Identifying Objects That Look-Alike

Object, color, shape, and letter identification are the building blocks of many learning exercises and activities your preschoolers will be tackling as they develop. Matching games are wonderful activities that challenge and expand these important skills. Teacher supply stores and toy chains offer many variations of this activity including card games, board games, and even puzzles. If you’re working with a tight budget, there are some exceptional do-it-yourself ideas that offer the same opportunities for learning. Onna from Toddler Craft suggests visiting your local dollar store for holiday, animal, or sports-inspired erasers. They are easy to handle and most packages come with multiples. Making sure each has a match, place the erasers into a large bowl and have your students take turns identifying pairs.

Amy of The Wonder Years blog recommends a matching progression: object to object, object to picture, and finally, picture to picture. A simple example might include shape cutouts or shape blocks. Provide each student with five or six shape pairs. Ask them to identify and separate each pair. Once they’ve mastered this, introduce a picture of the shapes, encouraging them to match the cutout or block with its matching picture. Lastly, have your students match pictures of each shape. Each step introduces greater difficulty.

If the children aren’t challenged by either of these activities, consider placing objects in a brown bag and have students match the items by touch only. This can be a very difficult task, but fun as they learn to trust other senses besides sight!

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