Kindergarten - ELA
1: Letters
Unit 1: A - A Is for Musk Ox
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are instructed to cut out picture boxes and glue the correct picture under each letter on the "Letter Sounds: A" pages, which requires them to sort pictures by their beginning letter/sound. The "Beginning Letter Sounds" activity asks students to cut out five images and place them in boxes labeled with specific lowercase letters, which has students group common objects according to initial sound. Teacher prompts to circle the correct beginning letter for each picture also ask students to identify and categorize items by initial letter.
Unit 2: H - Hondo and Fabian
Lesson 1
Day 1
Activity 1 asks students to identify each described action as either a Hondo or a Fabian activity and to act out each activity, requiring students to place actions into two categories (dog vs. cat). The Reading questions ask students to name the two characters and describe differences between Hondo and Fabian, which has students classify attributes (animal type, behaviors) by category. Activity 2 has students work with die-cut animals labeled as cats and dogs, count them, and match the count to a number card, reinforcing grouping by animal type.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are prompted to generate characteristics that belong only to cats, only to dogs, and to both, and to record those characteristics in the three sections of a Venn diagram on the "Comparing Cats and Dogs" sheet. The activity explicitly instructs students to consider appearance and behavior and to place items like "make a purring sound" and "have four legs" into the appropriate Cats, Dogs, or Both sections. The Venn diagram format requires students to sort information into categorical groups and to reason about shared versus category-specific attributes.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Activity 3 gives the student two piles of die-cut cats and dogs (one with 3 animals and one with 5) and asks the child to lay each pile in a separate line and compare which line has more or fewer. The Sample Lineup image shows three cats and five dogs, reinforcing two distinct animal categories. Activity 4 presents large die-cuts of a cat and a dog, has the student identify the animals, label them, and describe each character with words or phrases.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students circle the correct beginning letter for each pictured item and practice writing the letter, demonstrating identification of items by initial sound. Students cut out letters and paste them under the correct letter, physically grouping pictures/letters into matching categories. Students draw lines or write in letter boxes to match images (e.g., lizard, horse, hammer) with the appropriate beginning letter, showing practice in sorting by initial sound/letter.
Unit 3: I - The Little Island
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson includes the math skill "Classify objects into given categories; count the number of objects in each category and sort the categories," which directs students to sort and count groups. In Activity 1 students create an island diagram and glue one rock, seven trees, seven fireflies, and seventeen bushes, counting and placing each object by type. Activity 2 has students discuss the definition of an island and compare islands and continents, which requires categorizing landforms.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to page through The Little Island and talk about how the different seasons affect the island and themselves, providing a conceptual basis for seasonal categories. During the pretend picnic, students choose appropriate gear for the current season and then choose new accessories when the season changes, which requires them to sort items by the category "season" and adjust selections as categories change.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Activity 3: Classifying Creatures asks students to look at animals in the book, identify where each animal 'does most of their moving around' (air, land, or water), and then act out flying, walking/crawling, or swimming. The directions have an adult call out animals and show pictures as needed, and instruct students to sort each animal by movement type and discuss that some animals move in more than one way.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students complete 'Letter Sounds: I' pages where they circle the correct beginning letter for each picture and cut and paste letters under the correct picture. Students use the 'Beginning Letter Sounds' worksheet to match images (lion, apple, hammer, axe, igloo) with the corresponding beginning letters shown in boxes, effectively grouping pictures by initial letter.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 1 asks students to judge whether the island was "little" compared to things like a continent, the ocean, or the Earth and to name things for which it was big (for example, animals, a blade of grass). Students are shown a ruler and tape measure, measure their height and lengths of furniture and rooms, and record those measurements. Students are asked to compare recorded measurements and answer which item is the longest and which is the shortest.
Unit 4: T - What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?
Lesson 1
Day 1
Activity 1 directs the child to fold a paper into four boxes labeled 0, 2, 4, and 6 and to place animal stickers into the correct box based on number of legs, which requires sorting animals into categorical groups. Activity 2 uses cut-apart animal cards for the child to draw two cards and state one similarity and one difference in their structures, prompting comparison of categories. The Skills section explicitly notes guided support for recalling and comparing information, indicating adult guidance during sorting and comparison tasks.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are given animal picture cards with missing tails and separate tail cut-outs and are asked to find and glue the matching tail to each animal (Activity 1 and the Student Activity Pages). Students are prompted to talk about what each animal might need or use a tail for and hear descriptions of tail functions, linking objects (tails) to categories defined by animal type or function. Activity 3 has students design a new tail for a specific purpose, asking them to consider and explain the tail's function, which reinforces grouping by purpose.
Lesson 4
Day 4
The "Beginning Letter Sounds" activity asks children to match five images (taxi, ambulance, hand, tree, island) to labeled letters ('t', 'a', 'h', 't', 'i'), which requires grouping images by their beginning sound/letter. Activity 3 (Letter Sounds: T) has students cut out letters and paste them under the correct letter, which has them sort letter pieces into letter categories. Activity 2 asks children to identify animals that use specific body parts, which requires linking animals to shared body-part features.
Unit 5: L - We're Going on a Leaf Hunt
Lesson 1
Day 1
The Skills section explicitly states students will "Classify objects into given categories; count the numbers of objects in each category and sort the categories by count." Activity 1 has students gather a variety of leaves (at least 50) to use in follow-up activities, providing a set of common objects for sorting. Activity 2 is titled "Leaf Counting and Sorting" and asks students to arrange leaves in rows, circles, and scattered patterns and to select subsets (e.g., favorite 10), giving practice with organizing and grouping objects.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to lay out a collection of leaves, examine features, and answer what features leaves have in common or how they differ. Students are guided to sort the leaves according to one attribute (e.g., size: small, medium, large) and to count the number in each group, then to sort again by a different attribute (e.g., color: brown, orange, red, or green) and count again. The instructions explicitly direct an adult to guide the child and to challenge the child to think of other features to use for sorting.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students practice identifying beginning letters by circling the correct beginning letter for pictures and by cutting and pasting letters under the correct letter on the "Letter Sounds: L" pages. Students match images to their initial sounds on the "Beginning Letter Sounds" activity by placing each picture with the corresponding labeled letter square. Students also divide leaves into two groups and manipulate those groups to compare which group has more, showing a physical grouping activity.
Unit 6: F - Fireflies
Lesson 1
Day 1
The Skills section explicitly states that students will "Compare and sort common objects by one physical attribute (e.g., color, shape, texture, size, or weight)." The Questions to Explore include "How can a group of different objects be sorted by their similarities and differences?" Activity 1 has students count out and organize pennies into 10 groups of 10, which requires students to group common objects into categories (sets) and attend to a shared attribute (quantity per group).
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students examine the "Insects" page pictures and decide whether each creature is an insect, explaining the clues they used. Students build a model firefly and review defining features (three body parts, antennae, two pairs of wings, three pairs of legs), using those features as criteria for classification. Students go outside, collect bugs in a bug jar, and discuss whether the collected creatures are insects, using a magnifying glass to check characteristics.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Activity 1 has students color creature pictures, cut them into cards, and sort the cards into two groups labeled insects and non-insects. Students are prompted to recall shared insect characteristics (3 body parts, exoskeleton, antennae, 6 legs, wings) and to count how many are in each group. Students are then asked to create additional sorts using different characteristics (color, flying vs. non-flying, body shape) and to sort according to 2 or 3 different characteristics.
Unit 7: E - But No Elephants
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson's Skills list explicitly states that students will "Classify objects into given categories; count the number of objects in each category and sort the categories by count." The Getting Started section notes that "Grouping can aid in counting," and Activity 1 has students identify, color, and order animal pictures (canary, beaver, turtle, woodpecker, elephant) and Activity 2 has students arrange those pictures in sequence. The Student Activity Page provides cut-out animal pictures that students can manipulate.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Activity 3 asks students to name shapes (circles, rectangles, triangles), sort the shapes into groups by shape, and count the number of each shape. Students are asked to order each group from smallest to largest, and then use the sorted and ordered shapes to assemble an elephant craft. The Student Activity Pages and assembly diagram provide the physical shapes and steps students manipulate and categorize.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Activity 3 instructs an adult to lay out number cards (0, 2, 4, 6) and animal pictures and asks the child to sort the animals by the number of legs each one has. The activity directs the child to count the number of animals in each category and suggests thinking of other ways to sort the animals (e.g., land/sea, size). The adult is prompted to guide the child through sorting, counting, and an optional extension of counting legs by 2s.
Lesson 4
Day 4
In Activity 1 students are given a collection of common household objects (book, coat, crayon, cup of water, family picture, toy, healthy food, toy car) and are asked to sort them into two piles labeled wants and needs. Students are prompted to explain why they placed each object in its category and to count how many items are in each category. Adult prompts and guided questions (e.g., "Ask your child to sort the items… Have him explain why…") scaffold the task throughout.
