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Matching games ranging from Memory to Old maid or Bingo are widely used to teach ELA or maths notions – and they have generic benefits as well.
What do they teach? In general, matching games teach attention and visual recognition, and help players stay focused and motivated. Puzzles, Memories, Dominoes and Go Fish are used with Kindergarten or pre-K learners to teach simple notions such as colors, shapes, or numbers, while Old maid or Bingo can be used with primary schoolers for more complex notions such as calculus, grammar and more.
There are matching games for 3 to 10 year-olds designed to teach specific skills in mathematics, ELA, SEL, history or geography, and more. Some are more suitable for use at home and others at school.
What do Simple Matching Games Teach in General?
Simple matching games match identical pieces (cards, puzzle pieces, dominoes…). They are among the most widespread game mechanisms. In general, they help develop two useful skills that are useful for learning:
Visual recognition: Finding two identical items quickly requires visual recognition of similarities, patterns, and differences. This is true for matching identical images, numbers, or words (although in this case it also requires practicing reading skills).
Attention: This skill refers to more than just focus
. It is also about how we actively process information we get from our environment. Matching games help because they require us to focus on details. Whether it is the minute differences in the pictures or the relationships between number expressions, they train brains to identify and process the similarities and differences to get the correct answer.
What do Matching Games That Match Related Items Teach?
Matching games that match related items can teach almost any complex, non-ambiguous notion involving:
- Equivalent representation of specific notions
- Short questions or problems and respective answers
The trick is to base the game on related pieces (rather than identical ones) that need to be matched, for example:
- Equivalent notions, such as different representations of numbers (dice, collections of objects, hands…)
- Questions and their answers, for example, additions (or other operations) and their results like in Mathematics Memory
- Beginnings and endings of a conjugation like in ConjuDingo (the conjugated verb is split in the beginning and the ending – used in French Language Learning), or of the beginning and the ending of a sentence.
- Similar endings (or beginnings), like in matching games used to teach rhyming or syllables
- Pieces that share a common characteristic, for example, Artworks from the same painter, like in Old Masters Memory Game from BisPublishers
With this more advanced approach to matching, you can teach so many things with a matching game – almost anything where there is a finite (small enough) set of different possible answers.
What do “Subjective Matching Games” Teach?
I coined the term “subjective matching games” to define matching games that match pieces according to a subjective (and therefore ambiguous) criterion. This criterion involves some creativity or subjective judgment so that there is no preset “correct matching”, but rather a “universe of possible matchings” that depends on the players.
They can typically be played at any age, as the matching mechanism is rich enough to make the game interesting despite its simple game mechanics.
For example, in Dixit and Apples to Apples, players need to anticipate the possible matches made by other players or judges. They need intuition and empathy to have a chance to win. And those games also foster creativity as players experiment with different pairings and are free to explain their choices.
Teaching intuition, empathy or creativity is a complex task, and subjective matching games are an interesting tool in the growing SEL toolbox (which comprises quite a few games).
Matching Game Mechanics For 2 to 5 Year-Olds
Memory Games
Memory games involve finding matching pairs among faced-down cards. This basic game mechanic means that they are typically suited for 2 to 5-year-old children.
It requires remembering the cards, thus improving visual working memory, which allows us to temporarily store and manipulate information in our environment. Working memory is limited and expanding it is useful to process information faster and organize and carry out tasks more efficiently.
But because memory games use working memory also means that:
- You cannot use too many cards at once (or you would not remember them), which limits their use for teaching complex notions.
- They tend to be competitive, which makes them better suited for the home than school
Puzzle Games
Mini puzzle games where you have to fit two shapes together are also best for 2 to 5 year-olds, because of their ultra-simple mechanics.
They have a unique characteristic: Shape-fitting allows checking if the matching is correct, even if the pieces are not identical. This auto-correction mechanism is great at school where teachers cannot be with all children at the same time but is also great at home if you let the child play the game alone. Auto-correction also has the benefit of immediate feedback, which speeds up learning.
