stART: Match the Machines
Turn on your child’s fascination with how things work with a simple homemade game.
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• small basket or container
• oaktag or index cards
• large sheets of paper (chart paper or newsprint)
• drawing paper
• glue stick
• scissors
• markers
• crayons
Together, read some books about machines and the work they do for us. Machines at Work and Big Farm Machines are good choices.  Make your own matching game. Cut out a variety of pictures of different types of machines found in different environments (home, school, and offices, for example). Glue them onto large index cards. On a larger sheet of paper, draw a house, an office building, a farm, or any other familiar place. Show your child the cards you made and talk about the names of each machine. Which is the largest? Which ones are smaller? Where does she think the machines would work best? Lay out all the cards and the drawings and work with your child to match each machine with the place it belongs.
• Supports matching skills
• Promotes vocabulary-building conversation
• Teaches pre-math concepts