Unit 8: C - Millions of Cats
Lesson 1
Day 1
Activity 1 directs students to group die-cut cats by features (color, size, or pattern), count the number in each group, and re-sort by a different feature. The Skills list explicitly states that students will "Classify objects into given categories; count the numbers of objects in each category and sort the categories by count." Activity 2 has students construct a Venn diagram to list shared and unique characteristics of two groups of cats, reinforcing comparison and category membership.
Lesson 2
Day 2
The opening Review directs the child to close her eyes, choose 5 cats, and divide them into two groups based on one characteristic. An adult prompt ("Ask your child...") provides guidance and support for the activity. This instruction has the child sort common objects (toy cats) into categories defined by a shared characteristic.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Activity 2 has students spread out 10 die-cut cats, divide them into two groups (e.g., 9 and 1), count each group, place a number card above each group, and write equations such as 9 + 1 = 10. The activity repeats regrouping the same set of cats into different two-group partitions (8+2, 7+3, etc.) and includes an extension asking how many more cats are needed to make 10. These tasks require students to physically sort and label objects into groups.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to divide 10 cats into two groups and count how many are in each group, providing a simple sorting activity. On the "Letter Sounds: C" pages students cut out picture boxes and paste them beneath the correct beginning letter. The "Beginning Letter Sounds" activity has students match images (cat, fan, elephant, lion, ant) to labeled boxes for letters c, f, e, l, and a, requiring students to sort common pictures by initial sound.
Unit 9: G - The Real Mother Goose
Lesson 1
Day 1
The Skills list and Activity 1 ask children to identify and describe shapes (e.g., circle) and to point out circle-shaped objects in illustrations (clock, well, button, pancake) and in the room. Students are prompted to name shapes regardless of size or orientation and to distinguish two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes. Activity 1 also has students move in circular paths, reinforcing the concept of a circle as a category of shape.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Students are given a collection of tops and lids and are asked to identify the shape they form and arrange the objects from smallest to largest. Students are asked to find a way to sort the objects and to tell how they decided to group them. Students are also prompted earlier to identify circular objects in the room, reinforcing shape-based categorization with adult support.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students circle the correct beginning letter for each picture on the "Letter Sounds: G" page and cut out boxes to glue or tape pictures under the correct letter, which practices grouping pictures by initial sound. Students practice matching multiple pictures to letter categories on the Beginning Letter Sounds page (f, e, c, g, a). Students add symbols and pictures for weather, activities, and special events to each month in the "Months of the Year" book, which has them place items under month categories.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students are shown a die-cut circle and a ball and asked to identify and compare their shapes, using the terms 'circle' and 'sphere' and discussing 2-dimensional versus 3-dimensional. Students are prompted to name as many spheres as they can (e.g., balls, globes, marbles, moon, planets), which asks them to generate and recognize items that belong to a category. Students listen to and talk about poems that describe spherical objects and identify the spherical objects described.
Unit 10: O - Owl Babies
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students cut out shape templates and sort the cut pieces into categories (circles, ovals, and triangles). Students talk about each shape, answer questions about properties (e.g., how many sides a triangle has, difference between a circle and an oval), order shapes within their categories by size, and count items in each category. Students then color and assemble the shapes into an owl, reinforcing category membership and individual item manipulation.
Lesson 2
Day 2
The lesson asks the child to find a circle, an oval, and a triangle shape in the room. The Special Note instructs preparing a triangle, an oval, and a circle each on its own sheet of construction paper and on index cards. Activity 2 asks the child to identify the shape of the letter O (a circle) and Option 2 has the child practice drawing circles with an orange crayon.
Lesson 3
Day 3
The review asks the child to find a circle, an oval, and a triangle in the room, prompting identification of objects by shape. Activity 2 has students stand on three large shape papers (circle, oval, triangle) and either name a shown index-card shape or be told a shape name, then move to the matching shape (crawl, hop, roll, etc.). The activity also has the child call out the three shapes and take turns deciding which shape to go to, reinforcing categorization by shape.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students complete multiple letter-sorting activities: on the "Letter Sounds: O" pages they circle the correct beginning letter for each picture and cut out letters to paste under the correct heading. The "Beginning Letter Sounds" page asks students to match five pictures (apple, tree, egg, orange, grapes) to five labeled letter boxes, which requires placing common objects into letter-based categories. Activity 1 also asks students to observe what is different and similar about owls, encouraging grouping by shared attributes.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students are asked to decide which of two owl books is fiction and which is nonfiction and to cite clues that support their choices (Activity 2). Students are directed to record factual information on one side of a journal page and a fictional story on the other side, effectively separating content into the two categories of fiction and nonfiction (Activity 3).
Unit 11: S - Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to identify the current season and discuss typical seasonal weather, and to record daily sky, wind, and temperature conditions on a weather chart. In the "A Tree for All Seasons" activity, students assign specific materials to each seasonal tree (green tissue and pink blossoms for spring; green tissue and green pom-poms for summer; yellow/orange/red tissue and red pom-poms for fall; pipe-cleaner branches and cotton for winter). The tree task requires students to place and use different common objects in association with the four season categories.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Activity 3 asks students to identify beginning sounds by circling the correct initial letter for each picture and practicing writing the letter. The second part of Activity 3 directs students to cut out letters and paste them under the correct letter, which requires grouping pictures/letters by their initial sound. The 'Beginning Letter Sounds' student page provides empty boxes under each letter for students to match corresponding pictures, creating small categories based on initial letters.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 1 has the child identify a die-cut circle and form a sphere from playdough, then go on a "circle-and-sphere hunt" around the house. The child sorts found items by placing them with either the circle or the sphere and then reviews each item while being prompted to say "circle" or "sphere." These actions require students to sort common objects into shape-based categories with adult guidance.
Unit 12: D - Dinosaurs Big and Small
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson's Skills list explicitly includes "Compare and sort common objects by one physical attribute (e.g., color, shape, texture, size, weight). (S)." In Activity 1, students measure their own length and measure dinosaur lengths, lay yarn representations side-by-side, and answer which is longer/shorter and which is longest/shortest. In Activity 2, students assemble a dinosaur puzzle and are asked to describe characteristics of the dinosaur they created.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students circle the correct beginning letter for each picture on the 'Letter Sounds: D' page and then cut out letters and paste them under the correct letter, which requires grouping items by their initial letter. On the 'Beginning Letter Sounds' page students match images to squares labeled with letters, effectively placing pictures into letter-based categories. These activities require students to identify and sort pictures according to their initial sounds.
Unit 13: P - Harold and the Purple Crayon
Lesson 1
Day 1
Activity 2 directs the child to identify rectangles and squares in the book and the room and to explain the defining attributes (two long sides and two short sides for rectangles; four equal sides for squares). The lesson instructs an adult to cut out purple squares and rectangles and asks the child to sort those cutouts into two groups (squares and rectangles) and count how many are in each group. The lesson includes adult prompts and guidance throughout the activity (e.g., questions to ask and note about cutting), supporting guided practice.
Lesson 3
Day 3
In Activity 3 students are asked to identify a square and a rectangle from the room and explain the difference between the two shapes. Students are shown real objects (a cube and a rectangular prism such as a shoebox or tissue box) and asked to decide which solid matches the square and which matches the rectangle, trace the bottoms, and count faces, edges, and corners. The optional snack suggestions list foods by shape (squares, rectangles, cubes, rectangular prisms), providing examples of common objects in shape categories.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to name a square, rectangle, cube, and rectangular prism and answer which ones are flat shapes and which are solids, prompting them to group shapes by category. On the "Letter Sounds — P" activity students circle the correct beginning letter and cut out picture boxes to paste each under the correct letter, requiring sorting pictures into letter categories. The "Beginning Letter Sounds" page has letters with images to match, which has students place common objects into categorical groups by initial sound.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students review the square, rectangle, cube, and rectangular prism and are asked to name or show an example of each. Students construct a square and a cube with toothpicks and marshmallows, then modify a square to make a rectangle and build a rectangular prism while counting edges, corners, and faces.
Unit 14: B - Blueberries for Sal
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students sort pictures by beginning letter on the "Beginning Letter Sounds" and "Letter Sounds: B" activity pages by drawing lines, cutting out letters, and pasting them under the correct letter. Students create a two-column chart and list elements as either "Fiction" or "Non-Fiction," directly categorizing statements about bears into those two conceptual groups. The activities ask students to name and place items/statements into labeled categories, providing multiple opportunities to practice sorting.
