Memory is such a great game to reinforce vocabulary and practice reading/memorization skills. All you need is a deck of memory cards. Place them face down and let students pick two at a time. The goal is to get two matching cards for points. It’s so simple. However, this game is so universally used, it can get a bit tedious after awhile. Also, I don’t like the idea of printing out cards only to use them in one game. Variety is the spice of life; that’s why I’ve come up with some fantastic ways to reuse your memory matching cards in other fun activities
Scavenger Hunt
Do you have time before your class? If so, take some time to hide your cards all over the classroom and even around the surrounding rooms (if you are allowed to). Then, put your students into teams and have them look for all the cards. Every card they find is one point and if they have a matching set give them three points.
You can also print out two decks. Then only hide one. Split the other deck with the teams and have them look for the matching cards of what they have in their hands. The first team to finish their deck wins.
I like this game because it gets the kids moving and exploring. The kids also seem to love being able to hunt around for the cards. When they inevitably find a card they don’t need anymore (they already have the match), I encourage them to hide it somewhere else as a fun bit of mischief.
Do You Have….?
This game is played a lot like Go Fish. Sit your students in a circle and then deal all the cards to them. The goal is to get as many pairs as they can (just like in memory). They do this by taking turns asking each other, “Do you have *card*?”. This continues until all the pairs have been found.
This game is a great way for them to practice target language. With older students, sometimes instead of asking if someone has something, they will use whatever question we’ve just learned. For example a student may hold up a feelings card and as, “Are you feeling sad?”. Then the person being asked responds with a yes or no depending on whether or not they have the card.
Race And Match Relay
This is a great way to get rid of your students extra energy. Get two decks and give each team half a deck. Then, have them gather at the back of the classroom while you sit in the front with the other halves of the decks. When you say “Go!”, a student from each team will run, grab a card, and run back to put it next to it’s matching card. Then another student from that team will do the same. Make sure to emphasis that only one student may run at a time. The first team to match all their cards wins.
In this version of the game, you may want to adjust how many cards being used depending on how much running you want your kids to do. Give them more cards if you want them really worn out, or less if you don’t.
True Memorization
For this you will want to use a book/towel/cloth/piece of large paper as a cover. All you have to do is place the card down on the desk in a specific order. Give your students from 30 seconds up to 2 minutes to memorize the word order (depending how many cards you put down). Then, cover the cards and tell them they have a small amount of time to write the words in order. You can have them sit in pairs or teams, or just tell them to do this as a solo activity.
If you are making this a team game, consider printing three decks of cards. One deck is for you to put random cards on the desk. The other decks go to each team. Instead of writing the word order, they look through their decks and try to place cards on another desk in the same order as you did.
Creative Writing
Finally, you can take old memory cards and use them with other decks of cards for a creative writing class. Give your students a writing prompt such as “what I want to do tomorrow” or “my favorite vacation”. Shuffle the decks and tell the students to pick a card from each deck. The words they’ve taken must be added into their writing. This can lead to some funny tangents; imagine using a deck of kitchen vocabulary with a prompt such as “all about my favorite animal”. It’s silly.
Instead of giving a prompt, you can also just give them some random cards and have that be their writing prompt. It’s interesting to see what story they can come up with when the cards are “horse”, “dog”, and “energetic”.
Some Memory Decks For You:
If none of these decks appeal to you, I recommend sites such as Teachers Pay Teachers, Islcollective, or Education.com. You can find many different memory card decks to download for your class. You can also use Google to find any specific kind of decks you need.