This printable game is designed to encourage learning about the Canadian provinces, their flags and capital cities. What is the capital of Nunavut? Which province has a ship on its flag? Find out while playing this game!
From talking to people around the world, I’ve gathered that everyone has had to learn the states/provinces and their capitals/administrative centres at some point in their education.
Canadian children are fortunate in that they have only got thirteen provinces and territories to learn! Still, if you try to build a connection between two names – the province and the capital – it may take a while. But if you add a visual cue, like a flag, and make it into a game, learning goes a lot smoother.
As an additional bonus, children get to learn provincial flags at the same time, and there is a lot to look at and discuss when the flags are involved. What is the flower on the Saskatchewanian flag? It’s a prairie lily! Why does Prince Edward Island have an oak tree and three saplings? The symbolism of it goes back to the time when Prince Edward Island (with its three districts for three saplings) was under the protection of Great Britain (the oak tree). Besides, many children just love studying flags and coats of arms!
Canada: Provinces, Capitals and Flags – Game Features
There are five pages of cards included in the game:
- Two province sheets. One has visual cues in the form of flags (for introducing the game), and the other one doesn’t (for advanced players).
- Two capital sheets. Again, one has visual cues in the form of flags (for introducing the game), and the other one doesn’t (for advanced players).
- One flag sheet. Use it if you want to reinforce knowledge of provinces and their flags, as opposed to provinces and their capitals.
When playing the games, players first rely on the flag symbols to match the provinces and their capitals successfully. Over time, players learn to associate the provinces and capitals without the flag as a visual cue. At that point, players can start using the cards without visual cues, and the difficulty of the game increases.
And the best feature of the game? It actually consists of FOUR games! You can play them all using the same cards.
Canada: Provinces, Capitals and Flags – Sorting Game
How to prepare: Cut the province sheet and the capital sheet into small cards. There will be thirteen province cards and thirteen capital cards.
How to play: Mix all the cards thoroughly face up, then look through them, finding the matching pairs.
Why: This is a good activity for simultaneously introducing the flags, provinces, and capitals. If you are using a map, find the provinces and capitals on the map, then match the cards with them.
Canada: Provinces, Capitals and Flags – Memory Game
How to prepare: Cut the province sheet and the capital sheet into small cards. Depending on the number of players and their ages, you can either use five or six pairs at a time, or create a big memory game with all thirteen of them.
How to play: Place the cards in a rectangular grid on a table. Players take turns temporarily revealing two cards from the grid, trying to match a province card with the corresponding capital card. The flag symbols will help to find a successful match! The player who makes the match gets to keep the cards. Whoever has the most cards at the end of the game wins.
Why: This is a good activity for reinforcing the knowledge of flags, provinces and capitals. It is also excellent for general memory development.
Canada: Provinces, Capitals and Flags – Bingo
How to prepare: Print as many province sheets as there are players. Give each player their province sheet to use as bingo card—they can be laminated for longer use. Print one capital sheet. Cut it into thirteen small cards. Shuffle the capital cards and stack them on the table face-down. If you don’t have a laminator, you can have buttons/other kind of chips available for players to use.
How to play: Players take turns revealing one capital card from the deck, with all players striving to match the capital revealed to the province on their card. If they make a connection, they can circle the name of the province and write the name of the capital there, if the card is laminated. If the card isn’t laminated, they can put a button over the name of the province. At the end of the game, the player who got most provinces covered wins. If there are several players who covered the same number of provinces, they win together.
Why: This is a very quick game for reinforcing the understanding of flags, provinces and capitals.
Canada: Provinces, Capitals and Flags – Speed Bingo
How to prepare: Prepare the same way as you would for the standard bingo. No lamination or buttons are required though, and you may want to increase the number of capital cards.
How to play: Players take turns revealing one capital card each, with all players striving to identify the province it corresponds with, in order to claim it for their province card. To claim a capital card, a player needs to name the province it belongs to. The first player to call out the name gets the capital card. Since all players have the same province sheet, there will be a lot of competition! The player who collects most capitals win.
Why: This is the most competitive of the games for reinforcing the subject. It also requires the best knowledge of the flags, provinces and capitals. Experiment with using cards with/without visual cues to make it more for learning or reinforcing.
Classroom Edition?
Can you play these game in a classroom? Yes! Just get the classroom edition. There are full-sheet flag, province and capital cards available in the second part of the file.
If you want to use them for decoration of your classroom, you could do it as well.
Get the Game Here!
The classroom edition is available here.
Also Try!
Countries and Capital Around the World: Memory and Bingo Game
Thanks for reading!