Unit 15: R - Rain
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to think of other liquids (milk, juice, liquid soap) and to compare liquid water and ice, naming ice as a "solid" and water as a "liquid," which has them generate examples for a category. In the Rainbow Book activity, students write sentences beginning "I see..." using a specified color (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet) and draw objects that match each color, selecting items that belong to each color category. Students also describe similarities and differences between states (liquid vs. solid) using their senses, which supports understanding category concepts.
Unit 16: N - Night in the Country
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students cut out paper dolls and a set of clothing/accessory items and are asked to dress one character for life on a farm and the other for life in a city, which requires selecting clothing items that fit each category. Students role-play the two characters and answer questions about where they get fruit, vegetables, meat, and where they shop, connecting the chosen items to the category (country vs. city). The activity explicitly contrasts farm-related items (boots, overalls, work hat) with city/business clothes (suit, dressy shoes), giving students concrete objects to sort by category.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students collect pictures and small objects (leaves, feathers, pebbles) and make a collage of natural resources, with an optional collage of man-made resources, which requires grouping items by category. Students are prompted to brainstorm and discuss what a natural resource is and how people should treat such resources, supporting conceptual understanding of the category. Students complete a Beginning Letter Sounds activity where they match objects to labeled letter boxes and cut/paste letters under the correct letter, which requires sorting items by their initial letter category.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Activity 3 directs the child to create a two-page layout with the sun on one page and the moon on the other, and to write about what he does in the day and at night. This requires the child to place behaviors or activities into two labeled groups (day vs. night), and to read aloud or dictate items associated with each category.
Unit 17: M - Marshmallow
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to compare Owen and Mzee with Oliver and Marshmallow and optionally create a Venn diagram, which requires them to sort attributes into shared and unique categories. The Student Activity Pages have students identify and place pictures under the correct beginning-letter boxes and cut-and-paste letters under pictures, which requires sorting pictured objects into letter-based categories.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students are asked to identify and name three-dimensional shapes (sphere, cube, rectangular prism, cylinder) and to count the flat faces of each shape. Students stack marshmallows to observe that stacked marshmallows form a taller cylinder, reinforcing the category of 'cylinder.' Students are prompted to move around the house and find other examples of cylinders (cans, pencils, cups, tubes), which has them identify real-world objects that belong to the same shape category.
Unit 18: U - Umbrella
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students circle the correct beginning letter for each picture on the "Beginning Sounds: U" page and practice writing that letter, demonstrating sorting pictures by their initial sound. Students cut out letters and paste them under the correct letter on the second page, physically grouping items into letter-based categories. Students match animal pictures to squares labeled with initial letters (u, g, p, r, m), which requires sorting each animal into the category defined by its beginning sound/letter.
Unit 19: J - Jump Frog Jump
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are directed in the Skills section to "Compare and sort common objects by one physical attribute (e.g., color, shape, texture, size, weight)." Students would therefore be expected to practice sorting by attributes such as shape, which aligns with the example category (shapes) in the standard.
Lesson 2
Day 2
In Activity 1 (Sorting Pond Animals) students are asked to examine die-cut animals, identify what the animals have in common and how they differ, and then sort them by a chosen characteristic. The lesson gives a concrete example (animals with legs vs. no legs) and prompts students to sort into two or more groups and to try additional sorting criteria (land vs. water, fly vs. don't fly, swim vs. don't swim). Students are also asked questions that require them to articulate category membership and reasoning.
Lesson 4
Day 4
In Activity 1 students divide a paper plate into four equal parts and glue different objects (googly eyes, a black bean with a drawn tail, a black paper circle with legs/tail, and a die-cut frog) into the quadrants labeled "eggs," "tadpole," "froglet," and "frog." Students are instructed to label each section and to talk about what a life cycle is, linking the placed objects to the category names. The construction of the diagram requires students to place physical items into category bins that represent stages of the frog's life cycle.
Unit 20: K - Kindness
Lesson 3
Day 3
Activity 3 (Animals in Fiction) asks students to reread pages and then name actions for each animal, recording each idea in a three-column chart under "Animal Actions" or "Human Actions." The Student Activity Page provides rows for Mouse, Frog, Mole, and Bat and spaces for students to write animal-specific actions and human-like actions, so students sort actions into two categorical columns. The teacher prompts (rereading pages and asking for examples) provide guidance while the child sorts and records items on the chart.
Unit 21: V - Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin
Lesson 1
Day 1
The Skills list explicitly includes "Sort common objects into categories (e.g., shapes, foods) to gain a sense of the concepts the categories represent," which names the targeted sorting skill. Activity 1 has students match instrument pictures with number cards and ensemble labels (solo, duet, chamber group of 10), requiring children to sort objects (instruments) into labeled categories. The Skills list also includes "Compare and sort common objects by one physical attribute (e.g., color, shape, texture, size, weight)," providing additional, concrete sorting practice.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to determine one or more ways to classify the instruments (for example, strings/no strings, color, or size). Students are given instrument pictures and encouraged to make piles of the different groups. Students are then asked to come up with a second way to classify the same set of instrument pictures and move those into two groups accordingly.
Lesson 3
Day 3
In Activity 2, students compare a can and a paper towel roll, name the cylinder shape, examine a die-cut cone, and identify which pictured instruments are cylinder-shaped or cone-shaped, discussing similarities and differences. In Activity 3, students generate job cards, decide whether each job produces goods or provides a service, and place each card under the correct heading labeled "Goods" or "Services." The activities include adult prompts and questions that guide students to sort objects into shape and economic categories.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students match pictures (fork, tree, guitar, van, pumpkin) to five labeled letter boxes (f, c, g, v, p) on a Beginning Letter Sounds activity page. Students circle the correct beginning letter for each picture and practice writing the letter on the "Letter Sounds: V" pages. Students cut out letters and paste them under the correct letter, performing hands-on sorting of objects by beginning sound/letter.
Unit 22: Y - Little Blue and Little Yellow
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students divide dough into three colored portions (blue, yellow, green), form each portion into a ball, and are asked to keep the colors separate. The teacher asks what shape the child made (spheres), prompting students to name the shape. The lesson also asks which two colors combine to make green, engaging students in thinking about color relationships.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Activity 1 has students take a nature scavenger hunt, collect items, and then "unpack the lunch bag and sort the items onto the correct color boxes," which requires sorting common objects into color categories. Multiple Student Activity Pages are labeled with color sections (RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, PURPLE, WHITE, GRAY, BLACK, BROWN) where students draw, paste, or list examples for each color. The instructions include adult prompting and support (e.g., "Have your child search..." and "assisting as necessary") guiding the child through the sorting task.
Unit 23: W - George Washington's Birthday
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students cut out three pictures (Statue of Liberty, United States flag, bald eagle), read the word boxes, choose the title box "Symbols of the United States," and glue each picture with its correct name under that title. An adult is prompted to help the child select and glue the title and pictures, providing the guided support named in the standard. The lesson explicitly defines a symbol and gives explanations for why each item represents the United States, linking the category label to the concepts the category represents.
Lesson 3
Day 3
After reading, the child is asked to page back through the book, recapping each story about George Washington and identify whether each one is a myth or a fact. This requires the child to sort and label individual story events into two conceptual categories (myth vs. fact).
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students are asked to identify beginning letters for pictured objects (circle the correct beginning letter for each picture) and to cut out and paste letters under the correct picture, which requires grouping pictures by their initial sound. Another activity presents images with letter-labeled boxes (k, w, d, h, g) and asks students to match each image to the box with the correct beginning letter, requiring them to place objects into letter-based categories. Instructions direct an adult to give the pages and to model or assist with letter formation and placement.
Unit 24: Q - The Quilt Story
Lesson 1
Day 1
Activity 1 asks students to work with a collection of shapes, name each shape, count sides and corners, and then "sort the shapes by type of shape." The activity explicitly prompts students to come up with another way to sort the shapes (color, number of sides, number of corners) and has the teacher/adult show and guide the student through these sorts.
Lesson 3
Day 3
In Activity 2 (What Shape Is It?), students are shown five die-cut shapes, asked to recall the names, and match each shape to a card with the shape's name. Students then hear verbal clues (e.g., "I have three corners") and identify which shape(s) match each clue, using the shape, the name, or both. The Student Activity Page provides cut-apart shape names for matching practice. The Then and Now Venn diagram activity has students sort story attributes into the categories LONG AGO, BOTH, and MUCH LATER.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students cut out portraits of historical figures on the "Famous Americans and Their Holidays" page and glue each picture onto the correct square, directly sorting images into holiday categories. Students read descriptions of holidays on the "Other American Holidays" sheet and color or match the picture that represents each holiday, reinforcing categorical grouping of holiday-related images. Students complete the "Beginning Letter Sounds" and "Letter Sounds: Q" pages by identifying which pictures belong with which beginning-letter squares and by cutting and pasting letters or images under the correct letter category.
