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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Nouns Sorting Activity
Practice recognizing and sorting nouns into categories using these 24 picture common noun cards.
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Living vs Nonliving Things - Sorting Activity
Sort biotic vs. abiotic things and discuss their characteristics with a hands-on living and nonliving things picture sort.
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Division Task Cards — Solve and Sort
Strengthen division concepts with a hands-on sorting activity that helps students connect division equations, visual models, and word problems.
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Base Word Sorting Activity
Use this Base Word Sorting activity to help students sort words based on their root words.
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Build a Sentence Activity - Sentence Clothesline
Create simple sentences with this printable Build a Sentence Activity Sentence Clothesline resource.
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Fossil Sort - Types of Fossils Activity
Identify and sort fossils with a hands-on, no-prep Types of Fossils Activity.
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Real and Make-Believe Picture Sort
Explore real vs make believe pictures with this sorting activity.
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Sort It Out! - 4 Types of Sentences Practice Activity
Practice sorting and matching examples of the four types of sentences (command, statement, question, exclamation) with a 1st Grade Types of Sentences Practice Game.
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Emoji-Sentence Sorting Activity (1-2)
Teach your students about statement, command, exclamation, and question sentences with our Emoji Sentence sorting activity.
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Big Problem or Little Problem? – Sorting Activity
Use our Big Problem vs. Little Problem activity cards and worksheets to help your students learn to manage peer relationships in the classroom.
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Story Structure Sentence Strips
Explore sentences that form the beginning, middle and end of 5 short stories with this sorting activity for younger year levels.
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Verb Tense Regular and Irregular Sorting Activity
Help students understand the difference between a regular and irregular verb tense group with this hands-on verb sorting activity.
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Verb or Not Sorting Activity
Allow students the opportunity to show their verb awareness with this verb or not a verb candy sorting activity.
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Yes Or No? Phonics Sorting Activity
Use this phonics activity to help your students identify the different phonemes that make up a word.
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Selecting Units of Length – Sorting Activity
Use a sorting activity to help students identify lengths and distances that should be measured in centimeters, inches, feet, and miles.
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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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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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Modal Language Sorting Activity
Explore examples of modal language with your students using this set of 24 sorting cards perfect for your persuasive writing unit.
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Instinct vs. Learned Behavior Sort
Help your students determine the difference between a learned behavior and an instinct with a thought-provoking sorting activity.
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Beginning Digraphs Sorting Activity
Practice decoding words by their initial digraphs with a set of 20 picture sorting cards.
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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.
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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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Jack and the Beanstalk Retelling Activity Cards
Teach your students about retelling with this set of sequencing cards for Jack and the Beanstalk.
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Classifying 3D Shapes Sorting Activity
Play this sorting game when learning how to classify 3D shapes according to their properties.
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Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition – Sorting Activity
Categorize examples of deposition, weathering, and erosion with this 24-card sorting activity.
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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.
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Number Neighborhood - Printable Number Line Sequencing Cards
Print a set of colorful numbered houses to use for skip counting, ordering, and comparing numbers.
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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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CVC Word Chain Sequencing Cards
Practice building word chains involving CVC words with these word chain sequencing cards.
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Famous Colonists Cut and Paste Worksheet
Show what you know about famous American colonists with a cut-and-paste Colonial Americans worksheet.
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Presidents' Day Sorting Activity
Engage your learners in Presidents’ Day activities with a printable sorting center about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
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Animal Classification Sort
Determine if an animal is an amphibian, reptile, mammal, or bird with this sorting activity.