Digital Word & Picture Sorts – No Paper or Scissors Required

Digital Sorts! These are great for classrooms that don’t have a lot of time to spend cutting pictures but still would like to sort and classify things based on similarities and differences. (One of Marzano’s High Yield Strategies). I personally love to do sorts in my classroom; however even with 5th graders, it takes so long for them to cut the sorts out. Currently the alternative to them cutting the cards is if I cut them out. With 28 students per class and cutting multiple sorts out, it still takes way too long and the cards get lost in the shuffle of multiple classes. This is why, for me, I am embracing Digital Sorts.

Digital Sorts use Google Slides which makes it super easy to assign students a sort in Google Classroom. Perfect for a quick check practice or review. You could also use these sorts as a whole group activity, for example, a whole group SMART board or Promethean board activity.

To use, students simply open the sort and use the mouse to drag the cards into the right category. The cards are found on the left side of the sort in a stack. No cutting or paper required and the students are still sorting based on rules, similarities and differences. This takes a fraction of the time that it used to take.

With these being super easy to make (there are lots of “how to” videos out there), I am looking forward to making lots of these this year.

In the images above, I have included two sorts that my husband and I will be using in our classes this year and can both be found on both of our Teachers Pay Teachers and TESS stores. The Living vs Nonliving Sort is a freebie that you can get to test out digital sorts. Students can sort both pictures and words into living and nonliving categories. My husband will be using this with his 2nd graders this year. It can be found on TPT here and on TESS here. The polygon sort has students sorting shapes into polygon and non-polygon categories. It can also be found on both stores (TPT and TESS) for $1.00. With both sorts, I have included links to how to videos if you need help assigning this in Google Classroom or making digital copies.

If you like these cards or would like to see more fun math lessons, please check out….

• Remainders Wanted- Free Long Division Game
• Multiplication Strategies – Math Anchor Chart, Kahoot and Game
• Decimal Dice Game For Grades 4-6
• Learning Math while Coloring- Polygon Fun
• Place Value Task Cards – standard, expanded and word form with decimals

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