What a great time of year for kids to review their knowledge of the months of the year. This printable visual memory matching game helps them do just that.
Of course, the educational fun doesn’t stop there. This game also helps students strengthen visual memory, visual discrimination, working memory and attention skills at the same time.
While I happen to offer this game as part of a combo pack in my store, I decided to present it to my newsletter subscribers here for free. Not a subscriber yet? Sign up in the box below and you’re on your way to January’s free printable, and February’s, and the one in March, and…
As you can see I had a little fun with the graphic styling of the names. That means I wouldn’t recommend these cards for a child’s first exposure to the names of the months. Make sure students can make sense of stylized versions of words. We’re aiming for fun, not frustration.
Most likely you can think of a variety of alternative ways to use these month cards. I’ll simply include the basic instructions for a visual memory matching game here.
Instructions:
Print 2 copies. Cut out all 24 cards.
I recommend light colored, heavy paper or card stock so that you can see the images on the front but not the back. If you print on standard paper you may wish to paste each card to a thicker, colorful background.
To play:
- Place cards face down in rows.
- Players take turns flipping 2 cards right side up.
- If the cards match, the player keeps the pair and takes another turn.
- If the cards do not match, player flips both cards face down again, remembering the names of the months on the cards.
- The next player takes a turn.
- The player with the most matching pairs at the end of the game wins.
To simplify:
Make this a matching activity only. Build visual discrimination skills by presenting one card, then asking the child to find the match.
To increase the challenge:
If your child has already learned the order of all 12 months of the year, add a new step to the game. Find or make your own number tiles, 1-12. Whenever a player makes a match instruct the player to find the number tile to match the order of the month. For example, find the #2 tile for February.
Final instruction:
Have fun!
