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.
- Plus Plan
Sorting Activity - Hard and Soft Sound of C
Practice identifying the different sounds made by the letter C with this hands-on sorting activity.
- Plus Plan
Fact and Opinion Sorting Activity
Use this fact and opinion sort to teach your students the difference between statements of fact and statements of opinion.
- Plus Plan
Short and Long Vowels Google Interactive Activity
Read and identify short and long vowel sounds and place the pictures into the correct columns.
- Plus Plan
What's in a Color? Sorting Activity
A fun sorting activity for students to explore interpretation of color in visual art.
- Free Plan
Grouping Plants and Animals – Sorting Activity (K-1)
Sort plants and animals using different characteristics with a set of task cards and picture cards.
- Plus Plan
Informative Paragraphs Sequencing Activity
Teach your students about informational text paragraph structure with this hands-on sequencing activity.
- Plus Plan
Seasons Sorting Activity
Teach students in K-2 the proper clothing, activities, and objects for different types of weather with this four seasons activity.
- Plus Plan
Food Choices Sorting Activity
A sorting activity to help students recognize healthy and unhealthy foods.
- Plus Plan
Rhyming Sort Cookies Activity Mats
Use this cookie tray rhyming sort to explore the auditory component of rhyming words to develop phonemic awareness in your students.
- Plus Plan
Complete Sentence vs Fragment Sentence Sort
Make sentence structure lessons engaging and hands-on with this playful Complete Sentence vs Fragment sorting activity.
- Plus Plan
Fossil Sort - Types of Fossils Activity
Identify and sort fossils with a hands-on, no-prep Types of Fossils Activity.
- Plus Plan
Simple Machines Sorting Activity
A fun sorting activity to use in the classroom when learning about simple machines and how they work.
- Plus Plan
What Can The Wind Move? Kindergarten Science Activity
Use this Kindergarten Science Activity to teach your students about wind and what it can move in the world around them.
- Plus Plan
Comparing Capacity Kindergarten and 1st Grade Activity
Share this comparing capacity kindergarten and 1st grade activity with your students to introduce them to early measurement concepts.
- Plus Plan
Parallel and Perpendicular Lines in 2D Shapes Sorting Activity
Identify parallel and perpendicular lines in 2D shapes in this engaging sorting activity!
- Plus Plan
Metamorphic, Sedimentary and Igneous Rock Sorting Activity
Sort metamorphic, sedimentary and igneous rocks into collections with a printable rock sorting activity.
- Free Plan
Uses of Materials Sorting Activity
Explore the materials objects are made of with a fun sorting activity for students.
- Plus Plan
Consonant Blends Beehive Sorting Activity
Explore common consonant blends with a bee-themed sorting activity perfect for lower elementary phonics lessons.
- Plus Plan
Counting Cookies Sorting Activity
Practice counting to 10 with various representations with this cookie sorting activity.
- Plus Plan
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.
- Plus Plan
Vowel Teams Sort EE, EA, and EY
Decode words with EE, EA, or EY long "e" vowel teams using 18 picture cards with sorting mats.
- Plus Plan
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).
- Plus Plan
Rhetorical Devices Sorting Activity
Explore rhetorical devices with your students using this set of sorting cards.
- Plus Plan
Focusing on Strengths Sorting Cards
Identify individual strengths with this set of strength vocabulary sorting cards.
- Plus Plan
Classifying 3D Shapes Sorting Activity
Play this sorting game when learning how to classify 3D shapes according to their properties.
- Plus Plan
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.
- Plus Plan
Forgiving Friends – Character Education Activities
Use these character education activities to encourage students to maintain and repair friendships by forgiving others.
- Plus Plan
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.
- Plus Plan
Synonym Roll Sorting Center
Encourage your kids to take a bite out of language learning with our sweet “Synonym Roll” sorting activity.
- Plus Plan
Man-made vs. Natural Features - Sorting Activity
Identify the natural and human features of environments with this sorting activity.
- Plus Plan
Animals and Their Habitats - Sorting Activity
Discover the habitats that are home to Earth’s wildlife with a printable animal habitat sorting activity.
- Plus Plan
Animal Classification Sort
Determine if an animal is an amphibian, reptile, mammal, or bird with this sorting activity.