Game: Memory Shapes

Games guide

Our Flashcards and Memory games have been specially created to capture the attention of younger children and facilitate visualization from an early age, using high contrast colours, repetitive designs and solid shapes. What’s more, we’ve designed our materials with the intention of allowing as much flexibility as possible, as there are so many different ways to play with them, and so that both the tiles and the memory can be used by children of all ages – a unique way! to acquire a language! Here are some ideas to inspire you…

STORIES, RHYMES AND SONGS

Let your imagination run wild and make up stories, rhymes or songs about one or more memory game cards or tokens. Encourage your little ones to help you tell the story, think of the rhymes, and sing along with you. The repetition of the songs, rhymes and stories will serve to help them remember the objects on the cards.

HELLO & HOLA

Select several cards and place them around the room. Go to one of them and ‘say hello’, for example: “Hello cross”, “Good morning red mailbox” or “Good afternoon Big Ben”. Invite your children to follow you and greet them too, following your example. Once they can easily identify the objects, make a few mistakes on purpose and make a mistake when greeting an object to get corrected! If they don’t correct you, pretend you’ve been “wrong” and say something like: “Oh no, that’s not the cross, it’s the square! oops!”

REMEMBER REMEMBER

We consider this game to be appropriate for slightly older children, around 3 or 4 years old. Lay out a few cards on the table or tray so everyone can see them. Name the objects that appear on each card and ask the kids to repeat after you. Do this two or three times and then ask them to close their eyes while you remove a card, then have them tell you which card is missing. You can repeat this by putting the card back and drawing another, or not putting the drawn card back until there are no cards left.

SIMON SAYS

We first explain how to play “Simon says”: it is a simple game where players have to follow instructions when the leader says “Simon says…” but they must stand still if the leader gives an instruction without starting it with the phrase “Simon says… ”. For example, if the leader says “Simon says touch your nose” you have to touch your nose, but if he says “touch your nose” you should not touch your nose.
For our “Simón Says…” game, choose several memory cards or cards and distribute them in the room where you are playing. Make up instructions for children to follow, for example: “Simon says – find the orange marmalade” or “Simon says – point to the five taxis”, and make sure they are following the instructions correctly. You can decide how strict to be, letting them continue playing if they make a mistake or making them sit until the game is over.

WHO HAS…?

We want you to keep in mind that for this game you will need to ask the little ones questions, so they will probably have to be older. Review some or all of the cards, reading the name of the object and encouraging the little ones to repeat after you. Divide the cards among the players and then ask, “Who has…?” until you have named all the cards.
You can vary this game and incorporate “Simon says”, and instead of asking “Who has a red mailbox?” For example, you can say “Simon says stand up if you have a red mailbox.”