Picture Cards and Word Cards: Matching Pairs

Sixteen cards in a four-by-four grid fill this kindergarten sheet of fruits cards. The top two rows are picture cards with no words: on this print a blueberry, a nectarine, a banana, a papaya, a cranberry, a pomegranate, a pear and a raspberry. The bottom two rows are word cards with no pictures, and they are shuffled so no word sits under its own picture: banana, cranberry, nectarine, pomegranate, raspberry, pear, papaya, blueberry. The child cuts out all sixteen, then lays each word card beside the picture it names, or turns the lot face down and plays Memory, lifting two at a time to find a pair.

Separating the word from its picture is the difference between this set and the base cards. On a single card the picture reads the word for the child; here the child has to read the word alone, at least far enough to tell banana from blueberry by the first letters, and then find its picture. Memory adds a second thing to hold in mind, where each card was, and it works as a two-player game with no losing that matters. The teacher watches the two b-words and the two p-words, where a child reading only the first letter will pair wrongly.

A color print on card stock lasts longest; cut all sixteen before the lesson if time is short. The picture word cards base set is the naming version with word and picture on one card, and a or an cards, one and many, bilingual and syllable cards each change a different thing. Cut-out cards, nothing to write.