I continue to address attributes with a number of my little people this year and have been pulling out games to support our goals in different ways.  I shared Snug as a Bug in a Rug a couple of weeks ago, as a way to work on colors, quantities, size and shape, but now want to bring out another supporting game–S’Match!

S’match addresses color, number (1-2) and category so it’s appropriate for even very young players.  The “real” way to play the game is to lay out the 30 game cards face down lik in Memory.  Spin the spinner to find out what kind of match you are trying to make.  Flip over two cards.  Do they match?  If so, keep the pair.  If not, flip them back over and the next player takes a turn.

The memory component can be a bit much for some youngsters so I often start by keeping all the cards face up and the child just needs to find an appropriate matching pair. Color is almost never an issue.  Numbers can be (lots of kids can’t overlook the color and focus on the number).  Category can be confusing to many (the possibilities are musical instruments, animals, vehicles).

I like that the categories featured allow for discussion of subcategories too.  “Yes, dog and cat both belong to the animal category and they are both pets.”  Or “Yes, dog and cow can go together.  The dog is an animal that is also a pet and cows are farm animals.”  Vehicles include motorcycles, boats, airplanes, trains and cars which give opportunities to discuss vehicles that travel on roads.  Instruments include trumpet, piano, cello, guitar and drum.

Once they can make matches with cards face up, we switch to the face down variation although I often allow kiddos to flip four so we can finish up more quickly.

The spinner is extremely sturdy and easy to use, even for a child with some motility issues.

Who else is S’match-ing or has another similar game to recommend?