The twins are 2 1/2 now, and they’re loving their figurine toys and flash cards! We’re especially excited about organizing things together and naming them… and when I say organizing, I mean spreading things out across the floor or table and leaving them there. There’s no way we would sort things into tubs on a shelf. That would make mom’s life way too easy.
I decided to combine the best of both worlds with figurines and flash cards by making a matching game.
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Using Cigarette Cards
Yes, you read that correctly. I said cigarette cards. According to Wiki (yes, I’m citing Wiki here), cigarette cards were “trade cards issued by tobacco manufacturers to stiffen cigarette packaging and advertise cigarette brands.”
Let’s just look past the horribleness that comes from cigarettes, and talk about the artwork on these cards. Some of it is pretty cool. The New York Public Library Digital Collections makes many of these images available to download for free on their website. I decided that these vintage images would be perfect for flashcards in this project.
Side Note: No one wants to promote cigarettes in kids activities. Duh! A couple of the images I used had the cigarette company name on them, so I just used PicMonkey to edit them out. Easy-peasy!
Making The Matching Game
Instead of making you download a bunch of images, I made my printables available for you. Scroll to the bottom of this post to download the printable.
Supplies
- Animal figurines – I used this set, and these animals match the printable below
- Animal card printables (at the bottom of this post)
- Paper cutter and scissors
- 3 sheets of colored construction paper
- Glue stick
- Clear contact paper
Assemble the Cards
- Cut out the animal card images.
- Cut the construction paper into quarters.
- Clue the animal images to the construction paper.
- “Laminate” the cards with clear construction paper, smoothing out any bubbles with a credit card.
- Trim away any excess clear contact paper.
Animal Figurine Matching Game
The twins love their new matching game! I just spread out the cards, and let them match up the animal figurine with the correct card.
Who doesn’t love a educational and quiet activity?!?!
The 12 animals in the figurine set and the cards fit perfectly into a dollar store container. One day my twins will put them away in this container on their own. Until that day, let’s just enjoy a picture of everything NOT spread out everywhere.
Vintage Animal Card Printable
Here’s your printable for the 12 vintage animal cards. Click here to download the printable: Vintage Animal Cards Printable.
These 12 animals match this set of 12 animal figurines.
This seems like it would be a really fun game for kids 5+. Matching animal figurines to their card counterparts is something my son would probably be interested in. Later on, you could even change it up a little and have them match the figure to the footprints could be fun too.
My son goes to a Headstart-like school. One of his aptitude tests is something very similar to this. They have to match figurines with pictures. Looks like a fun game! And a fun way to develop kids’ brains.