbit”).

    • Match the image of an animal to its corresponding food word (image of rabbit with word “carrot”) or vice versa.

    • Match the word or the image to its corresponding card from the original game.