Matching card games are great for children between the ages of 3 and 5, and they help with memory skills. Using foam squares, square-shaped note cards or post-it notes, draw or print out images in pairs of two, four, six or eight, depending on the desired difficulty level. The images can be anything ranging from numbers to shapes to holiday themes. If the child is only 3 years old, you may want to start off with fewer cards and have her pair two at a time. If the child is closer to 5 years old, you can increase the complexity by increasing the number of cards she must pair together. Begin with having the cards face down in a grid pattern. The child turns over two cards. If they match, the child keeps the cards and gets another turn. If not, the child flips the cards back over and it is another child's turn. The child with the most cards wins the game.
Use the child's own toys as the props for a game of Hide and Seek. If your child has multiples of various foam numbers or letters, choose one and hide the identical match. Give the child hints, such as "It's under a chair" or "It's next to the window." Give positive reinforcements such as "You found the yellow one!" or "You found the green A!" when the child is successful. The game can also be played with colored blocks or toys such as cars.
Draw a tree on a large sheet of white paper. On the tree, have stickers or images of different fruit covered by a paper leaf. If using stickers, they should still be attached to the paper backing and simply taped on the tree. The child must turn over each leaf to match each fruit to its pair. You can also play this game using a range of colored fruit, such as cherries in six different colors, where the child has to match the fruit based on its color. Once the child finds the matching pair, he can pick the fruit off the tree and place it in a little basket. The child with the most picked fruit wins.
This game is perfect for 5-year-olds, and takes a little bit of preparation. On a large sheet of paper, draw images that you might find in a forest, such as trees, insects and large animals. Draw pairs of smaller animals throughout the forest drawing, such as squirrels inside the trees, birds in the tree branches and foxes resting on logs. The animals should be drawn in different locations. For instance, if you want the child to match a pair of squirrels, draw two squirrels on two separate trees. Cover the animal with camouflage, such as paper branches or leaves that the child can fold back to reveal the animal. Tell the child that the animals are lost and that it is up to him to find each animal's mate. This lesson will teach him about nature, animals and where they live. You can make this as complicated as you like. For instance, in order to find the matching animal for a bear, you can give clues such as "This animal loves to eat honey and hunt for fish in the river" so he knows to look by the river for the second bear.