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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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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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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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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Comparing Fractions – Sorting Activity
Strengthen fraction comparison skills by sorting cards according to the inequality symbol that makes each statement true.
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Animals and Their Habitats - Sorting Activity
Discover the habitats that are home to Earth’s wildlife with a printable animal habitat sorting activity.
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Classifying Angles – 4th Grade Sorting Activity
Help students recognize different types of angles in everyday life with this hands-on sorting activity.
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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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Insulators & Conductors Sorting Activity
Distinguish between insulators and conductors with a picture-based sorting activity.
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Fact and Opinion Sort - Interactive or Printable Activity
Practice differentiating between fact and opinion with this set of 24 sorting cards or a Google Slides Interactive 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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Forms of Energy Sorting Activity
Help students identify the different forms of energy with this set of 24 sorting cards.
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Time Sort - Morning, Afternoon & Evening Activity
Help your students learn about different times of day (morning, afternoon, and evening) with a Times of Day Sorting activity.
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Prime and Composite Number Sort
Identify prime and composite numbers by sorting 30 number cards into their proper category.
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Self-Esteem Heart Activity
Help students boost their self-esteem with this lovely heart-themed activity
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Build a Food Chain - Sorting Activity
Create food chains for a variety of ecosystems with this hands-on, student-centered activity.
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Mixtures and Solutions Sort
Distinguish between mixtures and solutions with this 24-card 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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Things I Can and Cannot Control – Sorting Activity
Help students identify things in life they can and cannot control with this sorting activity.
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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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Text Structures Sorting Activity
A set of 24 text structure cards to use in a sorting or scoot activity.
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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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Sorting Objects by Property Template
A template to use when sorting objects using the sense of touch and sight.
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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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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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Interior Angles of Shapes Sorting Activity
Play this sorting game when learning about the interior angles of common two-dimensional shapes.
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Making Mistakes – Sorting Activity
Help your students recognize different types of mistakes and discuss ways to learn from them with this SEL activity.
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Solids, Liquids, and Gases – Sorting Activity
A sorting activity to help students identify solids, liquids, and gases.
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Selecting Units of Length – Sorting Activity
A sorting activity to help students identify lengths and distances that should be measured in centimeters, inches, feet, and miles.
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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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Unit Fraction Sorting Activity
Explore different images of unit fractions with your students in this unit fraction sorting activity with fraction word and fraction heading 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.