Lesson 5
Day 5
Students are asked to name a collection of household solid shapes (cylinder, sphere, cube, cone, rectangular prism) and the paper shapes from a previous lesson. Students are asked which shapes are two-dimensional (flat) and which are three-dimensional (solid), and which flat objects match characteristics of solids (e.g., circle–sphere, square–cube). Students physically move to the correct shape in response to verbal clues and say the name of that shape, demonstrating category identification and matching.
Unit 25: X - An Extraordinary Egg
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are asked to page through the book, record each idea about frogs on a separate index card, and then place each card under one of two titled cards: "Facts About Frogs" or "Fictional Frogs." The activity explicitly instructs students to decide where to place each card, creating two categories and sorting items into them. The provided chart (Facts About Frogs / Fictional Frogs) reinforces the sorting of individual items into category columns.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Students are asked to identify the animal that hatched and to state that a chicken is a bird and an alligator is a reptile. Students compare groups by discussing similarities (both birds and reptiles hatch from eggs) and examine an egg's attributes (color, size, shape, texture, weight, magnetism, buoyancy). These observations prompt students to use observable features that could inform category membership.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students divide a paper plate into three labeled sections (egg, baby alligator, adult alligator) and place or tape corresponding items into each section, showing they sort life-cycle items into labeled groups. Students act out life-cycle stages for frog and alligator, which requires sequencing and grouping behaviors by stage. Students complete Beginning Sounds pages by circling the correct beginning letter for pictures and cutting and pasting letters under the correct letter, which has them sort pictures/letters by initial sound.
Unit 26: Z - Greedy Zebra
Lesson 1
Day 1
The lesson's skill list explicitly states that students will "Classify objects into given categories; count the numbers of objects in each category and sort the categories by count." Activity 1 provides animal cards and asks students to create groups of animals (e.g., one group of 9 and one of 7), count each group, compare which group has more, and divide a set of 10 animals into different two-group partitions. The activities also have students arrange animals into rows of 10 and identify groups of ten and extra ones, which supports grouping and counting by category.
Lesson 3
Day 3
Activity 2 directs the child to sort animal cards into groups based on the number of legs, count how many are in each group, and state the criterion used. The child is then asked to create a different sorting criterion (e.g., land-dwelling vs. flying, color, horns vs. no horns), sort and count again, and explain that criterion. Finally, the child is given groups sorted by the adult and asked to study the groups to determine the hidden sorting rule.
Lesson 4
Day 4
Students complete "Letter Sounds: Z" pages where they circle the correct beginning letter for pictures and cut out letters to paste under the correct letter, indicating they group pictures by their initial letter. The "Beginning Letter Sounds" activity requires students to match five images (zipper, rainbow, x-ray, heart, dolphin) with provided beginning-letter boxes, which has students place images into letter-based categories.
Lesson 5
Day 5
In Activity 2, students gather a stack of books, look through them, and are asked to think about how some books are similar (for example, some were about animals) and how they are different. Students identify books that have animal characters, choose pairs to state a similarity and a difference, identify which books have outdoor settings, and identify which three books were nonfiction and recall their subjects. In Activity 1, students handle animal cards and order them by height, engaging with representations of animals.
2: Holidays
Unit 29: Christmas
Lesson 1
Day 1
Students are shown cut paper rectangles and are asked to name their shape, identify rectangle properties (four sides, matching sides), and arrange the strips from shortest to longest before gluing them to form a tree. Students are asked to identify a triangle, a star, and a square trunk and to describe features of each shape (number of sides, name, what makes it unique). Students use foam shapes to decorate the tree, during which they are prompted to talk about the characteristics of each shape.
Lesson 2
Day 2
Activity 2 asks the child to identify snow as frozen water and to state whether hot water is a solid or a liquid. The activity shows powdered hot chocolate and asks the child whether it is a solid or a liquid, asks the child to predict what will happen when the two are mixed, and then has the child identify the resulting category (liquid hot chocolate). The lesson also explains melting and freezing as reasons materials move between the solid and liquid categories.
Unit 30: February Celebrations
Lesson 2
Day 2
Activity 2 directs an adult to show a child a penny, nickel, dime, and quarter and have the child inspect each coin. The child is asked to sort a cup of mixed change into piles of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. The child then reviews the name and value of each coin and answers equivalence questions (e.g., how many pennies equal a nickel), linking the categories to the concept of monetary value.
1: Environment
Unit 1: Habitats and Homes
Lesson 1
My Environment
Students are asked in Activity 2 (Option 2) to circle items in the picture that relate to meeting the basic needs of water, food, or shelter, which requires identifying and grouping objects by those categories. Activity 2 (Option 1) has students circle an item in each room that they feel is important to a healthy environment, and students number rooms and place that data on a chart as they explore the home. Activity 1 introduces the three category concepts (water, food, shelter) with motions and discussion prompts about which items in the home provide each need.
Lesson 2
What Is a Map?
Students select and paste pictures from the "Objects Found in the Bedroom" sheet onto a blank map of their room (Activity 3, Option 1), choosing which items belong in their bedroom. Students locate and identify specific items on the provided house floor plans (Activity 2), answering questions about what is beside or in front of particular objects (e.g., refrigerator, bathtub, television). These tasks require students to recognize and group objects by location (bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, living room).
Lesson 3
Guide to Animal Habitats
Students cut apart pictures and place them into three labeled circles (INSECTS, ANIMALS, PLANTS) in Activity 4, physically sorting common images into categories. Students may also draw and label three examples for each circle, or cut and paste the nine pictured items (cactus, dragonfly, tree, turtle, zebra, dolphin, flower, caterpillar, butterfly) into the appropriate categories. The skills list and instructions explicitly direct students to identify and classify plants, animals, and insects and to use the book as a reference while sorting.
Lesson 4
Animals Live and Grow
Students complete graphic organizers that divide habitats (wetlands, woodlands, grasslands, drylands) into labeled "Plants" and "Animals" boxes and either draw or list items for each category. Students identify and pair organisms as "Consumer" and "Energy Source" for each habitat, cutting, pasting, or writing matches on activity cards. Students sort real food items into plant-part categories (seed, leaf, root, flower, stem) when they arrange foods to make a "Plant Art" representation.
Lesson 5
Discovering Animal Habitats
Students physically sort pictures and cut-outs of animals and plants into the correct habitat sections (Day 2, "Let's Create a Habitat" Option 1). Students place animal crackers into columns on the "Animal Habitat Graph," grouping each cracker by the habitat where that animal could be found. The lesson prompts students to label habitats, describe animals found there, and answer questions about how many items are in each category (e.g., which habitat had the most/fewest).
Lesson 6
Exploring Animal Habitats
The Activity 1 directions ask students to "Look for plants, insects, animals, water, and land in a habitat. Draw what you see," which requires students to identify and record items by category. Activity 2 asks students to fill in prompts such as "I am a ______. I live in the ______," prompting students to link an animal to its habitat category. The Skills section lists "Recognize equivalent sets (M)," indicating some focus on grouping or comparing sets.
Lesson 7
Tools in My Environment
Students are asked to collect common objects (tools) from their home and examine each tool's use and how it works. In Activity 2, students sort the collected tools into categories such as "tools used every day vs. tools used once in awhile" and "large tools vs. medium tools vs. small tools." The Skills section explicitly lists "Sort and classify objects by one attribute," and follow-up questions ask students what each tool is used for, prompting consideration of category-defining attributes.
Lesson 8
Animal Care
Students are asked to draw a picture of a domestic animal and one of an animal that is not domesticated, requiring them to identify and produce examples from two categories. The text lists domestic animals (cats, dogs, sheep, cows, horses) and contrasts them with non-domestic animals (tigers, elephants), prompting students to distinguish categories and discuss habitat differences. In Activity 3 students collect materials and choose appropriate items to create a salamander's home, which asks them to select and group items appropriate for a particular category (salamander habitat).
Lesson 9
Animal Designs
Students sort 10–20 stuffed animals into labeled habitat categories in Activity 3, using index cards and yarn boundaries and then identify misplaced animals aloud. In Activity 2 students analyze pictured habitats and circle animals that do not belong, and explain why each animal would not live in that habitat. Option 2 of Activity 1 and Activity 1 tasks ask students to name habitats, write habitat names, and associate movement words with animals that live in those habitats.
Lesson 11
Amazing Me
In Activity 2 (Options 1 and 2) students look at pictured environmental items (snake, flower, hurt elephant) and are asked to circle the face that shows how each item makes them feel, which requires assigning each item to an emotion category. Both options instruct students to fold paper into four boxes labeled with emotions (happy, sad, scared, surprised) and draw or list things that belong in each labeled box, which has students place multiple examples into categorized groups. The student activity pages explicitly present multiple common items to be classified by emotion, giving students repeated practice sorting.
