Word picture sorts at

Word sorts are a helpful tool for teaching students spelling and phonics concepts. Concept sorts are one way for students to practice comparing and contrasting. One challenge with sorts that I would run into when teaching ELLs is that the time I had to work with them was so limited. If I had students cut out the materials then this could take up 1/2 of our group time for younger kids. One way to solve this problem is to use a digital sort. No cutting or gluing required. Read on to get step by step directions to help you create digital word sorts in Google Slides.

If you would rather get premade word sorts, I have a growing collection of digital word sorts that are already created.

How to Create Digital Word Sorts in Goggle Slides

1. Open a new document in Google Slides.

2. Insert a table.

I like to start with a blank slide. Then insert a table. 2×2 for sorting two categories. You need to resize the table some so that the top part is narrow and the bottom tabs are large. This gives students plenty of room for sorting.

3. Title the categories.

You can type directly into the table. I like to have the text be in the middle and centered. You can also change the font size and type.

Add words

To add words insert a new text box for each word. This way students can drag the word into the correct spot.

Add pictures

One way to add a picture is to upload it from your computer. These are images that you already have saved.

If you need images try searching online. There are many sites that have free graphics that are copyright free. After you find the images you need, save it so that you will be able to access it at a later time.

Free Image Sites

Pics4Learning– This website is a good one to share with students when they need to find images for a project. The photographs are all appropriate for kids.

Unsplash– This website has photographs.

PIxaby– This website has photographs, clipart, videos, and music.

Digital Picture Word Sorts

If you would like a premade set of digital picture word sorts, I have a growing bundle of them.

Here is a preview of the Word Family Word Sorts set.

*This post contains affiliate links. Please read my full disclosure policy for more information.

Here we are on Day 5 of Teaching Spelling through Word Study, a 10-day series I’m doing with iHomeschool Network.  We’ve spent a lot of time on the background for word study, so if this is your first day joining me, I hope you’ll take a look back (click HERE or on the picture above to see a list of the posts thus far).  Today’s focus is word sorts because they are at the heart of word study!

What are Word Sorts?

Let me start by showing instead of telling.  Take for example this ai/ay word sort:

If you were my child and working on these patterns, I’d ask you to cut them apart and sort these words as either having the ai or ay pattern (a visual sort).  Your sort would look something like this:

Then, we’d talk about the words and patterns: What do you notice about the long a spelling in the first column/in the second column?  When was the ai pattern used?  When was the ay pattern used?  So what generalization or rule can you form from studying all these words?  (Answer: When I hear the long a sound in the middle of the word, I use the ai pattern and when I hear the long a sound at the end of a word, I use the ay pattern.)

The Benefit of Word Sorts

Categorizing is the fundamental way that humans make sense of the world.  When students sorts words they are engaged in the active process of searching, comparing, contrasting, and analyzing.  Word sorts help students organize what they know about words and to form generalizations that they can then apply to new words they encounter in their reading.” (Words Their Way, 61)

1. Word Sorts are Hands-On

With word sorts, students learn by doing.  Comparing, contrasting, manipulating, analyzing, formulating, creating; just a few words to describe what the student is doing while sorting the words.

2. Word Sorts Happen at the Child’s Instructional Level

We spent some time yesterday on how to find your child’s instructional level (also known as ZPD).  This is where students learn best.  Words for the word sorts are chosen to challenge, but not frustrate the child.

3. Word Sorts are Analytic in Nature

Many phonics programs are synthetic, like a puzzle.  You give the child the puzzle pieces and ask him to put it together to form the entire picture.  (Here are the letter sounds…now sound out these words.)

With word sorts, students are give the big picture (entire words) and asked to break them apart and analyze them, an important skill in reading and writing unknown words.

4. Word Sorts Don’t Rely on Rote Memorization

“Effective word sorts require more than copying the words from a list as seen in traditional spellers.  [Copying] the word is not as important as the physical sorting.” (Mattmann and Cowan-founders of Spelling Scholar).  Students are required to be active, not passive, participants in their own learning and understanding of how words work.

5. Word Sorts are Efficient

Each word sort contains many examples of that particular spelling pattern; more than a typical spelling worksheet.  Word sorts (and the activities that accompany them) can also be done in a short amount of time.  In our home, the word sorting activities take about 10 minutes maximum each day.  And the same word cards can be used over and over for multiple purposes (more to come on this next week).

6. Word Sorts are Flexible

When I first taught in the classroom, all the kids had the same spelling list and everyone worked on the same phonics skill each week.  I could clearly see that my spelling instruction worked for maybe 40% of my students, with it being WAY too easy for some kids and WAY too hard for other kids.  This meant that at any given time, 60% of my class wasn’t truly learning!  I was frustrated, but unsure what do about it.  When I discovered the word study approach my second year of teaching, my spelling instruction was forever changed.  While I’m now homeschooling, it is even more obvious that my children aren’t on the same spelling level. Word sorts (and picture sorts) help to differentiate that instruction, providing what each child needs.

{The 6 benefits listed above were adpated from Words Their Way.}

More Resources with Word Sorts:

• Helping Spellers Make Phonics Generalizations (from word sorts)
• My FREE Elementary Printables contains some seasonal word sorts
• 10 Days of Teaching Spelling Through Word Study

~Becky