Making Categories

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling

• Explain that today you will be practicing how to categorize, or sort objects by how they are the same or different.
• Tell students that we sort things to put them in special groups. Provide examples of times when it would make sense to sort something into categories (e.g., putting away toys, organizing books, looking for things at the grocery store, et cetera).
• Using the objects from the previous section, model how to categorize them by color/shape/size by thinking aloud, e.g., "I am putting all of the big cars together over here." "I am putting all of the red cars over here."

Guided Practice

• Display the What Belongs in the Kitchen? worksheet and have students give a thumbs up or thumbs down as you point to each object to decide if it belongs in the kitchen.
• Explain that now you will pair students together and pass out 3–4 objects to each pair. One partner will put the objects into two groups, then the other partner will try to guess what the groups are. Model how to play this game using a student volunteer as your partner.
• Pair students together and pass out materials.
• Gather the class back together and have several groups share out the categories they chose.

Group work time

• Display the Cut and Categorize 1 worksheet and explain that now students will get to practice sorting the pictures into food and animal categories.
• Review any materials expectations and demonstrate how to cut and paste the pictures on the worksheet.
• Pass out materials for students to work independently.