Sorting Activities for Teachers
Download printable sorting activities to help your elementary students practice grouping different items into categories.
With activities aligned with the Common Core curriculum and editable options, this teacher resource collection is stocked with hundreds of resources perfect for elementary and middle school teachers,
Each sorting and grouping resource in this teaching resource collection has been created by a teacher, and each resource has undergone a rigorous review by the teachers on the Teach Starter team to ensure it's ready to download and use in your classroom.
Choose from sorting activities for math, ELA, science or social studies with printable and digital options available! This collection also includes sorting activities that can be used for whole class, group or independent tasks.
Curious about how our teacher team uses sorting activities to keep kids engaged and make learning more fun? Read on for a primer!
What Are Sorting Activities?
Let's start with a definition. When we talk about sorting activities at Teach Starter, we're referring to hands-on activities for students that require them to identify, sort, and group different items into alike categories.
This tests recognition and helps students develop their problem-solving skills.
Are you mostly familiar with sorting activities for preschool or kindergarten? We have those, but you'll also find activities designed for older students from 1st and 2nd grade all the way up through 5th and 6th grade.
The goal is to strengthen students' comparison skills and deepening their understanding of a particular topic by sorting cards, playing games and often matching items.
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Author's Purpose SORT IT!
Analyze 24 text examples and determine which of the 5 purposes of writing each of the sorting cards belongs to.
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Punctuation in a Pouch - End Punctuation Sorting Center
A fun, marsupial-themed activity to help your students with editing and punctuation.
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Food Choices Sorting Activity
A sorting activity to help students recognize healthy and unhealthy foods.
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Let's Sort It! - 2D and 3D Shapes
Play this sorting game when learning about the properties of 2D and 3D shapes.
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Uses of Materials Sorting Activity
A fun sorting activity for students to explore the materials objects are made of.
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Five Senses Sorting Activity
Explore the five senses with your little learners using a printable 5 Senses Science Sorting Activity.
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Winter Survival Adaptations - Sorting Activity
Match the animals with the behavioral adaptation that helps them survive the winter in this printable animal adaptation sorting activity.
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Parts of Speech Word Cards Sorting Activity
Engage your students with this parts of speech group activity where they sort 112 word cards into categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, coordinating conjunctions or prepositions).
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How Seasons Affect Plants and Animals Sorting Activity
Set up this sorting activity in your classroom to teach students how the seasons affect plants and animals by categorizing them.
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Rhetorical Devices Sorting Activity
Explore rhetorical devices with your students using this set of sorting cards.
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Estimating Quotients Sorting Activity for 5th Grade
Guide your students to use rounding and compatible numbers when estimating quotients with this 24-card sorting activity.
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Classifying 3D Shapes Sorting Activity
Play this sorting game when learning how to classify 3D shapes according to their properties.
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Story Setting or Not? - Sorting Activity
Explore the difference between story settings and non-settings with this hands-on sorting activity.
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Word Building Bricks - Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots Activity
Build, read and write multi-syllable words using prefixes, suffixes, and base words with a fun word-building literacy activity.
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Is It Magnetic? Sorting Activity
Use this sorting activity when classifying objects as magnetic or not magnetic.
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Dictionary Sorting Game
Get students in the habit of researching with our dictionary activity that helps learners match a word to its definition and part of speech.
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Famous Colonists Cut and Paste Worksheet
Show what you know about famous American colonists with a cut-and-paste Colonial Americans worksheet.
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Environmental Awareness Flip Book - Earth Day Activity
Use this flip book to build awareness of actions that are good and bad for the environment.
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Presidents' Day Matching Activity
A matching activity to use around Presidents' Day or Independence Day.
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Animal Classification Sort
Determine if an animal is an amphibian, reptile, mammal, or bird with this sorting activity.
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Singular and Plural Possessives Task Cards
Practice writing phrases using the correct singular or plural possessive noun with a set of task cards.
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Numerical Expressions Sort!
Solve and sort numerical expressions according to different categories with this sorting activity.
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Natural Landforms Sorting Activity
Identify the major landforms of the world with a sorting activity.
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Fall Math Center - Odd and Even Number Sort
Identify and sort 2- and 3-digit numbers into odd and even categories with a Fall math activity.
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Subitizing Sorting Activity
Practice recognizing the quantity of a small group of objects with this subitizing sorting activity.
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U.S. Land Features Sorting Center
Apply knowledge of the rivers, mountains, and physical features in the United States with a sorting activity.
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Prepositional Phrase Task Cards - Grades 3-4
Identify prepositional phrases and use them within sentences with this set of 20 task cards.
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How to Be a Good Citizen - Sorting Center
Grow a new batch of good citizens with a citizenship sorting activity.
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Good Citizens Around Town Sorting Activity
Discover how to be a good citizen at home, school, and community with citizenship for kids sorting activity.
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Has/Have Subject Verb Agreement Task Cards
Practice using has and have correctly using a set of Subject-Verb agreement task cards.
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Google Interactive S-Blends Activity
Help your readers practice their S-blend skills with fun, interactive Google Slides word-building activities.
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Do/Does Subject Verb Agreement Task Cards
Practice using DO and DOES correctly using a set of Subject-Verb agreement task cards.