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
Types of Assertions Sorting Activity
Explore types of assertions with this interactive sorting activity that helps students distinguish between bare, generalized and supported assertions.
- Plus Plan
Alliteration Sorting by Beginning Sound Activity
Explore beginning sounds and alliteration with this engaging and age-appropriate picture sort activity—perfect for your phonics and early literacy lessons.
- Plus Plan
Noun Phrase Examples Sorting Activity
Teach noun phrase examples with this hands-on sorting activity where students decide whether the order of adjectives in each noun phrase is correct or incorrect.
- Plus Plan
Types of Dependent Clauses Sorting Activity
Teach the types of dependent clauses with this hands-on sorting activity that helps students explore sentence structure in a collaborative and engaging way.
- Plus Plan
Build a Sentence Activity - Sentence Clothesline
Create simple sentences with this printable Build a Sentence Activity Sentence Clothesline resource.
- Plus Plan
Facial Expressions and Gestures Sorting Activity
The Facial Expressions and Gestures Activity is the perfect hands-on resource to help students recognise and understand the many ways we communicate without words.
- Plus Plan
Sentence Building Cards and Mat
Use these Sentence Building Cards with Mat to explore the main features of a simple sentence with your Kinder students.
- Plus Plan
Formal vs. Informal Language Sorting Activity
Engage students in identifying formal vs informal language with this sorting activity that helps build understanding through real-world sentence examples.
- Plus Plan
Real and Make-Believe Picture Sort
Explore real vs make believe pictures with this sorting activity.
- Plus Plan
Sentence Saga - Build a Better Sentence Construction Activity
Teach your students to build a better sentence with Sentence Saga, a printable sentence construction activity for upper elementary.
- 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
Parallel and Perpendicular Lines Game — Sorting Activity
Play this parallel and perpendicular lines game in your classroom to give students practice sorting lines into intersecting, parallel, or perpendicular line categories.
- Plus Plan
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.
- Plus Plan
Emoji-Sentence Sorting Activity (1-2)
Teach your students about statement, command, exclamation, and question sentences with our Emoji Sentence sorting activity.
- Plus Plan
Making Predictions With Pictures Prompt Cards
Encourage early reading comprehension by using Making Predictions with Pictures Prompt Cards to help students develop critical thinking and inference skills through visual storytelling.
- Plus Plan
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.
- Plus Plan
Identifying Colors Game
Explore colors with your students using this fun and engaging identifying colors game.
- Plus Plan
Above and Below the Line Behaviors - Sorting Activity
Remind students of behaviors that are "above the line", "below the line", and "bottom-line" with this sorting activity.
- Plus Plan
Literary Elements Fairy Tale Sorting Activity
Explore literary elements with this fairy tale sorting activity in the shape of a castle.
- Plus Plan
Sort It Out! Properties of Matter Activity
Use our Properties of Matter Sorting Activity cards to create an engaging Matter Sorting Station in your classroom.
- Plus Plan
Scientific Investigation Scenarios - Sorting Activity
Analyze scientific investigation scenarios to determine which stage in the scientific method is being described with a printable Scientific Method Sorting Activity.
- Plus Plan
Types of Physical Change - Science Sort
Sort examples of physical changes with a printable Types of Physical Change Science Sort.
- Plus Plan
What is Made of Rock? Ways People Use Rocks Sorting Activity
Discover ways people use rocks to produce everyday objects with an engaging sorting activity.
- Plus Plan
Gingerbread Man Activity - Story Sequencing Cards
Teach your students about retelling with this set of Gingerbread Man Sequencing Cards.
- Plus Plan
Sequencing Activities — Numbers 1 - 9 Sausage Dog
Use our sequencing activities like this sausage dog to help your students practice ordering the numbers 1 - 9.
- Plus Plan
Ordering Large Numbers Sorting Activity
Practice ordering large numbers with this easy-to-prepare 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
Properties of Materials Sorting Game
Teach your little learners about the basic properties of materials with an engaging sorting activity.
- Plus Plan
Physical and Chemical Changes - Sorting Activity
A set of 24 sorting cards to practice identifying physical and chemical changes.
- Plus Plan
Heavier or Lighter? Sorting Activity
Sort cards into heavier and lighter headings after looking at the balance scales on each card with this mass sorting activity.
- Plus Plan
Yes Or No? Phonics Sorting Activity
Use this phonics activity to help your students identify the different phonemes that make up a word.