Memory Game

Ester Biancy—Itali
Age          : 6-10
Times      : 30 minutes
Materials: Sets of cards with words and drawings/pictures of fruit (or other vocabulary group), one    set for each group of four.
Organization: Group work, whole class.
Aim: To introduce and practice vocabulary, to practice pronunciation.
Description: This is an adaption of the classic card-matching game sometimes called Pelmanism. In this version the children have to find picture/word combinations, but there are a number of variations.
Preparation: You will need to create sets of cards – at least 14 cards in each set. To explain the activity we are using fruit as the vocabulary set, but you can choose whichever vocabulary you like. On seven cards draw/stick pictures of fruit and on the other seven, write the names of the fruit.
Procedure

1. Show the pictures cards to the children and repeat the words all together.
2. Show the children the word cards with the picture cards and repeat again. 
3. Divide the class into groups of four and give each group a set of cards. One child in each group shuffles the cards and lays them face down on the desk. 
4. The children take it in turns to turn over two cards to try and find a picture-word pair. If the child is successful, they say the name of the fruit and take the card and turns over two more cards. If they are not successful, the cards are turned face down again and the next child has a turn. The child with the most cards at the end is the winner.

Notes
In activities where the children are working in groups, especially in competitive games such as this one, it can useful to nominate one child in each group as the group leader and give them responsibility for leading the activity and monitoring it.
Alternatives

1. This game can be played with any vocabulary set. It can be played with sound/ letter pairs, such as the letter “C” and a picture of a car.
2. The same game could be played with question/ answer pairs or with matching sentence halves to practice grammar points. For example, matching tenses and adverbs: one set cards has time adverbs such as yesterday, twice a day, since 2000, next week. The other set has phrases such as I went to the doctors’, I’m not feeling well, I brush my teeth, I’ve been at this school, I’m going to the USA. 
3. The children can draw the pictures on pieces of paper/card in preparation for the game.
4.  Gulanara Janova (Georgia) suggests another game with cards which she calls ‘Fishing’. Put the prepared vocabulary picture cards, or objects into a box or bag. Ask the children to come to the front one at a time to pick a picture/object out of the bag/box – tell them they are ‘catching a fish’. The child who has caught a fish has to name it. If they name it correctly, they take it back to their seat. If they cannot name it, they have to put it back in the bag/box. The child with the most ‘fish’ at the end is the winner. This activity can also be used to revise/practise grammar, for example, children can describe their picture (e.g. ‘It’s a big, black cat’) or say what their classmates have caught (e.g. ‘I have a cat, Dana has a horse, Ivan has a duck and Josi has a lion.’).

Reference
Crazy animals and other activities for teaching English to young learner book  Download PDF