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Using an Excel Worksheet to Create a Matching Activity

In the sample activity shown below, students are to click on the green circle and drag it to the capital letter which matches the lowercase letter. Anything you wish to match can be done in this manner, however, the activity would best be done as a whole class activity. Students could drag the green circle to any other shape, and will need to get feedback from the teacher, not from the Excel worksheet.

If you have thought of a way to use this in your classroom, let's get started.

Step 1 -

Associated documents: sample excel worksheet | how-to instructions

Using AutoShapes to Make Matching Activities

Step-by-step instructions for making a matching activity in Excel

  1. Launch MS Excel. Click on the Start button (bottom left), move the mouse pointer up to programs and click, slide to the right to find Excel or MS Office, Click on Excel.
  2. If the Draw menu is not at the bottom of your sheet,go to the View menu select Toolbars and then slide over and down to Drawing, click one time.
  3. If you want a white background, follow these steps. From the Tools menu select Options. On the View tab click on the check mark by gridlines to deselect that option. Click OK. You now have a totally blank sheet with no distracting gridlines.
  4. If you want a color background, follow these steps. To select all cells, depress the Ctrl key and tap one time on the A key. Find the Paint Bucket on the Drawing toolbar. Click on the down arrow to the right of the bucket and click on a color.
  5. From the Drawing menu at the bottom of your worksheet, click on AutoShapes, slide up to Basic Shapes and select the rounded rectangle.
  6. This action does not create a shape; it gives you the cross hair cursor with which you will click-and-drag to draw the shape.
  7. Click anywhere near the top of the worksheet, hold the mouse button down and drag down diagonally to make a shape about one inch long. [they can be resized later]
  8. With the shape selected (there are 8 white circles around it if it is selected) press and hold down the Ctrl key and tap the C key to copy the shape.
  9. Next we are going to paste several more of the same shape for a matching activity. With the Ctrl key depressed, tap the V key five times, six if you want a shape to use as a page title. The shapes will be on top of each other, ranging downward diagonally.
  10. Click and drag the shapes to rearrange them on the page.
  11. Now it’s decision time. Decide on three pairs of things you want to match. Type them into the six shapes.

Step-by-step instructions for formatting shapes

  1. Right-click on the outside edge of an AutoShape, and then select Format AutoShape.
  2. If the Format AutoShape box that pops-up has only one tab, Font, you did your right-clicking in the text area of your AutoShape. Close the format box and right-click closer to the edge of the shape.
  3. On the Font tab you can change the font size. On the Alignment tab you can set both horizontal and vertical alignment to center. On the Colors and Lines tab you can change the fill color and the color of the line around your AutoShape.

Step-by-step instructions for grouping shapes and images

  1. If you want to have an image with an AutoShape, the shape and the image must be linked together. If they are not, when one is moved the other will not go with it.
  2. Insert an image you wish to link to an AutoShape.
  3. Resize the image and move it on or near the AutoShape.
  4. If the image is not selected, click on it one time. Hold down the Shift key and then click on the edge of the AutoShape.
  5. Click on the word Draw on the Drawing toolbar and slide up to click on Group.

Step-by-step instructions for connecting shapes

  1. Click on AutoShapes, slide up to Connectors and select a connector with arrows on each end.
  2. Without clicking anywhere, slide your mouse cursor over the shape where you want to start the connector. You will see blue squares on the shape. When you find the point you want to use for your connector to start, click one time on the blue square and let up on the mouse button. This is not a click-and-drag process.
  3. Move your cursor halfway toward the shapes top be matched and click. The end of the connector will be a green circle. To match the AutoShape with the corresponding AutoShape, students must drag the green circle to the matching shape.
  4. Continue this process until you have drawn connectors from each of the AutoShapes on one side of your worksheet.

Suggestions for using this matching activity

  1. Students could drag the connector to any of the shapes. Since only one shape will be correct, this activity would best be done as a whole class activity with the teacher monitoring.
  2. Instructions to the student:
  3. Click on the connector attached to the block you want to match.
  4. Move the mouse pointer on top of the green circle.
  5. If your mouse pointer changed to a plus sign, click and drag the green circle toward the right answer.
  6. When blue squares pop up around the correct answer, let go of the mouse button.