Fun and Educational Small Group Activities for Preschoolers

This is a memory game based on the classic but with an educational twist. This has always been a favorite among preschool teachers. As they play, not only do they learn the alphabet, but they also get several other benefits. 

During the game, they have to pay attention to what letters the other players turn over during their turns. In turn, increasing concentration and short-term memory skills. Additionally, as they keep track of everything, it stimulates visual processing and memory. They’ll use critical thinking skills as they decide which cards to flip over. 

First off, you’ll need your game pieces. You can either make them by hand or print them off. Either way, we suggest using card stock paper as opposed to regular printer paper. You may want to laminate them if possible.  

While we like several different versions of this fun letter-matching game, the basic play is the same across all of them. 

• Shuffle the cards and lay them face down on a table or floor. 
• Players take turns flipping 2 cards in an attempt to find a match. If they do, they remove the cards from the game. If they don’t, they turn them back over and the next player gets a turn. 
• The play continues until they find all the matches. 
• The player with the most cards wins. 

Try one of these suggestions to change things up: 

• Have them read each letter sound and say a word that starts with it as they turn them over. 

• If they get a match, let them have another turn but it’s good to limit this to one additional turn so everyone gets a chance to play. 
• Make it an uppercase and lowercase match game. 
• Have them match letters to appropriate pictures.