Fruit and Vegetable Shadow Matching Worksheet

About this sheet

Food is the easiest theme to carry off the page and into the day: the same six things turn up in the fruit bowl and on the plate. The pear is the one to watch, because a child who is guessing by roundness alone will reach for it every time.

How to use it

• Name each one first. Go down the left column together and say them out loud before a single line is drawn. Matching is easier once the words are in the room.
• Talk about the outline, not the answer. "This one has a very long neck" teaches the strategy. Pointing at the right shadow teaches nothing.
• A finger is fine. If holding a pencil is hard work, let the child trace the line with a finger, or cut the sheet into cards and place them side by side.
• Stop while it is still going well. Half a sheet finished happily beats a whole one finished in tears.

What it practises

Visual discrimination, the ability to notice how two shapes differ from one another. It is the skill underneath telling a b from a d later on. Drawing the connecting line adds a little fine-motor and left-to-right tracking practice on top.

If the pencil work is the hard part rather than the matching, the online version of this game uses the same animal photographs and needs only a tap.