How to create Matching games on TinyTap
Matching games teach children how to recognize commonalities among objects and identify patterns, both important exercises for building organizational skills. In math class, they encourage children to consider different expressions of the same concept (for example, 2+2 and 3+1 both equal 4) and when applied in a language class, matching games offer a fun format for reviewing vocabulary.
While traditional matching games might conjure up images of crisscrossed worksheets or a worn stack of playing cards, connecting two parts of a pair by tapping and dragging on a screen is actually more intuitive for today’s youth.
On TinyTap, teachers can make matching games to correspond with any and every lesson, and students can even make their own matching games to rehearse the material. Scroll down to play a demo matching game and read a few tips for creating your own.
Sample TinyTap Matching Game
Pro-Tips for making a matching game on TinyTap
Identical Puzzle Pieces
Trace puzzle pieces identical in shape and size so that players won’t be able to simply guess the matches according to their fit. Double-tap on the first piece you cut out to get the same shape ready to be moved over the next area you wish to cut out.
Add A Word Bank To Your Page Layout
When designing they layout of your matching page, it’s best to keep an empty section so that you can position your puzzle pieces in a way that won’t obscure the grooves. Compare the following two slides: the puzzle pieces in the first page are arranged in a way that blocks the grooves, making it difficult to solve. The second page has a blank upper-right corner, designed with the scattered puzzle pieces in mind.
Shuffle Your Pages
Shuffle your pages so that they won’t appear in the same order each time players attempt your game. This will help them learn the material, not just memorize its order.
Matching games are great for rehearsing colors and shapes, language learning, assessment activities, and more. Make your own matching game on TinyTap and type #MatchingGame in the description!
Play To Win: Introducing TinyTap’s Challenge Mode
Games are fun and all … but isn’t anyone keeping score?! TinyTap’s Challenge Mode gives a competitive edge to your favorite games and quizzes with leaderboards, time limits, and lives.
Play to improve your score. Play to beat your friend. Play to master the material. Play to win.
What kind of games can you create with the Challenge Mode?
Trivia – Stump friends and family with DIY trivia contests about … well, any subject you choose! Invite your Facebook following to take your challenge and see if it goes viral (or just prove that you’re the smartest sibling, after all)!
Class Quiz – Create timed quizzes with scores and winners. Suitable for both take-home tests and class-wide game shows.
Homework – Send your students home with a fun, interactive way to review the class lesson. Let them play your game over and over until they get the right answers down pat.
Study Prep – Replace those tattered 3×5 index cards with a more exciting way to drill in the material. Step one: create a quick game out of content you need to learn. Step two: play the game. Step three: repeat until you master it. Step four (optional): share link with your study buddy if you’re feeling generous! Especially helpful for vocabulary, geography, and math concepts.
Enable Challenge Mode
Tap the trophy to activate Challenge Mode on your TinyTap game. Set a time limit on each question or the entire game and give your players a finite number of lives.
Pass along the challenge
Invite friends and family to play your games. Watch them climb the charts and see if they can beat your score!
Pro tips for creating a TinyTap game with Challenge Mode
Use images from the brand-spanking-new “Quiz Show” sticker pack to set the stage and help get your players’ head in the game.
Shuffle your slides and/or questions so that they won’t appear in the same order each time players take a whack at your quiz. This way it will take smarts – not memorization – to master your game.
How well can you score on these top-notch TinyTap quizzes?
What are you waiting for? Create your trivia game or classroom quiz with TinyTap!
Put your students ahead with TinyTap analytics!
Play, Measure, Improve and go again!
Go beyond just playing… see how your students progress and where they need help. Track players’ performances and gather actionable analytics.
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TinyTap announces a redesign to help older learners create their own educational apps
TinyTap is growing up! The popular game creation app is “graduating preschool” and re-launching as a powerful, fast educational platform suitable for all ages. Now anyone can create and learn with TinyTap’s interactive lessons – all with their own photos, videos and voice.
The Big TinyTap Redesign introduction from Tiny Tap on Vimeo.
The mobile app – which originally boasted a childish interface and appealed to a young audience – is coming of age and realizing its potential as an advanced e-teaching tool for all ages. Mature design, advanced creation features, and optimized marketplace: the re-branded app now targets elementary school students and beyond.
With TinyTap 2.0, teachers can make educational apps for older students, plus gain more traction in the international TinyTap community with a newly optimized marketplace. More navigable and user-friendly, the market offers thousands of games created daily by superstar educators, experts, and publishers worldwide.
“We gave TinyTap a facelift: our successful game creation platform now appeals to a wider audience. And our marketplace is essentially an all-you-can-eat buffet of interactive, educational activities, organized by topic, age, and language. The new redesign will allow us to promote quality content and help makers generate revenue every time someone plays their tiny app,” says Yogev Shelly, TinyTap CEO.
New Features
To compliment our new look, we’ve added a few new creation tools that will help give your apps that professional finish – check them out:
Shape Sense: Perfect your shapes with the new auto-correct tracing. Clean lines for rectangles and circles, this feature will give your apps a professional design.
Context Flashcards: Add text bubbles on your soundboard pages. Ideal for language apps and diagrams, this feature allows you to pair audio with visual.
Edit existing pages: Draw and add text to existing pages. This feature lets your app creation process evolve organically.
Hungry for more creation tips? Be sure to check out our mini-video tutorials!
TinyTap International Market
Discover and be discovered on TinyTap’s market of games from around the globe. New sections make it extra easy for users to connect with their desired content. Personalize the playing experience and edit others’ creations by narrating in your own language or changing the layout.Edit Existing Apps
Have you already created TinyTap apps that are darn-near-perfect? Go ahead, take 2 minutes to edit the creations you’re most proud of so that they look better and play smarter. Use the new “Shape Sense” feature to re-trace puzzle piece, soundboard hotspots, and answers to your questions.
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