Final Project
Animal Research / My Environment
Students are asked to draw and label items on pages titled "What I Eat and Drink" and "What ______ Eats and Drinks," which requires them to separate foods from drinks for themselves. Students are prompted to draw an animal's habitat and to list or illustrate what the animal eats and drinks, which involves organizing information about animals and their environments. Students are also asked to identify different habitat types (grasslands, wetlands, woodlands, ocean, savanna, forest, rainforest, desert), which exposes them to category labels for environments.
Unit 2: Weather
Lesson 1
Reading the Skies
Students match weather vocabulary words to pictures in Activity 2 by drawing lines or writing the correct word beneath each image, linking words to picture categories. Students record daily sky conditions on the Weather Calendar (choosing icons like snowy, rainy, cloudy, sunny) and draw pictures that represent each day's weather. Students describe pictures of different weather types during Wrapping Up and discuss what seasons the pictures show and what clothing or activities match those conditions.
Lesson 2
Types of Precipitation
In Activity 2 students look at pictures of weather scenes and decide which type of precipitation (rain, snow, or hail) is falling, labeling each picture with R, S, or H. Option 2 has students label the top of three columns with the correct precipitation words and then draw scenes for each type. The lesson also lists the skill "Identify types of precipitation" and includes review questions asking students to name and compare the four types of precipitation.
Lesson 4
Simulating Weather
The activity asks children to name three things the wind can move and to discuss what those things have in common (e.g., being light in weight). Students are asked to go outside and identify things that the wind is moving, and to observe a pinwheel spinning as an example of wind moving objects. These prompts require students to notice shared properties and to group items conceptually by whether the wind can move them.
Lesson 5
Fall
In Activity 2 (Graphing Leaves) students are instructed to color leaf cutouts according to directions, cut them out, and paste them onto a graph with columns labeled by leaf color. Students are then asked questions about which color has the fewest or most leaves and whether any colors have the same number, prompting comparison of categories. The wrapping up prompts review that graphs help find patterns and show how things are alike and different, linking the sorting activity to understanding category concepts.
Lesson 6
Winter
Students count points on snowflake pictures and match each picture to a corresponding numeral and number word in the Snowflake Math activities, which requires grouping pictures with matching number labels. In Option 2, students use objects (Legos, buttons, counting bears, or change) to decide if a counted number is even or odd, which asks them to classify quantities into two categories. Students are also asked to find pages that 'look like winter' in a book and describe similarities, which involves selecting images that belong to a seasonal category.
Lesson 7
Spring
The lesson explicitly lists "Sort and classify objects by one attribute" as a skill and includes the Seed Sort activity where students color seed pictures, cut them out, and place them into groups on a brown "soil" sheet according to color instructions (e.g., "Plant all the red seeds," "Plant two green seeds and one yellow seed"). Option 2 extends sorting into pattern work (ABAB) and asks students to group and count seeds by color, reinforcing sorting by a single attribute. The step-by-step planting directions require students to physically sort and reorganize the seed cutouts multiple times, giving repeated practice in categorizing objects by color.
Lesson 8
Summer
Students place season names or their beginning letters beneath points on a temperature continuum in Activity 3, matching seasons to categories labeled cold, cool, warm, and hot. They complete written sentences (e.g., "_____ is the warmest season") that require selecting the correct season for a category. In the story activities, students choose words from a provided word box to fill blanks, practicing selecting words that fit contextual categories.
Final Project
Weather Games
In Activity 1, students cut out pictures of clothing and glue at least two items of clothing onto each season-labeled picture, directly placing objects into season categories. The extension has students physically select and put on two articles of clothing when a season is called, reinforcing sorting by category through action. In Activity 2, students play a Weather Memory game that requires matching a season's name with an item associated with that season and matching weather names with corresponding pictures, which practices grouping items by category.
Unit 3: Community
Lesson 2
My Community Environment
Activity 3 asks students to select three books with different types of communities (e.g., realistic, fantastic), copy the titles, draw simple illustrations, and discuss ways the communities are similar and different. Activity 2 has students collect and label pictures of important places and write or dictate descriptions of how each place serves the community, which requires grouping places by function. The Community Map activity has students identify and discuss the purpose of each building (court, police, fire station, library, museum, grocery), prompting classification by role in the community.
Lesson 3
Jobs in the Community
Students are asked in Activity 1 to draw a line from each community worker to the place in the community where he/she would work, which requires matching/classifying workers with workplaces. Option 2 asks students to draw a symbol to represent each community worker, promoting grouping by symbol. Activity 2 has students create a chart and tally sightings of different helpers, which has them organize items (helpers) into labeled rows and count occurrences.
Lesson 4
Goods and Services in the Community
Students read and cut out labeled cards on the "Goods and Services in the Community" activity page and match each building to the goods or services it provides, then glue the pairs onto construction paper titled "Community Services." The student activity grid explicitly displays items such as Library/Books, Grocery Store/Fruits and Vegetables, Fire Station/Help During a Fire, and Mall/Clothing which students must group by their relationship to community places. The wrapping-up prompts ask students to describe goods and services offered and explain why people have jobs, reinforcing the concepts represented by those categories.
Lesson 5
Resources
Students cut apart pictures (grapes, honey, firewood, clothes, crayons, teddy bear) and sort them into two columns labeled "Natural (from the earth)" and "Manmade (from people)". Students complete a counting page where they count items (bananas, trees, toy cars, shoes, dolls), write the number, mark each as "N" or "M", and paste the pictures in order from least to greatest. Students gather three real natural resources and three real manmade resources and explain how each is used and where it is found.
Lesson 6
A Good Community Citizen
Students are asked to sort cut-apart pictures of home behaviors into two labeled categories: "Good Home Environment" and "Not a Good Home Environment," and to paste them into the appropriate house. In Activity 1, students decide for each described action whether the person is being a good citizen or not and explain their reasoning. Option 2 asks students to generate and draw three examples for each category, labeling and explaining each picture.
Lesson 7
A Citizen with Character
Students are asked to categorize behavioral statements as "R" (respectful) or "D" (disrespectful) in Activity 1, marking each scenario accordingly. In Activity 3 students evaluate pictures and assign kindness scores (kind, neither, unkind) and then total the points for each child. Activity 2 has students record assigned jobs and check them off in "Done" or "Done Well," and Activity 6 has students list actions in one column and record consequences in the other, organizing information into categories.
Lesson 8
Rules and Laws
Students cut out printed statements and place each item onto one of two labeled webs (Laws or Rules), physically sorting examples into categories. Students read each statement aloud, decide whether it is a law, a rule, or both, and paste items on the appropriate web. The activity includes teacher prompts and discussion that ask students to explain why an item belongs in a category and to use connecting lines for items that fit both categories, which encourages understanding of category concepts.
Lesson 9
Caring for Our Communities
In Activity 2, students examine two pictures and are asked to place an X on items that are not good in the community and to circle items that make the community a good place to live, directly sorting pictured objects/features into two categories. Activity 3 asks students to identify three things that make a community happy and healthy (by taking pictures, drawing, or making a video), which requires selecting and grouping community features. Activity 5 has students role-play actions that help versus harm the community, prompting them to classify behaviors as helpful or harmful.
2: Similarities and Differences
Unit 1: Amazing Attributes
Lesson 1
Describe It
Students are asked to compare pairs of items and name ways they are similar and different (Activity 2 asks about a banana and an apple and about a cup and a plate). Students practice identifying shared categories when they say two objects are similar because "they are both fruit." Students also learn and use attribute vocabulary (color, size, shape, texture) across activities and in the Life Application where pairs of objects are compared.
Lesson 2
Animal Attributes
Students circle and identify living versus nonliving items on two versions of a worksheet and, in the advanced option, write the names of living and nonliving objects into separate columns. Students identify and mark how animals move (W, F, L), draw missing legs, cut out animals, and sort them into groups by number of legs. Students sort animals by body coverings into categories (feathers, scales, fur, other) and are asked to write additional examples for each category.
Lesson 3
Size, Shape, and Color
In Activity 1, students bring 5–8 toys and are asked to organize them by size (largest to smallest, smallest to largest, or into small/medium/large groups). The Life Application asks students to organize a row of clothing in the closet by color. The Shape activity and accompanying Student Activity Page have students find and draw real-world examples that match named shapes, reinforcing shape-category associations.
Lesson 4
How Does It Feel?