At this age range, memory & puzzle matching games are generally used to teach:
ELA:
- Rhyming: matching pictures of rhyming words
- Phonemes: matching pictures of words that start with the same phoneme
- Recognizing and pronouncing letters: matching letters with pictures of words that start with this letter, or different representations of letters
- Words: matching images and corresponding words (can also be used for ESL or to learn foreign languages as described in the following research paper, page 27: Using Games In A Foreign Language Classroom)
- Spelling: matching letters of simple words to form a word
- Opposites: matching images of opposites
Mathematics:
- Numbers: matching their different representations
- Small additions: matching the addition with its result
- Colors and shapes: matching identical shapes or colors
Arts:
- Masterpieces: matching identical artworks
- Or more interestingly artists: matching different artworks from the same artist like the “Old Masters Memory Game” from BisPublishers. For more art-related memory game ideas, check out our post 20 Memory Games To Teach Art and Art History.
Other:
- Prevention of domestic accidents (matching dangerous and safe situations like with PreventoDingo from Aritma)
Matching Game Mechanics For 4 to 6 Year-Olds
Dominoes
Children like to manipulate dominoes, but their small size limits the information you can include on them. Although dominoes are not as versatile as the other types of matching games, they are used as they have this appeal of the special different experience of manipulating them.
Go Fish
Go-fish consists of eliminating four matching cards from your game. It involves interactions between players, making it fun. But it is a slow game (good for younger children), and you are limited in the number of matches. It is better for use at home because of these limitations. Because it requires communicating between two players, Go Fish can also teach some social skills.
At this age range, dominoes and go fish matching games are generally used to teach:
ELA:
- Rhyming: matching pictures of and written rhyming words
- Recognizing and pronouncing letters: matching letters together or with pictures of words that start with this letter
- Simple vocabulary: matching images and words. Or read the following papers for more insight: “Effectiveness Of Sight Words & Domino Strategies In Teaching New Vocabulary To Enhance Reading Ability Among Low Literacy Year Two Pupils”, and “The implementation of Go Fish game in improving student’s vocabulary.”
- Spelling: matching word beginnings and endings
Mathematics
- Small Numbers: matching identical numbers of items. The following research paper shows proven results of using dominoes and other matching games for number abilities: Improving number abilities in low achieving preschoolers: symbolic versus non-symbolic training programs.
- Additions: matching the addition with its result. You can also read the following paper for more: Dominos as a Practical Simulation Game That Parents Can Use to Teach Their Children Addition.
- Small subtractions or multiplications: matching the operation and its result
Old Maid – for 5 to 8 Year-Olds and Up
Old Maid involves drafting a card from another player and eliminating 2 matching cards from your game. The player with the odd card in the end loses. This game is very popular in Germany (called “Schwark Peter” there) and in France where it is called “Mistigri” (the odd card is traditionally a cat). The reasons why Old Maid is suited for educational matching games are that :
- It is a game of chance (non-competitive). Who wins is determined by pure luck (“weaker” students win as well and are not alienated) which means it is good for the classroom.
- Drafting cards and occasionally getting the “Mistigri” or the “Old Maid” is really fun, which is great for playing a home.
- You have twice as many notions to teach with the same number of cards as “Go Fish.”
Old maid can be used for all subject matters mentioned for 2 to 5 year-olds (same subjects as Memory games), and for more complex subjects as they are suitable for older children, for example:
ELA:
- Synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, parts of speech: matching words together taht are for example synonyms or antonyms
Foreign languages:
- Conjugations: matching the beginning and the end of a conjugation, which is most useful for French and Spanish
Mathematics:
- Fractions: matching different representations of fractions
Bingo – For 5 to 10 Year-Olds and Up
Bingo is extremely versatile. You can adapt the content to almost anything you need to teach:
- The cards that you match with the players’ grids can be as large as you want, so that you can adapt the content of these cards to almost any subject matter.
- They are very suitable for the classroom as the teacher can “play against the whole class.”
- You can use them for quizzes: your students only need to tick a box to answer your question.
Here are some examples of using bingos to teach to 5 to 10-year-old children, but there are many more possibilities:
ELA/ESL: sight words bingo, where you let your learners block the sight words you said in their papers.
Mathematics: numbers to young learners and let them color the number that represents what you said or drew on the board.
SEL
- Teach cultural awareness by asking your students to fill in a card with the signature of a classmate that matches the description in each box. Read: Developing cultural awareness by using Bingo break strategies t the second language classroom.
- Learn faces and feelings.
Besides, the following paper called “Bingo!” Do we have a winner” shows how versatile and effective Bingo can be despite its simple nature (in this case it was software implemented).
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