Young learners’ development begins with matching skills in Mathematics. Matching helps children make sense of what they see, hence building their visual memory and laying the foundation for early mathematics and logic development. Matching activities include matching objects, symbols, shapes, and patterns as they progress through the pre-kindergarten curriculum.

Types of Matching Activities for Pre-K

1. Matching Objects

Aim: To connect two identical or related items from real life.
Examples:

• Pair socks 🧦
• Pair animal toys with a picture of that animal 🦁
• Pair two identical blocks 🟨🟨.

Activity suggestion:
Take a variety of small items (e.g., buttons, toy cars, crayons, etc.) and put them into a tray/container. Then have the child search for matching items and group them.

2. Matching Symbols

Objective: Identify and correctly match a letter, number, or simple symbol.
For instance:

• Match an uppercase letter to its lowercase counterpart (A ↔ a).
• Match a number card with a digit that’s the same (3 ↔ 3).
• Match an emoji to its corresponding picture (❤️ ↔ heart).

Activity:

• Create flash cards indicating various shapes, letters, or numbers.
• Ask the child to find and create pairs of cards that are identical.

3. Matching Shapes

Goal: Identify and pair 2D and 3D shapes.
Examples:

• Matching a circle button to a circle drawn on paper ⚪
• Pairing a square block with a square picture 🟨
• Sorting triangle chips with triangle flashcards 🔺

Activity:

• Draw shapes on paper and give the child cut-out shapes to match.
• Use shape puzzles where pieces fit into corresponding slots.

4. Matching Patterns

A Goal is to be able to identify and extend a very simple repeating sequence or pattern. For example:

Completing a color sequence: 🔴🟡🔴🟡🔴❓ (What comes next?)
Matching animal sequences: 🐶🐱🐶🐱🐶❓
Matching vertical strings of beads in the same color order (eg. red, blue, red, blue…)

Activity:

Use color blocks or beads to create a pattern and ask the child to extend that pattern
Print out simple pattern cards for the child to select the missing piece

Find similar objects:

Identify numerals 1-10 or more/ Counting objects to 10 or more

1                 2                 3                 4                 5                 6                 7

One             Two            Three          Four           Five            Six              Seven

8                 9                 10

Eight           Nine            Ten

Let’s count to ten together.

Now, let’s count how many bees are in the picture.