Spark your students’ curiosity and build their research skills with the Matching Animal Facts: Information Report Game. Designed to support the development of information report writing, this engaging resource helps students practise identifying and recording factual details across a range of categories including classification, appearance, habitat, diet, reproduction and behaviour.

Through a hands-on matching activity, students are encouraged to think critically about informational content and connect it to the appropriate animal. As they play, they naturally begin building the skills needed for structured, fact-based writing. This activity is ideal for launching a unit on information reports or for consolidating prior learning in a meaningful and enjoyable way.

The game can be used in small groups, pairs or as an independent centre task. Each game board features a range of animals, and students draw from a pile of fact cards to match information to the correct image. Recording sheets are included in both blank and lined versions, giving students the option to jot down key facts as they go, which can later be used to support their report drafting.

Key Learning Outcomes

• ✅ Identify key factual details in non-fiction texts
• ✅ Build foundational research and recording skills
• ✅ Strengthen understanding of animal characteristics and classification
• ✅ Promote structured, factual writing through scaffolded practise
• ✅ Support oral language development by reading and discussing facts aloud

What’s Included

• Game boards featuring a range of animals
• Fact cards covering animal classification, appearance, habitat, diet, reproduction and behaviour
• Recording sheets in both blank and 14mm lined versions
• Teacher instructions and game setup guide

Materials Needed

• Printed boards and fact cards (preferably on cardstock)
• Scissors or paper trimmer
• Hook-and-loop dots (optional for attaching cards)
• Storage wallets or folders to organise each set

How to Use

1. Print a game board for each student and prepare a shared set of fact cards.
2. Place the fact cards face down in a pile next to the game boards.
3. Students take turns drawing a card, reading it aloud and matching it to the correct animal image.
4. Once matched, they place the card over the animal and optionally record the fact on their worksheet.
5. The game ends when all animals are covered or time runs out - the winner is the student with the most correct matches.

Ideas for Classroom Use

• 💡 Introduce during a unit on information reports as a pre-writing activity
• 💡 Use in small group rotations to reinforce reading comprehension and factual understanding
• 💡 Pair with digital research to deepen understanding of selected animals
• 💡 Encourage students to turn their recording sheets into full reports using a writing scaffold

Top Teacher Tips

• 💛 Print boards and cards on thick cardstock and laminate for long-term use
• 💛 Store individual game sets in labelled document wallets or plastic sleeves
• 💛 Model how to read and decode fact cards using key vocabulary before play begins
• 💛 Provide sentence starters or writing scaffolds to support report drafting

This game is a fun and flexible way to introduce research skills, promote factual writing and prepare students for independent information report tasks in a highly engaging format.

Available in our basic fun font and all Australian state fonts.