🧠 How to create a Matching Pairs activity

The Matching Pairs template is a classic memory game (often called "Concentration"). It’s an excellent way to boost short-term memory and reinforce associations between words, definitions, or images.

IN THIS ARTICLE:

• How is the Matching Pairs activity played?
• How and what do you type into Edit content for Matching Pairs?
• Where can I find some more examples?

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How the activity is played

The game begins with a grid of face-down tiles.

• The Interaction: The player flips over one tile, then tries to find its partner by flipping a second tile.

• The Result:

  • If they match: The tiles stay face-up or are removed from the board.

  • If they don't match: Both tiles flip back over. The player must remember where those items are for their next turn.

• The Goal: Clear the entire board by finding all the pairs in the fewest moves or shortest time possible.

• Final Screen: Users can see their time and move count, then submit their score to the Leaderboard.

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Creating your Matching Pairs activity

1. Click Create Activity and choose Matching Pairs.

   

   
    

2. Choose your pairing style:

   • Pairs of identical items: The player matches two tiles that are exactly the same (e.g., 🍎 and 🍎).

   • Pairs of different items: The player matches related but different items (e.g., the word "Apple" and an image 🍎).

3. Add your content:

   • Type the text or upload an image for the first item in the pair.

   • Enter the corresponding text or image for the second item.

4. Click Add a pair or press Enter to add the next set.

5. Click Done to save your game.

   
    

6. Scroll down to Visual style to add a creative style to your activity, or tailor the difficulty in the Options panel below the activity:

   

   • Timer
     • None: Disables the timer completely, giving students an untimed environment to uncover and match tiles at their own pace.
     • Count up: Displays an ascending stopwatch that measures the precise amount of time it takes a student to reveal and match all pairs in the game.
     • Count down: Sets a strict, descending time limit (e.g., 5 minutes). The game ends automatically if the timer runs out before all pairs are found.
   • Tile mechanics
     • Show numbers on tiles: When checked, this overlays structural numbers onto the backs of the face-down cards, helping students more easily identify, call out, or track individual tile positions.
     • Tiles are eliminated once they've been revealed: When enabled, correctly matched card pairs disappear entirely from the active grid layout instead of just staying flipped open, reducing visual clutter as the game progresses.
     • Automatically proceed after marking: If checked, the interface instantly processes the matching animation and advances game states the moment a student selects a matching combination.
   • Layout
     • Mixed: Scatters and scrambles all item sets randomly across the board layout, meaning a item and its corresponding match can appear anywhere within the grid.
     • Separated: Organises the hidden deck cleanly into separate visual groups or sides, restricting items to one half of the layout and their matching pairs to the other.
   • Saving options
     • Apply to this activity: Saves these specific choices only for the activity you are currently editing.
     • More: Click this drop-down to find:
       • Set as default for template: Remembers these rules as your standard configuration for every future game you build using the Matching pairs template.
       • Revert to default: Clears custom changes and returns the options panel back to your previously saved personal defaults.
       • Revert to author's setting: Restores the activity parameters back to the original layout configured by the initial community creator.

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Creating Matching Pairs with AI

You don't need to be a prompt expert to use our AI. It is designed to be intuitive and accessible directly from the activity creator.

1. Click Create Activity and select Matching Pairs.

   

   
    

2. Look for the ✨ Generate with AI button at the top right of the content editor.

   
    

3. Enter your content:

   • Topic: Type a subject like "Foreign Language Vocabulary" or "Famous Inventions and Inventors."

   • Text / Notes: Paste your summary notes or textbook outlines. The AI will scan the text, isolate key terms, and automatically structure them into complementary concept pairs.

   • File: Upload a PDF or Word doc. Wordwall AI will analyse your material's context structure and instantly produce a balanced set of interconnected pairs extracted directly from your file.

4. Click Generate. The AI will populate the layout table with your paired combinations. Review the matching elements, make any manual text adjustments if needed, and hit Done.

   

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Need inspiration?

Some examples of Matching Pairs activities have been created by our users and shared with the Wordwall resource community.