California Academy of Science
Sorting the Solar System
Scientists are always sorting and classifying objects based on their characteristics. In a hands-on learning activity, young space explorers work together to categorize solar system cards based on their properties. It is up to the...
Illustrative Mathematics
3-D Shape Sort
From the apple on your desk and the coffee cup in your hand, to the cabinets along the classroom wall, basic three-dimensional shapes are found everywhere in the world around us. Introduce young mathematicians to the these common figures...
Curated OER
Local Animal Sort
Students examine the concepts of sorting and classifying animal. They use familiar animals to determine the connections between physical characteristics and categorization.
Curated OER
What Is in a Rock?
Middle schoolers identify, sort, and classify mineral samples that make up a common rock.
PBS
Button, Button
Youngsters count, classify, and estimate quantities using buttons after a read aloud of The Button Box by Margarette S. Reid. They discuss the difference between guessing and estimating. Based on an experiment, they predict the...
Curated OER
2nd Grade - Act. 17: Source Relay
Help your 2nd graders understand the difference between natural and man-made materials. They will sort breakfast food items into sources: store, factory, natural world, and farm. They will work together to classify, form conclusions, and...
Pyro Innovations
Beach Exploration
Little ones will absolutely love this lesson. It's all about the beach and what they can find while sifting through the sand. A large bucket of sand filled with hidden items is brought into the classroom. Learners will discuss what kinds...
Curated OER
Sorting Based on Character Traits
Characters from a story can be sorted by their traits, just like shapes or objects can. First the children list several character traits on a chart, they read a familiar story, and then sort the characters by their friendly or unfriendly...
Science 4 Inquiry
All the Small Things
Scholars use sorting cards to try to define a pure substance versus a mixture. Risk becomes reward as they observe the differences and create a flowchart sorting matter into mixtures and pure substances (elements and compounds).
National Security Agency
Starting a Restaurant
Through an engaging unit, chefs-in-training will sort and classify data using tally charts. Learners will also create bar graphs to display restaurant data and interpret data from bar graphs using a variety of categories....
Curated OER
Are You One of Us?
Students investigate how scientists sort and classify organisms. In this sorting and classifying lesson, students examine what systematics are as tools that scientists use. They examine images of invertebrates and sort them while stating...
Curated OER
Lesson 3: SortingInformation into Predetermined Categories
Second graders sort items into predetermined categories. In this sorting activity, 2nd graders learn the meaning of the word squirt before listening to a reading of the book, Splish! Splash! Animal Baths by April Pulley Sayre. They...
Berkshire Museum
Backyard Rocks
You don't have to travel far to learn about rocks, just step outside, pick up a stone, and begin investigating. After taking a class walk around the school grounds collecting rocks, young scientists practice their skills of observation...
Science 4 Inquiry
The Classification of Living Things
It's a classification sensation! Demystify why we classify using an inquiry activity that helps your class sort things out. Groups begin by classifying a variety of shoes before they research organisms and design their own dichotomous...
Generation Rx
Medication Safety Patrol: Is It Candy or Medicine? Game
Scholars play a sorting game designed to encourage safe medication handling. They browse pictures of candy and medication, then decide which of the two they're looking at by raising a card labeled candy or medicine.
Curated OER
Learning by Sorting
Students sort Lego Duplo pieces after determining the attributes to classify them by. They work in pairs to sort a group of Duplo pieces and explain their process to others.
Curated OER
To Classify Beans And Peas
First graders record information on a bar graph and interpret the information given. They identify five different kinds of beans and three different kinds of peas. They work in groups of four and sort the beans by size or shape.
Discovery Education
Clutter Cutter
Challenge young learners to cut the clutter with this fun engineering project. As employees of a home and office supply company, young engineers are asked to develop devices that organize everyday items. After participating in a...
Curated OER
Animals Galore
Third graders use structural characteristics to sort and classify animals into groups.
Curated OER
Burns
First graders classify and sort items into categories of things that can cause burns and not cause burns. In this burns lesson plan, the teacher facilitates a discussion of things that can burn students and not burn them. They then...
Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning
A Foundation for Implementation
Color is the focus of this amazing resource packed with math, social studies, science, and language arts activities. Kids create a color word wall and post symbols, graph the number of objects they find of each color while on a...
Curated OER
Insects A-Z!
Alphabet insects! Who has ever heard of such a thing? Get ready because your class is going to research insects that start with a specific letter of the alphabet. In small groups, they'll use the Internet and reference texts to locate...
Space Awareness
Coma Cluster of Galaxies
Scientists classify everything from the smallest cells to the largest galaxies, but how do they decide on a classification system? Scholars use 40 pictures of galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to sort and try creating their...
Skyscraper Museum
What is a Skyscraper?
Skyscrapers are amazing feats of architectural design that create the iconic skylines of the world's biggest cities. Young architects explore the defining characteristics of these monstrous towers with the first activity in this...