The Matching Tree

What is the game? 

Can you be first to make your tree? Can you be first to make a matching tree?

Absorbing fun for children and families, while pre-schoolers learn colours and shapes, and develop matching, handling, sorting, observational and counting skills in a game with cards, discs and colourful characters.

The distinctive features of the game include: memorable shape characters on cards and discs; bright, chunky discs that the children enjoy picking out of the sorting tray; colourful boards that are the base for making and matching the trees, specially made for easy handling and swapping among players.

The first part of the game involves turning character cards and Choose cards to find the characters that can be picked out of the tray to make up the first tree. The second part is a free search in the tray as the children race to find the characters needed to make their matching tree.

Who is it for?

Players from 3 years up can play, with 2-4 players taking part in a mix of chance, observation and action that is as much fun for the adults as the children. The game can be played in the family home, among friends, or at school, especially in the pre-school nursery or playgroup. The game does not need a command of language to play, and has world-wide potential. The stock characters are appealing in themselves, but the product also lends itself easily to licensed character adaptation.

What is in the game?

Sorting tray

Disc bag

Tree board with 2 tree patterns x 4 boards

Big bright yellow discs x 96, featuring shape characters as follows:

The Circle family, Rollo, Gobo and Bounce (8 of each character)

The Square family, Ruckus, Gruff and Buck (8 of each character)

The Triangle family, Ribble, Griggle and Biddle (8 of each character)

The Star family, Raydar, Gazz and Barni (8 of each character)

Character cards x 56 (including 8 Choose cards)

How do you set up? 

Pour all the discs from the bag into the sorting tray and give them a quick shuffle around in the tray. Shuffle the character cards and place the deck face down near the tray. Each player takes a tree board and sits near the tray, ready to go.

How do you play? 

There are two parts to the game, making a tree and matching a tree.

Making a tree 

You have to make up only one of the trees on your board by fitting the correct discs from the tree into the round spaces on your tree shape. Every disc in your tree must show a different character, and you can only use one of the Star family, who goes at the top of the tree.

Starting from the youngest, each player in turn picks a card from the pack. You can’t start making your tree until you pick up a card featuring one of the Star family: Raydar, Gazz or Barni. Every time you turn up a card, put it on the discard pile for possible use again later. If you use all the pack, shuffle the deck and start it again.

When you have turned up a Star character card, look for that character among the discs in the tray and pop the disc into the top round space to start making your tree.

Now you have your Star in place, you can make up the rest of your tree. Each time you pick up a card that has a character you haven’t used, find that character among the discs in the tray and add it to your tree, anywhere you wish. Remember you can’t use any of the Star family except at the top of the tree, and every disc you use must show a different character.

Choose cards

Eight of the cards in the pack have mini-pics of all of the characters, and the word Choose in three colours. If you pick up a Choose card you can choose any character you want or need from the tray to pop into your tree.

Give a high five to the first to finish a tree with one of the Star family on the top, joined by all the different characters from the other families.

The rest of the players may now have a search in the tray to find the rest of the characters to finish their tree. When everyone has made one tree on their boards, you are ready for the second part of the game. 

Matching a tree

Swap the boards between players so everyone ends up with a different one. Swap the boards carefully so all tree discs stay in place. Now you have to see who is first to match what the other player has made.

All players search in the tray together to find the characters you need. These characters must come from the tray, not from the boards or from other players, and you may pick up only one disc at a time. Each time you find a character you need, pop it into the correct space on your matching tree so it matches exactly what the other player did. The winner is the player who is first to finish, with their board showing the same characters in the same places on both trees.

How do you score? (optional) 

You may be happy simply to have the first to finish as the winner for each part of the game - or you may like to use the scoring system below; you’ll need pencil and paper to record the scores.

When the first player completes a tree in the first part, making a tree, pause to record the scores before the rest of the players complete their tree. Each player gets a point for the number of discs they have already placed in their tree.

When the first player completes a matching tree in the second part, matching a tree, pause before the rest of the players complete their matching tree. Each player gets a point for the number of discs they have already placed in their matching tree.

Add together the points from each part to find the overall winner of the game.

Are there other ways to play? (optional) 

  1. If there is a mix of ages among the players in the game, you may wish to let the youngest player or players start off their matching tree search first, with other players joining the search once the youngest have their first two characters in place.
  1. As an alternative to a free search and race in the second part of the game, you may wish to use the cards to find the matching characters. If you do, it’s recommended you allow all players a free search to find their first two matching characters.

The game has been thoroughly tested with families and schoolchildren, including over two days with the early years’ groups at Whitley Chapel First School in Northumberland.

 

“The Matching Tree was beautifully bright and colourful, and wonderfully tactile too. All the children thoroughly enjoyed the game, and I had to fend off requests to play it again and again. From a learning point of view, I was surprised and pleased at just how much value was to be found in a simple game. Not just matching, but sorting, ordering, sets, and learning basic mathematical symbols and colours. It tested observational skills too, and gave us plenty of scope for social interaction and conversation. The children especially liked the Choose cards where they could select a character from those they needed, and they loved searching around the tray.”

 

Mrs Joni Dickens, Early Learning Lead and Maths Coordinator, Whitley Chapel First School; Early Learning Moderator, Northumberland County Council