Students are asked to feel and describe objects by attributes (Activity 1) and then to restrict descriptions to texture words only, which focuses attention on a single property. In Activity 2 students match texture adjectives from a word box to pictured objects, and Option 2 asks them to record two texture words and generate a new descriptor for each object. The Skills list explicitly includes "Compare attributes of two objects (size, color, weight, height, length, and texture)," and the Life Application asks students to select objects and describe their textures.
Lesson 5
How Old?
Students are asked to put family pictures in order from oldest to youngest and then youngest to oldest (Activity 1) and to cut out magazine pictures and sort them by age. Option 2 has students cut out numbers and sort them from youngest to oldest and paste the matching age beside each pictured person. Activity 3 has students draw/label animals with average life spans and put the cards in order from shortest to longest life span. The Skills list explicitly includes "Sort objects according to their properties (S)."
Lesson 7
More Attributes
Students sort attribute blocks into two groups and then into three groups by size, thickness, color, and shape (Activity 1). Students locate blocks that meet two attributes simultaneously (e.g., red and thick; yellow triangles) practicing multi-attribute sorting (Activity 2). Students create and use Venn diagrams to place blocks and toys into categories and into overlapping sections when items meet both category labels (Activities 3 and 4). Students are asked to name attributes toys share and describe differences, prompting them to explain category membership in words.
Lesson 8
Amazing Attributes
Students select 10–15 common objects and label two areas "sink" and "float," predict where each object belongs, test by dropping objects in water, and place each object in the appropriate category. Students complete a "Magnetic or Not?" prediction-and-results table where they test common items (paper clip, nail, scissors, etc.) and record whether each item is magnetic. Students compare the groups they created (the objects that floated vs. sank and magnetic vs. nonmagnetic) and discuss similarities, linking the sinking/floating categories to the concept of density.
Lesson 9
Solids and Liquids
Students write definitions for "solid" and "liquid" and record those definitions on the "Solid or Liquid" page. Students cut out pictures from magazines or from the Student Activity Page and paste them into the Examples column or onto construction paper labeled "Solids" and "Liquids." The Student Activity Page provides a graphic organizer with two columns labeled "Liquid" and "Solid," guiding students to sort common objects into those categories.
Lesson 10
Earth Materials: Rocks, Soil, and Water
Students collect and compare two different soil samples, pour them out, remove rocks, and describe similarities and differences (Activity 1). Students examine soil samples against types shown in a video and identify sand, silt, clay, and loam, then arrange the three types of dirt on the Earth Materials book pages (Activity 3 and Activity 7). Students go on a rock hunt to find examples of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks and glue rock names with the correct images in their book, and they sort water examples into solid and liquid forms (Activity 4 and Activity 7).
Final Project
Presenting Attributes
Students select Earth materials or pictures that illustrate specific attributes (Step 1 of both options) and decide how each attribute can be used to find similarities and differences among objects (Option 1 Step 3 and Option 2 Step 3). Students organize materials for a demonstration or arrange pictures and labels on a poster (Option 1 Step 5 and Option 2 Steps 3–4) and practice explaining how the chosen attributes show similarities and differences (presentation steps). The example of labeling a rock "rough," cotton balls "soft," and dirt "gritty" shows students representing categories of texture.
Unit 2: Senses
Lesson 1
My Five Senses
In Activity 2 (Senses Webs) students cut out pictures or words of common items and decide which of the five-sense webs (see, smell, hear, taste, touch) to place each item on, placing items on the webs before gluing them down. The activity directions explicitly tell students to choose the sense that would be most useful for exploring each object and an answer key groups common objects by sense. The Introduction asks students to observe a variety of objects, describe their attributes using senses, and state which body part they used to determine those attributes.
Lesson 3
Smelling and Tasting
Students sort foods into labeled taste categories in Activity 3 by folding paper into four columns labeled sweet, bitter, sour, and salty and placing or drawing pantry items into those categories. Activity 2 has students select one food from each taste category and complete a survey table (A Tasty Survey) that records Y/N responses under Bitter, Sweet, Salty, and Sour columns. The Student Activity Page provides a formatted chart with columns for the four taste categories that students use to record and compare people's responses.
Lesson 5
Touch
Students place check marks in a Touch Chart with columns labeled Hot, Cold, Wet, Dry, Hard, and Soft and draw and label two of their own objects, marking the adjectives that apply. In Activity 1 students choose or generate adjectives to describe pictured objects (coffee pot, ice, pillow, rock, etc.) based on how they feel. The Skills list explicitly states that students will "Classify objects according to attributes" and "Create charts and graphs," which is implemented in the chart and matching activities.
Lesson 6
Experimenting With Our Senses
In Activity 2, students create four labeled spice cards, scratch and sniff each card, and identify which spice scent matches each label, which requires grouping sensory input with a named category. In Activity 3, students name a favorite flavor and then list foods that share that flavor, which has students generate a set of foods that belong to a flavor category. Activity 1 asks students to compare multiple cups and decide whether they are the same or different, prompting recognition of similarities and differences among items.
Lesson 7
Using All of Our Senses
In Activity 1 (How Many Senses?) students identify and circle which of the five senses (see, hear, smell, taste, touch) apply to each pictured situation and record a total for each scenario. In Activity 2 (Nature Walk) students record observations in four labeled categories: I hear…, I see…, I smell…, and I feel…, sorting what they encountered into those sense-based columns. Activity 3 asks students to look through books and identify ways characters are using their senses, which requires categorizing story events by sense.
Lesson 8
Writing About Our Senses
Activity 1 (Sensing Logic) has students read clues, cross out pictures that do not fit, and identify the single picture that matches a set of attributes. The Skills list and activities ask students to "compare attributes of two objects" and to use sensing words (color, texture, taste, sound) to classify items by their properties. Activity 3 and the popcorn report ask students to note sensory attributes for items before and after popping, reinforcing use of attributes to distinguish objects.
Final Project
A Sensible Party
Students use a Party Planner sheet that has five columns labeled for the senses (touch, see, taste, hear, smell) and are asked to record ideas and supplies under each sense. Students are instructed to gather supplies and put them together in a box, basket, or closet and to check items off their list, which requires grouping supplies by sense and counting quantities. Game 1 asks students to compare their party plan with the sample to find similarities and differences, and wrap-up questions prompt students to explain how guests used their senses to find similarities and differences.
Unit 3: We're the Same, We're Different
Lesson 1
You're Special
Activity 2 asks students to identify and cut out single- and double-digit numbers from their answers and put them in order from smallest to largest, which requires grouping numbers by digit-length. Activity 2 also has students compare how their personal numbers are similar to and different from someone else's, prompting comparison of items. The student pages include shapes labeled with side counts, giving a potential concrete set of items to reference.
Lesson 3
Different Personalities
Students cut apart or circle personality words and choose words that describe themselves or others (Activity 1 extension). Students place or paste personality words into two webs (self and friend) and then circle and count words that the two people have in common (Activity 2). The Skills list includes "Organize data (M)," indicating practice in grouping related items.
Lesson 4
Interests and Hobbies
Students are prompted with questions about what makes things the same or different and how similarities and differences matter. The Skills section states students will "Recognize that families and groups have similarities and differences," which asks students to notice shared features. The My Interest and Hobby Survey activities ask students to describe and compare hobbies and interests, encouraging comparison across items and people.
Lesson 5
Shapesville
Students identify the shape of each character in the story and count the number of sides and angles for each shape. Students select a shape that represents themselves, draw and color that shape, and dictate a short description linking personality and interests to the chosen shape. Students think of a shape that could represent each family member, draw/cut/decorate a shape for each person, and explain why they made those selections.
Lesson 6
Different Families
The Basic Needs activity provides four labeled boxes (Water, Food, Shelter, Health) and asks students to draw illustrations representing items for each need, requiring them to place representations into category bins. The Families Around the World activities ask students to compare and contrast attributes of their family and another family using sentence prompts or a Venn diagram, which has students classify similarities and differences into category areas. The handwriting/shape page displays basic shapes for recognition, supporting recognition of categorical features of common shapes.
Lesson 7
Different Homes
Students practice categorizing pictures by size in the "Big, Bigger, Biggest" activity by coloring or writing the comparative words beneath each picture (big/bigger/biggest, small/smaller/smallest, tall/taller/tallest, long/longer/longest). Students identify and describe different types of homes and the materials used in the introduction and Activities 2 and 3, and they physically reconstruct homes from mixed-up puzzle pieces, matching pieces to form each house. The life-application asks students to look for different types of homes in their town and discuss materials, which asks them to recognize and group similar home types in their environment.
Lesson 8
Different Holidays and Traditions
Students match traditions or symbols with specific holidays (Activity 1: match the tradition with the holiday; student activity pages list holidays with corresponding images). Students place or glue holiday graphics onto calendar dates (Activity 4) and assemble pages for a book where each page represents a different holiday, effectively grouping information and images under each holiday (Activity 5). Students also compare holidays from around the world and discuss similarities and differences, which involves grouping by shared features.
