How to play the Memory game

The Memory game helps

• to teach pattern discrimination
• to practice sight word or letter recognition, and
• to develop concentration and memory skills.

The Memory game consists of two identical sets of cards that are shuffled and placed face down in an orderly arrangement. The cards are exposed two at a time and a matching pair of cards must be exposed simultaneously to be captured by a player. This requires players to remember the appearance and position of the cards to be successful in capturing them.

Two to four players can play the Memory game.

Here are the materials needed for the Memory game. The game requires two identical sets of cards of any number. The images on the cards may be any kind of visual images but are normally literacy-related images such as:

• Colors
• Letters
• Numbers
• Pictures
• Shapes
• Syllables
• Symbols
• Words

1. Lay the cards face down, in random order but in neat rows.
2. A player turns over any two cards to see if they match each other.

   Tip:	If they match, the player keeps them and turns over two more cards. This player continues playing in this way until the two cards do not match. If they do not match, the player turns the cards face down again in the same location and the next player takes his or her turn.

   If they match, the player keeps them and turns over two more cards.

   • Matching cards

   • Nonmatching cards

   Results: The winner is the player with the most cards at the end of the game.

Here is a variation of the Memory game:

• A player must correctly identify or read whatever is on the cards when he or she finds a matching pair.
• If the player cannot do so, he or she turns them face down again in the same location and the next player takes a turn.

• Task module: How to play the Memory game
• In task module: Playing literacy games
• In task module: Developing literacy skills, by Martha A. Lane (contributor), Delle P. Matthews (contributor), Leah B. Walter (contributor), Glenys Waters (contributor), Anne Klaassens (editor), and Trudy K. Stewart (editor, contributor)
• In task module: Teaching people to read and write, by Carole P. Spaeth (compiler)
• In task module: Implementing a literacy program, by Carole P. Spaeth (compiler)
• In modular book: Implement a literacy program, by Carole P. Spaeth (compiler) and Leah B. Walter (compiler)
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 16 March 1999

© 1999 SIL International