How to Play Our Parts of Speech Sort

Consolidate your parts of speech lessons with this sorting activity that tests your students’ knowledge! 

To play, students will lay each category card in the centre of the playing area, shuffle the word cards and put them in a pile. Either independently or with multiple players, students will flip a card, read the word and lay it underneath its part of speech category card. 

Scaffolding + Extension Tips 

A team of dedicated, experienced educators created this grammar resource for students to practise independently or with multiple players. 

There are two difficulty levels: 

Harder Version – 6 parts of speech cards (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, coordinating conjunction, preposition) with 112-word cards and 6 blank word cards.

Easier Version – 5 parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition) with 91 word cards and 12 blank word cards. 

Check out our suggestions for using this activity to reinforce English lessons in your small groups and as a full class: 

🆘 Support Struggling Students

If students have difficulty sorting specific words, further limit the parts of speech focused on to simplify the activity. 

➕ Challenge Fast Finishers

After sorting the cards, students can use a collection of words to form sentences. For example, if playing with a partner, one person would randomly select word cards for their partner to put into a sentence.

🪑 Musical Chairs 

Arrange student chairs in a circle, placing a word card on each one. When the music starts, the students walk around the circle. When the music stops, students sit in a chair and take turns reading and categorising their card’s part of speech. Any student who miscategorises their word is out. 

Easily Prepare This Resource for Your Students

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the PDF or Word versions of this resource and the preferred difficulty level. 

Print on cardboard for added durability and longevity. Place all pieces in a folder or large envelope for easy access. 

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Don’t stop there! We’ve got more parts of speech activities and teaching materials to dive into:

teaching resource Parts of Speech Card Game – Upper Primary Classroom Game – Set 1 A card game for nouns, verbs and adjectives. teaching resource Coordinating Conjunctions Dice Game - Worksheet A hands on activity for students to create 8 sided dice and play an interactive game involving conjunctions. teaching resource Colour by Parts of Speech - Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Pronouns, Prepositions and Adverbs - Toucan Consolidate your parts of speech lesson by colouring nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions and adverbs on the toucan.