Fun with Matching

Our playgroup for the day was all about matching!  Some of the kids were still learning their colors, so to help them we turned it into a color matching game!     

Color Matching:

Take a colored piece of paper and attach an envelope or small bag to it.  Tape (or glue) the same color onto some Popsicle sticks.  You can do this for as many colors as you want.  Once you have a pile of colored Popsicle sticks you can mix them up, and hand out a pile to each kid to put away.  For the younger kids who were still learning their colors, we gave them a colored stick and had them identify the color.  Then they ran off and put it in the right spot before coming back for another.

To see how well some of the kids knew their colors I had two different shades of some colors.  Everyone did a perfect job!  They loved running around and seeing how quickly they could sort through their colored sticks.  Next time we’re going to try to play with even more colors to give some of the older kids a challenge. 

The Memory Game:

 Do you remember playing memory as a kid?  Now you can make your own game of memory and color your own pictures to match.  You can find some free prints off the internet, or make your own pictures by drawing two of the same animals onto index cards.  The kids loved coloring the pictures and got some good practice using scissors when it came time to cut them out. 

Most of the kids who come to playgroup love to run around.  We played another fun game to get us all moving.  This is a great game to play on a rainy day, to help get those wiggles out before bedtime, or just when you feel like having some fun!

 Balloon Ping Pong:

Just tape a Popsicle stick onto a paper plate, blow up a balloon, and you’re done!  We split the kids into two teams and had each of them practice hitting the balloon to the other side.  It was pretty hard for some of the kids to aim the balloon, sometimes all they wanted to do was hit it as hard as they could!  This is a great game for teaching control.  The really little kids could practice their hand-eye coordination, and the older kids had to work on hitting it back to the other side when the balloon flew out of bounds.