Wooden Montessori Animal Matching Game – Picture Lotto & Memory

Four colour boards, 24 tiles and one tile to turn over

Each player picks a board: red, yellow, blue or green. Six pictures sit on it, one per square. The red board, for instance, shows a whale, a car, an owl, an umbrella, a frog and a rabbit. The 24 wooden tiles are shuffled face down in the middle of the table, and from behind they all look the same, with the same pattern of little dots. On their turn, your child turns one over, looks at the picture, then searches their own board for its twin.

If the cat they have just uncovered is on one of their squares, the tile goes on top of it and the picture on the board disappears under its double. If not, the tile goes back face down without being shown, and play passes to the next person, clockwise. The first player to cover all six squares wins; the others carry on for second and third place. If you grew up with a kids' bingo game, the idea will feel familiar: fill your board first. The difference is that there is no caller here, because each player draws their own tile. That makes this animal matching game one of those board games for 3 year olds that a child can follow from the first tile to the last.

One detail makes the games closer than they look: every picture appears on two boards. The whale is on both the red and the blue board, the dinosaur on the blue and the yellow. With four players, the same tile can suit two people, and it goes to whoever turns it over at the right moment.

When the lotto is over, the same tiles start a second game. Put the boards away, shuffle the 24 pieces face down, and each player turns over two tiles hoping for a pair. That is the animal memory game, the other half of this 2-in-1 set.

What the animal matching game works on: looking, naming, remembering

In the lotto, everything starts with a comparison. Your child holds one picture in their hand and checks it against the six on their board. They have to look properly, because the owl and the lion are both yellow, and the whale shares its blue with the boat and the spotted dog. Placing the tile on the right square means pairing two identical images, an exercise found in the materials of the Montessori approach: if the picture does not match, the child sees it for themselves, without an adult having to correct them. This is known as the control of error.

The game is also a reason to talk. Eight animals (whale, owl, frog, rabbit, cat, dog, lion and dinosaur) sit alongside four familiar objects: a car, an umbrella, a house and a boat. Naming each tile as it is turned over ("What is it? A dinosaur.") builds vocabulary at the moment the picture is in the hand, which is what turns a simple matching game with pictures into an educational game for language. If you are gathering other learning games around words and pictures, this one covers both animals and everyday things.

The memory half trains a different skill: remembering where things are. Turn two tiles over, show them, then put them back exactly where they were. Everyone has to hold on to where the rabbit or the umbrella was spotted earlier, to find it again at the right moment. Played together, both games also teach children to wait for their turn and to accept that someone else may find the pair they were watching for.

Your first game of picture lotto: start small

Before playing, present this animal matching game the way you would a Montessori picture lotto: take the tiles out one at a time, name each picture with your child, place it on its square, then put everything away. This first handling, with no winner and no loser, shows how the pieces go together before any rule is asked of them.

For the first real game, keep it simple. Play with two people, tiles face up, and let your child place the ones that belong on their board. The usual mistake is to start with four players and the full rules: the wait between turns gets long for a 3-year-old, and interest drops. With two players, each person can take two boards, as the Goki rules allow, which gives more squares to fill and keeps the pace up.

Once your child knows the rules, try the variant in the leaflet: every tile that is turned over is shown to everyone before it goes back face down. Each player then remembers where the picture they need is hiding, and the lotto starts to look like the memory game.

From lotto to memory as your child grows, and caring for the wood

From 3 years, the lotto stands on its own: turn over, compare, place. The full rules, with hidden tiles and a race to the first full board, follow soon after, then the variant where every tile is shown. Among matching games for 3 year olds, it gives a child one simple task per turn, and the variants keep it going later.

The memory game comes next. Start with just six pairs, so twelve tiles, and add the rest once your child finds their pairs without hesitating. Memory games for 3 year olds work best kept this short. By 5, the animal memory match game with all 24 tiles face down is a real contest that holds its own among matching games for 5 year olds, and adults do not always win it. The game changes its rules rather than its box.

The wood wipes clean with a barely damp cloth, then dries in the open air; avoid soaking it or leaving it near a radiator. Store the tiles with the boards after every round of the animal matching game: a single lost piece means one pair missing from the memory game and one square left empty in the lotto. The same care suits the rest of your traditional wooden toys.

What sets this animal matching game apart

First, the 2-in-1 design. Many children's matching games come with a single set of rules. Here the 24 tiles work with the boards for the lotto, then without them as a picture matching memory game: one set to put away, two games to learn one after the other as your child grows.

Next, the material. This wooden memory match game has boards painted in bold colours that are easy to tell apart around the table, and pale wooden tiles that small fingers can pick up and turn over without trouble. Compared with picture memory games played on a screen, everything here is held, turned and placed by hand.

Finally, the pictures. This is not strictly an animals-only set: next to the eight animals, the car, umbrella, house and boat bring everyday objects into the vocabulary. The drawings are simple and stand out clearly on the light wood, with no busy background to pull attention away, which keeps it an easy image matching game for the youngest players. More games with short rules to share as a family are in our board games.

Questions parents ask

How do you play picture lotto?

Each player takes a board and the tiles are shuffled face down. On your turn, turn one over: if the picture is on your board, place it on its square; if not, put it back face down without showing it. The first full board wins, and the picture lotto game rules come in the Goki leaflet.

What age is this animal matching game for?

It is recommended from 3 years. The lotto comes first, because it only asks the child to compare two pictures; the memory game with 24 tiles needs more memory and is often played a little later, starting with a few pairs.

How many players can join in?

The lotto is for 2 to 4 players, with one board each; with two players, each person can take two boards. The memory game is played in turns, and one adult and one child are enough for a game.

How do you play the memory game with the tiles?

Lay the 24 tiles face down and mix them well. Each player turns over two tiles, shows them, then puts them back in place. Whoever finds a pair keeps it and plays again, and the player with the most pairs at the end wins this memory game with pictures.

Specifications

• Age: from 3 years
• Contents: 28 wooden pieces: 4 lotto boards (red, yellow, blue, green) with 6 illustrated squares each, and 24 picture tiles making 12 pairs, all with the same dotted back
• Pictures: whale, car, owl, umbrella, frog, rabbit, cat, house, boat, dog, lion and dinosaur
• Two games: lotto for 2 to 4 players and a memory game, with the rules for both
• Material: wood
• Brand: Goki, reference 56780
• Guarantee: 2 years