Memory Game Cards

Pairs, shuffled, on one page

Every symbol appears twice, the whole deck is shuffled, and the cards print in a grid ready to cut apart. Turn them face down and take turns flipping two.

Six pairs prints 12 cards in a 4×3 grid, eight pairs gives 16 in a 4×4, and twelve pairs gives 24 in a 6×4.

Four symbol sets

• Letters A to L. The most useful set for a young child, because matching two letter shapes is a real pre-reading skill.
• Numbers 1 to 12.
• Shape names — the words Circle, Square, Triangle and so on.
• Picture words — Star, Heart, Sun, Moon, Tree, Fish and the rest.

Two of those sets print words rather than pictures, and that is worth knowing before you print for a pre-reader. The PDF uses the standard print fonts, which carry no emoji glyphs, so the picture set is labelled in words instead of drawn. For a child who cannot read yet, use letters or numbers — or print the word set and let them draw the picture on each card before playing, which is a decent activity on its own.

How many pairs to print

Six for a three- or four-year-old. Twelve is a real game for a seven-year-old, and adults find twenty-four cards genuinely difficult if they are not concentrating.

Start smaller than you think. A child who wins a six-pair game wants to play again; one who loses a twelve-pair game to an adult usually does not.

What the game trains

Spatial working memory, which is one of the few things a card game trains that is difficult to practise any other way. A player has to hold "the Star was second from the left in the top row" across several turns while other information arrives on top of it.

It is also one of the very few games where a young child can legitimately beat an adult, because the adult's advantages — strategy, vocabulary, arithmetic — do not apply. That matters more than it sounds for a child who usually loses.

Printing and making them last

Print on card if you have it, or glue the sheet onto cereal box card before cutting.

Ordinary paper is thin enough to see the symbol through from the back under a bright light, which children notice immediately and exploit without mentioning it. Card, or a second sheet glued behind, fixes it.

The controls

Title, pair count, and symbol set. Paper size A4 or US Letter. Print at 100% so the cards come out the same size as each other.