Why Sorting Activities Matter

Have you heard all the buzz about sorting activities? Let me begin by telling you why I started with them in my classroom.

The other day a read an article that stated the following truth: students spend 70% of their instructional time by themselves.

Well isn’t that the truth!?!?

When you are spending your instructional time in delivering intentional lessons for your small groups, or differentiating activities for your challenging and gifted students… the average kid spends 70% of  his/her day working on learning centers.

What a revelation.

Today I wanted to write a blog post about this.

About what the other kids are doing while you are teaching your small groups, or while delivering interventions for those kiddos who need just a bit more, or dealing with last minute emergencies.

So what engaging activities could you be creating for your elementary  learning centers that are both fun and intentional?

Sorting activities are a great option!  They are not only great for preschool or kindergarten, they are appropriate for students at every stage…and even adults can benefit from a sorting activity here and there. Ha!

Here’s why they are perfect for your classroom:

• Sorting activities provide students with high order thinking skills practice while you are “away” doing everything else. Regularly, a rigorous sorting activity will require students to combine more than one skill or more than one concept.

 

• Sorting activities can be used for every single subject.

Math 

In this example, students need to know how to add two digit numbers AND understand the equal sign.

Language 

In this grammar sort idea, students need to know meanings, spelling of words, AND understand the concept of homophones.

 

Science

 

In this science sort learning activity, students need to know content area vocabulary  for different topics.

• Sorting activities are also hands-on!

 

The bottom line here is not that sorting activities are convenient and low prep. The actual reason why sorting activities matter, it’s because they demand your students to apply content area knowledge in every subject. So if you are aiming for activities that require application, sorting activities are the answer.

If you are curious about sorting activities, and you are interested in implementing them in your elementary classroom, you may purchase in my TPT store. Some of them are available for 1st grade, and some for 2nd grade.

If you want to download some sorting activities for free and give them a try, please complete the form below and you will receive them in a jiffy!