Shadow-matching cards 

I haven’t set up any specific matching work for Frida for a while, as I was struggling to think of something which would be suitably challenging (she’s tended to find colour matching and card to object / object to object matching work quite easy).

To be honest, I’ve not set up a huge amount of Montessori-inspired work for Frida in the last few months full stop, as I’ve found she is strongly drawn to imaginative play instead and doesn’t have a huge appetite for it. However recently I have been making more of an effort to set up some appealing work for her.

After seeing these shadow matching cards on This Merry Montessori I thought they would be a perfect activity for Frida at 22 months – familiar yet more challenging.

I bought the PDF for the cards from the Montessori Print Shop online store, for around $2 which seems very reasonable! I then just had to print and laminate them.

I would say they are a hit! I have been presenting all of the shadows together then giving her one animal at a time to match, as otherwise I thought it might be a bit overwhelming (there are 15 pairs).

Here Frida is working on her cards after breakfast, still in pyjamas! I often find her concentration is best after breakfast when she hasn’t already thrown herself into other play.

Some are harder than others – notably the snake as the shadow card just looks like a blob! – but mostly Frida can already do this activity with ease, and can complete the set of cards. I think the next step might be matching some shadow cards to animal figures, and I’m sure that would be more of a challenge.

These cards will also make a fun pair-matching memory game when Frida is older.