They love animals. Give them a world made of them.
Turn their favorite zebras, lions and elephants into a picture book made from your child's photo, where your little one is the hero of every page.
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Print the animal pages and the coat pages on card stock, then cut out each card.
Choose three very different pairs to start, such as zebra, sheep and crocodile.
Lay the three coat cards face up in a row in front of your toddler.
Hold up one animal, name it, and place it on its coat while saying, "Stripes, like the zebra."
Hand your toddler the next animal and let them find its coat, pointing gently if they need help.
Add one or two new pairs each time your toddler matches the first set easily.
An animal skin matching game is a picture-pairing game where your toddler places each animal card on the card showing its coat: stripes, spots, wool, scales or a shell.
PDF · 12 pages
An animal skin matching game suits toddlers from about 18 months to 3 years. Matching pictures is harder than matching real objects, so younger toddlers do best with two or three very different pairs and lots of showing. Children nearer 3 can often match them all, including the tiger and zebra.
An animal skin matching game practices matching, noticing patterns and learning animal names. Your toddler looks closely at stripes, spots, wool and scales, compares them, and hears new words like fluffy, scaly and wrinkly as you talk about each pair.
Show the match yourself first, slowly and with few words. In the animal skin matching game, place one animal on its coat, say what you see, then hand your toddler the next card. Begin with three pairs that look very different and add more only when those feel easy.
Yes, the animal skin matching cards are safe with an adult nearby, because whole cards are too large to swallow. Keep scissors out of reach while you cut, and watch for chewing, since wet paper can tear into small pieces. Laminating or covering the cards helps.
Print the animal skin matching cards on card stock and seal them with laminating pouches or clear contact paper. Rounding the corners stops peeling and keeps edges soft, and a zip bag or envelope keeps all the cards together for the next game.
That is normal, and it usually means the animal skin matching game needs to be shorter or simpler. Try two pairs for a couple of minutes and turn it into finding where each animal sleeps. Put the cards away and try again another day.
Ages 2–5 · 20 min
Turn their favorite zebras, lions and elephants into a picture book made from your child's photo, where your little one is the hero of every page.
Create your book