Lesson 9
Different Modes of Transportation
Students cut pictures of different vehicles and paste them into boxes and fill in labels in Activity 1, which requires placing items into designated spots. In Activity 1 students also draw a box around modes of transportation they have taken, which groups items by personal experience. In Activity 2 students choose or write the best mode of transportation for each scenario, which requires selecting and classifying transport options based on context and distance.
Lesson 10
Wants and Needs
Students label pictured items as "want" or "need" on the Wants and Needs activity pages, categorizing items such as car, computer, home, water, bike, basketball, and meal. Students physically sort clothes and toys into two or more groups by type or size and place them in a box or bag for donation. Students collect and organize survey responses and complete webs and charts that group reported items into the categories "wants" and "needs," and the skills list explicitly includes "Sort objects according to attributes," "Collect and organize data," and "Complete a chart."
Lesson 11
Being Part of a Group
Students are given 5 yellow and 5 blue attribute blocks and asked to sort them into two groups by attribute, and then repeat with circle and triangle blocks. Students cut out illustrations of children and are prompted to sort them into three circles by age, assign numeric labels (2, 6, 14) to the groups, and answer questions comparing which group has the most people, equal counts, and relative heights. Students draw and describe a group they belong to and brainstorm community groups, discussing reasons members are similar and different.
Final Project
Differences Make the World Go 'Round
Students complete clearly labeled pages for categories such as Food, Hobbies, Homes, Clothing, Transportation, and Holidays and fill in or draw items for themselves and a child from another country. Students write sentences like "I like to eat ___" and "___ might eat ___," placing foods and other items under the corresponding category headings. Students also record similarities on a dedicated page, showing they group information by category to compare people.
3: Patterns
Unit 1: Identifying and Creating Visual Patterns
Lesson 1
What Is a Pattern?
Students are asked to organize three red and three blue strips and discuss grouping by color as a way to sort by similarities and differences. Option 2 and the "Can You Make a Pattern?" activity encourage students to "group related objects together" when designing pattern sequences. Several activities ask students to name objects in order and arrange cut-out bug pictures into sequences, which requires choosing and placing items by shared attributes.
Lesson 2
Recognizing Types of Patterns
Activity 3 directs students to sort Level 1 caterpillars into categories labeled ABAB, AAB, ABB, and ABC, asking them to describe each caterpillar's pattern before sorting. Activities 1 and 2 have students label individual items as A or B and decide whether rows are ABAB or AABB, and the wrap-up asks students to explain the difference between ABAB and AABB and to point out examples. The instructions to label objects with A's and B's and to place letters under colored strips show students practice grouping items by pattern type.
Lesson 3
What Comes Next?
Students cut out pictures (pineapples, strawberries, sports balls, numbers) and use them to continue and create patterns. Students identify pattern elements and label added items with A, B, or C when extending ABAB, AABB, or ABC sequences. Students work with geometric shapes (squares, circles, triangles) and describe attributes such as thick or thin lines when extending radiating patterns.
Lesson 6
Shapes and Patterns
Students are asked to sort caterpillars into pattern categories (ABAB, AAB, ABB, and ABC) in Activity 4, which requires grouping items by type. Students gather a variety of objects of the same shape and create patterns, then identify what the objects have in common (Activity 5). Students label individual shapes with A, B, or C and decide whether sets of shapes are ABAB, AABB, or ABC, which involves grouping shapes by shared attributes and ordering.
Lesson 8
Creating and Writing About Patterns
Students collect and use common objects (Activity 4) to create and identify patterns that can be described as shape patterns, object patterns, or color patterns. In Activity 1 and the student pages, students use a provided word list of objects (eye, apple, worm, nose, etc.) to choose items and illustrate patterns with those objects. Activity 5 asks students to label the pattern type ("This is a ________ pattern"), prompting students to classify a pattern by attribute such as color, number, shape, or object.
Unit 2: Patterns in Sounds, Words, and Actions
Lesson 1
Word Patterns
Activity 4 asks students to copy or dictate animal names from the text, identify the habitat where each animal lives, cut out the animal names, and sort them into groups according to habitat. The extension asks students to make habitat pictures and draw the animals in the appropriate habitat, reinforcing category membership. Other activities also require matching and grouping words (e.g., matching rhyming words), which gives additional practice with sorting items by shared properties.
Lesson 2
Making Word Patterns
Activity 2 asks students to cut printed words apart and sort them into word-family groups, then paste those groups on index cards and label them (for example, "-un words"). Option 2 and Activity 3 direct students to create lists of words that follow the same pattern and to identify and record groups of rhyming or similarly spelled words from books. Activity 1 has students complete rhyming sentence prompts and create a small book of rhyming sentences, reinforcing grouping by shared word patterns.
Lesson 4
Sentence Patterns
Students sort and use word lists labeled "People, Places, & Things" and "Action Words" (Activities 1 and 2) and cut out illustrated nouns and verbs to place into sentence patterns. In Completing a Sentence Pattern (Day 2, Part A/B) students choose which word (girl, couch, leaf, etc.) fits as a person/place/thing and circle the action word that completes the sentence. In Activity 5 students write lists of common nouns on some strips and verbs on others and then pick one noun and one verb to make sentences.
Unit 3: Patterns in Your World
Lesson 1
Patterns in Nature
Students cut out pattern samples and paste each sample on the animal where the pattern would be found (Activity 2, Option 1). Students match labeled pattern samples (e.g., zebra, leopard, pine cone) to the corresponding illustrations on the student activity page. Students also create or draw patterns for specific animals and label them (Activity 2 Option 2 and Activity 3), which requires grouping visual information by pattern type.
Lesson 2
Patterns of Growth
Students cut apart pictures of a plant, an animal, and a person and paste them in order for each life cycle (Activity 4), which requires grouping related pictures into the plant, person, and dog sequences. The Growth Patterns student page displays three columns that separate stages for a person, a plant, and a dog, prompting students to place images into those category columns. Activity 5 asks students to organize pictures of themselves from youngest to oldest, which has students group and order images of the same category (their own life stages).
Lesson 3
Night and Day
Activity 3 asks the child to think about activities associated with day and activities associated with night and then gives separate "During the Day" and "At Night" sheets for the child to draw and record sentences about an activity for each category. The wrapping up and life application ask the child to explain the pattern of night and day and to point out activities the child participates in during day versus night. The student labels and sorts celestial bodies and uses the globe/flashlight experiment to discriminate when it is day or night for their location.
Lesson 5
Calendar Patterns
Students cut apart the "Days and Months Cards" and place the days on one half of a poster and the months on the other half, organizing the cards into two distinct groups. In Activity 4, students record family events on a calendar and are asked to find and record events that occur weekly, biweekly, or monthly, grouping events by frequency. The student activity description for the weekly pattern notes that students sort and fill in days of the week on the activity sheet.
Lesson 6
Seasonal Weather Patterns
Students cut apart the months and paste each month beneath the season and weather pattern connected with the month (Activity 3). Students record weather words beneath the season they describe and match illustrated month squares to seasons on the "Weather Patterns" and "Seasons and Months" activity pages. Students cut the seasons apart and put them in order and fill in missing seasons from pictures, linking images (snowflakes, flowers, sun, leaves) to seasonal categories.
Lesson 7
Patterns at Home
Students are asked to identify and describe multiple patterns in the Pattern Scavenger Hunt (Activity 1) and to find patterns on clothing and other cloth items (Activity 2 and Activity 3). The Shirt Patterns student page is described as helping students observe and categorize visual designs. Activity 4 explicitly offers an option for students to sort silverware into patterns, which requires grouping objects by a shared property.
Lesson 8
Symmetrical Patterns
Activity 2 instructs students to cut out squares, triangles, circles, ovals, and rectangles, fold the shapes to decide which are symmetrical, draw lines of symmetry, and sort the shapes into two groups: symmetrical and non-symmetrical. The Skills list explicitly includes "Compare and sort objects." Students are also asked to count the number of shapes in each group and compare which group has more.
Lesson 9
Counting Patterns
The student activity grid presents rows labeled by object type (cups, light bulbs, pieces of fruit, presents, flowers) and asks students to count each set and record the number, so students work with multiple named categories of common objects. Activity 1 offers different manipulatives (pennies, paper clips, Legos, counting bears) that students handle by type when practicing counting by twos. Activity 3 has students cut out clown faces and place them in a car, which requires placing like items together as they track numbers.
Lesson 10
Tracing Patterns
Activity 2 asks students to identify the holiday associated with each traced shape (heart, egg, Christmas tree) and to create three of each object, which has students produce multiples of each type. Activity 1 asks students to use attribute blocks to recreate two pictured designs and to practice making different objects from the blocks. The activities also ask students to describe or count shapes they created.
