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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Fictional Genre Activities
A set of 28 fictional genre characteristic cards to use in a sorting or scoot activity.
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Picture, Word, Letter, or Sentence – Sorting Activity
Help your students distinguish between pictures, letters, words, and sentences with this sorting activity.
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Figurative Language Sorting Activity
Explore figurative language in context with this set of 28 sorting cards.
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Ending Digraphs Sorting Activity
Practice decoding words by sorting 20 picture cards by their ending digraphs.
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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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What's in a Color? Sorting Activity
A fun sorting activity for students to explore interpretation of color in visual art.
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Nouns Sorting Activity
Practice recognizing and sorting nouns into categories using these 24 picture common noun cards.
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Goods and Services Sorting Activity
Identify things as either "goods" or "services" by looking at 20 examples and sorting them into their appropriate category.
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Initial Sound Sorting Activity (s, a, t, p, i, and n)
A sorting activity to practice initial sounds regarding the letters s, a, t, p, i, and n.
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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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Thermal Energy Transfer Sorting Activity
Learn about conduction, convection, and radiation with this set of 24 sorting cards.
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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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Long and Short Vowel Sort
A set of 40 sorting cards to practice long and short vowel sounds.
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Often and Sometimes Food Sorting Activity
A sorting activity to help students recognize healthy and unhealthy foods.
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Syllable Count Sorting Activity
Practice segmenting and counting syllables in words with this set of 24 picture sorting cards.
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Sort It Out! - Types of Sentences
Practice identifying the 4 kinds of sentences by sorting all 30 cards by their sentence type and missing punctuation marks.
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Vowel Sounds Sort - /i/, /o/, and /u/
Practice distinguishing between long and short vowel sounds for letters /i/, /o/ and /u/ by sorting this set of 24 picture cards into categories.
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Vowel Sounds Sort - /a/ and /e/
Practice distinguishing between long and short vowel sounds for letters /a/ and /e/ by sorting this set of 24 picture cards into categories.
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Line and Feelings Sorting Activity - Upper Elementary
A fun sorting activity for students to explore interpretation of line in visual art.
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Beginning Sounds Sorting Activity
Practice identifying beginning sounds of words by sorting this set of 24 picture cards.
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Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down Expectations Sort
Review appropriate classroom behaviors with this sorting activity.
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Big Problem or Little Problem? – Sorting Activity
A sorting activity for students to place situations in order from the littlest problem to the biggest problem.
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Plant and Animal Sort - Task Cards
Sort plants and animals using different characteristics with a set of task cards and picture cards.
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Sorting by Category - Vocabulary Activity
Early readers can practice sorting and decoding with this category sorting board activity for 1 to 4 players.
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Radiation Sorting Activity
A set of 20 cards to sort according to the type of electromagnetic wave.
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5 Text Structures Sorting Cards
A set of 24 sorting cards to practice identifying the five different text structures.
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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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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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Line and Feeling Sorting Activity - Primary Grades
A fun sorting activity for students to explore interpretation of line in visual art.