Eight matching activities for toddlers

As soon as my toddler got comfortable with sorting, I introduced her to matching. She loves matching activities and everyday she asks for one. According to her it is called memory game. Still I am figuring out how she got that name.

1. Animal matching

This is the first matching activity we did. I took the printout of the cards from Jan Brett’s website. We started matching 2 cards and gradually moved to 16 cards. The bright colored big pictures made her learn the technique easily.

2. Color matching

The second matching activity we did was coloring matching. Since she was comfortable with color sorting and matching technique, it was pretty simple for her. But she still enjoys doing this. We use paint chips for color matching.

3. Shadow matching

I create shadow matching by sun printing construction paper. I stick related objects in the construction paper and keep the paper in the sunlight. The objects get “printed” by the sun by fading the uncovered portion. We use the objects to match with their prints.

4. Matching shapes, size, vegetables, truck etc.

I got these file folders from a person who was going out of family day care. Each folder has a specific matching activity. My toddler could not get more out it. We can easily make these matching activities by printing the same picture twice.

5. Chess pieces matching

The major advantage of growing with an older sibling is the accessibility to many games otherwise not available to toddlers. My toddler wants to play whatever my older daughter plays. So we “play” according to skill level whenever the board is free.

To start with, we sort the coins by color. Mine is always white. When I place a piece on the board, she places the corresponding piece from her black pile. I usually tell the name of the piece when I place. Now she can identify all pieces but king and queen.

6. Blokus tile matching (affiliation link)

My elder daughter loves blokus. Almost every time she beats me. My toddler is also attracted to Blokus because of its bright colored tiles.

Similar to chess pieces matching, we match blokus tiles. I usually select pieces which have substantial difference  in shapes. I place a tile and she matches with a corresponding piece from her pile.

7. Tangram shapes matching

Tangram shapes matching is little tricky for my toddler as she has to match both size and shape (small triangle, medium triangle and big triangle). I try to limit the number of pieces to match to increase her comfort level.

8. Kandinsky inspired number matching

I cut felt pieces and wrote numbers on that. We did number matching. I have written about this activity earlier.

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