Word and Picture Sorts

A word or picture sort can be a fun way for kids to learn their colors, letters, numbers, and words. I have found that it can also be great way to study for spelling tests. The basic idea is this. Give the child a list of words (maybe spelling words). Make them large enough that they can be cut apart and easily rearranged. Make categories or for more challenge have the students create their own categories. Let's use the following example:

Words
row
go
no
so
grow
tow


-ow
row
grow
tow

-o
so
no
go

Picture example
You have the following pictures.

A red car
A red house
A blue store
A green truck
A blue van
A green school

The child could choose the category of colors.
Red
car
house

Blue
Store
Van

Green
Truck
School

OR

They could choose building and vehicles.
Buildings
house
store
school

Vehicles
car
van
truck

You can make this activity fit with many different subject matters and age ranges depending on whether or not categories are given and what words that they students are classifying. It could even be used for vocabulary if you used several words with the same meaning and several words with a different meaning. The students would put them with the other words that are the most similar.

Sometimes I make this activity more difficult by having the kids think of a few more words on their own that fit into the categories.