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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Jack Be Nimble Nursery Rhyme - Poster and Cut-Out Pages
A poetry activity using the nursery rhyme "Jack Be Nimble".
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Push and Pull Sorting Activity
Use these push and pull sorting cards as a hands-on activity during your science lessons on forces.
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Physical and Chemical Changes - Sorting Activity
A set of 24 sorting cards to practice identifying physical and chemical changes.
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Word Family Sorting Activity - Set 4
A sorting activity to practice word families.
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Word Family Sorting Activity - Set 3
A sorting activity to practice word families.
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Word Family Sorting Activity - Set 2
A sorting activity to practice word families.
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Word Family Sorting Activity - Set 1
A sorting activity to practice word families.
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Long and Short Vowel Sort
A set of 40 sorting cards to practice long and short vowel sounds.
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What's the Author's Purpose? - Sorting Activity
A sorting activity to help students identify the author’s purpose for a piece of text.
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Sorting Objects by Property Template
A template to use when sorting objects using the sense of touch and sight.
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Percentages, Fractions, and Decimals Sort
A worksheet connecting percentage, decimal, and fraction values.
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Alien Number Sequencing Cards - 1 to 20
A hands-on activity to practice number sequencing from 1 to 20.
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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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Movement of Animals Sorting Activity
Spark discussion among your students about how animals move with a fun set of animal locomotion picture cards.
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Hours, Seconds & Minutes - Estimating Time Sort
Estimate activities that take about a second, minute, hour, and week with a printable unit of time sorting activity.
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Day or Night Sorting Activity
Help your little learners understand and apply the concepts of day and night with this fun sorting activity.
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Exaggeration and Hyperbole Sorting Activity
Explore examples of hyperbole with your students using this set of 24 sorting cards perfect for your reading centers.
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Rhetorical Questions Sorting Activity
Explore examples of rhetorical questions with your students using this set of 28 sorting cards perfect for reading centers.
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How Long Does It Take? – Sorting Activity
A set of 18 daily events for students to sort based on how long they take (second, minute, hour).
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When Does It Happen? – Sorting Activity
Identify activities that happen in the morning, afternoon, and at night with a Time of Day Sorting activity for Kindergarten students.
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3-Digit Number Form Sorting Activity
Engage with different forms of 3-digit numbers with this sorting activity.
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Natural and Human Made Heat Sources Sort
Explore the different man-made and natural heat sources with this sorting activity.
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Singular or Plural? Christmas Noun Sort
Help your students determine if words are singular or plural with a fun Christmas-themed noun sorting center.
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Vowel Teams Sort OA, OW, and OE
Decode words with "oa", "oe", or "ow" long "o" vowel teams using 18 picture cards with sorting mats.
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Analyzing Situations Sorting Activity
Use this sorting activity with your students to practice analyzing situations for their problems, consequences and possible solutions.
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Color By Vowel Sound (Winter Worksheet for Kindergarten & 1st Grade)
Use a "cool" color by vowel sound worksheet to bring a bit of Winter into the classroom this season.
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Matching Expanded and Standard 2-Digit Number Cards
Explore double digit numbers in standard and expanded form with this sorting activity for your math groups.
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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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Heat Sources Sorting Activity
Explore various sources of heat with this printable sorting activity for your students.
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3rd Grade Divisible by 2 Sorting Activity
Explore numbers divisible by 2 with this fun snowboard-themed sorting activity.
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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.