Matching

Here is a challenging matching game I made for Little Bean, My Pre K-er. Several months back we were drinking a lot of Vitamin Water, and as a result, we had a surplus of the little plastic caps that go with them. I began collecting them, and then used them to make this game. Now, every time we finish a juice bottle or Vitamin Water, I save the lid, and add more to this game.

The game is really quite simple to put together, but it's a little more challenging than just matching identical objects. In this game, the child must match the initial letter with the matching picture. For instance, if one bottle cap had a picture of a hippo on it, then the matching cap would be one with the letter H on it. Little Bean has played this game several times, and he is always excited when there are new caps in the bag. We have about 20 caps now, or 10 matches. Miss O likes to get it out too, and though she doesn't even know her letters yet, it's great practice for her in recognizing the different animals and letters and practicing their sounds. She likes to get them out one by one and name the letters with my help.

To make it, I just washed the caps out in the dishwasher and applied animal and letter stickers to each cap. We play with them face up, but you could also make it into a memory game by placing the caps face down, for even more of a challenge.