Parts of Speech Sorting Activity

This fun sorting activity will have your students sorting a set of words by part of speech. Understanding the roles and functions of different parts of speech allows students to construct and decode sentences accurately, enhancing their writing, reading, and verbal communication skills. In primary school, the main parts of speech introduced and taught typically include:

• nouns (naming words for people, places, things, or ideas),
• verbs (action or state words),
• adjectives (words that describe or modify nouns),
• adverbs (words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs),
• prepositions (words that indicate relationships in time, place, or direction), and
• conjunctions (words that connect words, phrases, or clauses),

Mastering these parts of speech empowers students to express themselves effectively and comprehend language structures, laying a solid foundation for their future literacy success.

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 experienced educators created this grammar resource for students to practise independently or with multiple players. 

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. For example, use only the nouns, verbs and adjectives headings and word cards.

➕ 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 Google Slides versions of this resource. 

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

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 Use this hands on activity for students to create two 8 sided-dice and write compound sentences using coordinating conjunctions. teaching resource Colour by Parts of Speech Worksheet – Toucan Consolidate your parts of speech lesson by colouring nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions and adverbs on the toucan.