Using this Size Activity, students play Categories to practice identifying the sizes tall, short, big and small.
This hot and cold activity lets children sort 12 picture cards onto a Hot and Cold mat to learn about temperature. For kindergarten to 2nd grade, answer key included.
This counting and sorting pictures activity lets PreK to 1st grade children sort picture cards into groups, count each group and graph the results. Answer key included.
This animal riddles activity has students read clues and match each riddle to the right animal card. Made for 1st-2nd grade with self-check cards, a practice page and an answer key included.
This land or water activity is a K-2nd grade animal sorting card game with a spinner and sorting mat. Children classify animals by where they live, and an answer key is included.
This living and nonliving activity gives kindergarten to 2nd grade students 12 picture cards and a sorting mat to classify things that are alive. A practice page and answer key are included.
Using this Survivor Desert Edition Activity, students play the survivor board game to test your knowledge of animals and their habitats.
This we go together activity is a picture memory game for Preschool to 1st Grade where children match two things that belong together, with a matching mat, practice page and answer key included.
Using Things That Grow Activity, students play UNO to practice classifying things that grow into four categories.
This animal habitats sort activity has kindergarten to 2nd Grade children sort animal cards into desert, farm, rainforest and arctic tundra homes. Spinner game and answer key included.
Using this Survivor Ocean Edition Activity, students play the survivor board game to test your knowledge of animals and their habitats.
Using this Find the Groups Grouping Activity, students place picture objects in the most appropriate category based on where it fits best.
Using thisStocking Sort Classifying Activity, studentscomplete the Stocking Sort activity to practice classifying and grouping objects.
Using this Survivor Rainforest Edition Activity, students play the survivor board game to test your knowledge of animals and their habitats.
Using this L.K.5 Common Core Activity, students place picture objects in the most appropriate category based on where it fits best.
Sort it like a scientist
Classification is sorting things into groups by what they have in common, and it is one of the first things real scientists do. Little learners start by sorting buttons or toys by color, size and shape. Soon they sort living and nonliving things, then animals into groups like mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians and insects. Older students sort by body features, such as fur + breathes air + feeds young milk = mammal, and they even sort rocks and minerals. The big idea: you pick a rule, check every object against it, and explain your reasoning.
Kids are natural sorters. These moves turn that instinct into real science thinking.
Hand groups a bag of mixed objects and say "Sort these any way you want." Then each group shares, and the class guesses their rule. Kids learn that there is more than one right way to sort, as long as you can explain your rule.
Why it works: kids understand an idea best when they touch it, then draw it, then write it, the order the U.S. Department of Education recommends for elementary math.
Try it withSorting Objects WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →Make a chart with columns like fur, feathers, scales and lays eggs. Kids check off features for each animal card before they decide which group it belongs in. Penguins and bats become the best debates in the room!
Why it works: pairing a picture with each word gives kids two ways to remember it, a well-tested principle of how people learn (Mayer, 2009).
Try it withAnimal Classification WorksheetWorksheetsOpen it →An animal song gives kids a catchy way to remember the big groups and one example of each. Play it at the start of the unit and again before a quiz. Kids will hum "mammals" in the lunch line, which is a win.
Why it works: words set to a repeating melody are easier to recall than the same words spoken (Wallace, 1994).
Try it withAnimal Song (Animated Music Video)SongsOpen it →Sorting is basically a game already. These make it even better.
WorksheetsGo on a schoolyard walk and sort everything you see into living and nonliving. A rock, a worm and a leaf make great starters.
Open Living Things and Non Living Things Sorting Worksheet →
WorksheetsOne child acts out an animal and gives clues like "I have feathers." The class guesses the group, then the animal.
Open Mammals, Fish, or Birds Classifying Animals Worksheet →
WorksheetsSort pictures of food, tools and toys into groups, then sort them again using a new rule.
Open Grouping into Categories Worksheet →Teacher favorites right now: Size Activity, Hot and Cold Activity and Counting and Sorting Pictures Activity.
It is grouping living things or objects by shared features. Scientists use classification to organize the natural world and make it easier to study.
Most elementary classes learn mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians and insects. Older students also learn that animals with backbones are vertebrates and those without are invertebrates.
Preschoolers already sort by color and shape. Science classification by features usually begins in kindergarten and 1st grade and becomes more detailed through 4th and 5th grade.
Whales breathe air with lungs, are warm-blooded and feed their babies milk. Those are mammal features, even though whales live in the water.
Sort laundry, groceries or toy animals together and ask "What rule did you use?" Then challenge your child to sort the same things a different way.
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