So who is looking forward to the upcoming release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens??? As I shared recently, Dad 101 is on a mission to get us all excited! And after creating the fun shadow puppets (you can download a copy here) I had the idea of using the images to also create some memory cards. We love memory match games here. But these aren’t just fun for memory – I’m sharing seven different games that you can play with them.
7 Ways to Play With Star Wars Matching Cards
1. Memory Match or Concentration: A great introduction to playing memory match as an individual game, instead of a partner game. Lay all of the cards out on the table face down. Have your child turn over two cards, if they match they keep the pair and take another turn. If they don’t match, the cards are both turned back over again before they take another turn. They’ll need to keep a sharp eye out to see if they can remember where the matching pairs are hiding.
2. Pattern making: Practise this important math skill by printing out extra copies of the matching cards (you won’t need the backing sheet for this one) and using the characters to make repeated patterns.
3. What’s missing? Place down one set of cards face up and allow your child to study them for one minute. Tell them to close their eyes while you remove one card. Can they work out who is missing?
4. Play charades: One player selects a card at random (without looking) and uses body actions (no talking!) to describe the character on the card he’s chosen to the other players. The other players must watch carefully and call out their guesses. The first person to guess the correct word or phrase takes the next turn.
5. Alphabetical order: Use one set of the cards and challenge your child to put the characters into alphabetical order.
6. Tell me challenge: Choose one card at random and challenge your child to tell you 10 things about that character in under one minute.
7. Story cards: Shuffle a set of cards and place them on a stack face down. The first person playing chooses a card and begins telling a story featuring the character selected. At the end of an agreed period of time (it could be two sentences, 30 seconds, one minute – you choose according to the age and development of your children), the next player turns over the next card and continues telling the story, injecting the second character into the storyline. Continue play until all of the cards have been used.
To download and print: Click here to download the memory game. This will open a PDF file. Download or save the PDF to your own computer. Open the PDF and print. When printing, select “Fit to printable area” (or similar) to ensure the page fits with your printer type and local paper size (these have been created at A4 size). You will need to print the first page, the memory card discs onto one side of the paper and then flip the paper to print the backing sheet. For durability, I suggest printing onto matte photo paper or lightweight cardstock and laminating before use. Personal, non commercial use only.
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Christie Burnett is an early childhood teacher, presenter, writer and the editor of Childhood 101. More importantly, she is a Mum who believes wholeheartedly in the value of children learning through play, the importance of quality early education, and the togetherness of family.