Lesson 11
Patterns in Graphs
In Activity 1 students color-code the chart by gender (color girls' names pink and boys' names blue) and are asked how many types of people are on the chart, which requires categorizing names into boys and girls. The Sink or Float activity has students record each object as "sink" or "float" (or S/F) on a chart, which places objects into two categories. Activity 3 asks students to color identical parts of graphs the same color to help decide which displays have a pattern, requiring students to group like items visually.
Final Project
Patterns All Around Lapbook
Students cut and glue four different fabric triangles into the Four Corners mini-book so each corner displays a different fabric pattern, effectively placing examples into category slots. Students choose, draw, or paste a pattern from nature into the Matchbook and label it "Pattern in Nature," and they label and place pictures of growth stages (baby/child/adult or seed/plant/flower) under flaps in the Three‑Flap book. Students illustrate and label the four seasons on the Wheel Book and write the days of the week on Fan Book pieces, organizing related items into labeled sections.
4: Change
Unit 1: Changes on Planet Earth
Lesson 2
What Changed?
Students examine picture pairs on the "How Did It Change?" page and circle which attributes (weight, color, size, amount, location) changed for each item. Students identify and name examples of physical versus chemical changes from the book and answer questions that require distinguishing those two categories. In Activity 3 students manipulate objects to change specific attributes (amount, color, size, location, weight), practicing attention to attribute-based differences.
Lesson 3
Changing Position
In Activity 2 (A Push or a Pull) students cut apart illustrated actions and sort them into two groups: actions that require pushing and actions that require pulling. In Activity 4 students examine real toys, identify which require pushing, pulling, or both, and record or draw them on three labeled sheets (Push, Pull, Push and Pull), then demonstrate examples. Students also discuss and explain why items belong in each group during demonstrations and follow-up questions.
Lesson 6
Changes in the Sky
Activity 1 directs students to list adjectives and phrases inside the labeled Sun and Moon images, which has students place descriptive words into two distinct categories. The Student Activity Pages provide separate, labeled spaces titled "SUN" and "MOON" for students to record characteristics. The Skills section states students will "Recognize the features and patterns of the Earth/Moon/Sun system," indicating students will distinguish attributes of different celestial objects.
Lesson 7
Living Things Change
Students are asked in Activity 2 to look at picture pairs and circle which words describe the change (number, size, shape, place), directly sorting each example into one or more categorical labels. In Activity 3 students fold paper into four boxes and either illustrate or paste pictures showing a living thing that changes size, amount, shape, or location, producing one example per category. The student activity pages require selecting category labels and deciding whether each change is fast or slow, reinforcing categorization of observed items.
Lesson 8
Plants and Change
Students cut out labeled boxes and assemble a plant diagram (Option 1), selecting and placing parts such as root, stem, leaf, and flower. Students gather and glue real or pictured plant pieces into labeled folds to show stages (Activity 3), and students search for seeds in the yard and kitchen and discuss their uses (Activity 7). Several activities require students to match or place items into categories related to plant parts or stages.
Lesson 9
Heat Causes Change
Students draw and label three bowls with the words "ice," "water," and "steam," placing each state in a different slot on the activity page. The activity page includes a word box with those three terms and an arrow labeled "cold" at the top and "hot" at the bottom, prompting students to organize the states according to temperature. In Activity 1 students observe and describe how the items belong to different states and how they relate to temperature.
Lesson 10
Chemical Changes
Students complete Activity 3, a Student Activity Page titled "Chemical or Physical Change?", by checking boxes to categorize six paired, common-object scenarios (new bicycle/rusty bicycle, apple/chopped apple, balloon/blown-up balloon, cupcake batter/cupcake, bottle/shattered bottle, bread/toast) as either chemical or physical. The activity asks students to explain how they made each decision. The wrapping-up prompt asks students to describe the difference between a physical and a chemical change and to give an example of each.
Lesson 11
People Change the Environment
Students sort pictured everyday items (aluminum can, newspaper, cardboard box, plastic bag, pizza box, glass bottle, etc.) by putting products into a recycling bin or a trash can in Activity 2. In Activity 1 students generate and record examples under the headings "Positive Change" and "Negative Change," which requires grouping ideas into two categories. In Activity 3 students examine illustrations of human activities and decide whether each example represents a positive, negative, or neutral change, explaining why and thus connecting category membership to the concept each category represents.
Final Project
Mobile of Change
Students draw or paste pictures into labeled category boxes on the "Changes" activity page (Animal Change, Plant Change, Physical Change, Chemical Change) with a before/after pair for each category. A graphic organizer asks students to place observations under specific category headings (Changes in Position, Change in Location, Change in the Environment, Changes in the Sky) in before/after columns. Students also glue the paired boxes onto different shaped construction-paper pieces and arrange them on a mobile, then explain how each mobile part represents a type of change.
Unit 2: Characters Change
Lesson 4
Comparing Characters
Students use Venn diagrams to place character traits and situations into categories for Chrysanthemum, Wemberly, and the Boy with a Problem (left circle, right circle, overlapping similarities). Students match causes with effects by pairing items from a cause column to an effect column. Students also sort story elements into summary boxes and pick similarities/differences in the "Two Stories, Same Problem" and "My Favorite Story" activity pages.
Unit 3: A First Look at History - Change Over Time
Lesson 1
People and Families Change
Students put pictures of themselves in order from youngest to oldest and match each picture to an index card labeled with that year, which requires grouping images by age. Students order family pictures from earliest to most recent and complete a Past/Present activity page that separates representations of the family into two temporal categories. Students create a growth chart and record heights by year, organizing measurements by age on a single visual strip.
Lesson 3
Communities Change
In Activity 3 students examine pictures labeled under Transportation, Homes, and Clothing and are instructed to cut the pictures apart and paste them in the circles for the Native American boy, the pioneer girl, or Jenny, effectively sorting images by which community they belong to. The Transportation/Homes/Clothing graphic organizer requires students to match items (canoe, wagon, car; brick house, log cabin, teepee; dress, pants, leather clothing) with the appropriate category/community. In Activity 4 students circle the animals found in the story, which requires selecting items that belong to the category of animals present in the habitat.
Lesson 4
Past and Present
Students cut out illustrated images (Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, Medieval Europe) and paste them into labeled boxes on a timeline, directly sorting pictures into time-period categories (Activity 1). Students decide whether descriptive strips describe advantages or disadvantages of living in the past and paste each strip into the appropriate column (Activity 6, Option 1). Students take images of homes, transportation, clothing, and school and place them in chronological order and complete a four-column comparison grid labeled by time period and category (Activity 5).
Lesson 5
Exploring the Past
Students cut out pictures of cultural items and glue them onto charts for four categories (Homes and Houses, Clothes and Fashion, Food and Eating, Travel and Transport). Student activity pages are divided into labeled sections for each category and historical period, and students fill those sections with drawings, written descriptions, or pasted images. Activity instructions ask students to complete culture charts and assemble a book by writing one sentence about each element of culture and illustrating it, which requires placing items into the appropriate category.
Lesson 7
People of the Past
Activity 1 asks students to decide whether a person lived in the past or is living now, prompting students to place a person into the categories 'past' or 'present.' Activity 2 has students cut apart squares with pictured historical figures and descriptions, match each description to the correct picture, and place the figures in order from oldest to most recent (sequencing and matching). These tasks require students to group or align items based on shared attributes (time period or identity).
6: Reading
Unit 1: Semester 1
Lesson 2
Letter Sounds Review II
Multiple activities require students to cut out words and place them under the correct word-family headings (Activity 3.3: Word Family Review of at and ap; Activity 4.2: Word Families it, in, ig, ip). The student activity pages specifically instruct students to sort words into columns labeled by word endings and then glue them in the correct category. The activities also prompt students to read each word as they sort and to correct placements by sounding out words.
Lesson 3
Letter Sounds Review III
Students cut out pictures and place them in the correct box to show whether each picture has the short /o/ or short /u/ sound (Activity 2.2). Students cut out word cards and place them under the correct word family name (Activities 3.3 and 4.2). Students sort letter and sight word cards into two stacks (those they know easily and those they need to practice) during the Wrapping Up activity.
Lesson 4
Letter Sounds Review IV
Students identify pictures on the "Short Vowel Sort" pages (naming items like bag, bed, fox, sun) and cut them out. Students place each picture into the correct vowel-box (short a, e, i, o, u) and then glue them in place, demonstrating grouping by shared feature. Students also cut and place word-family words under the correct family headings (et, en, eg, ed), showing another explicit sorting task.
Lesson 5
Adding s, More Word Families, Ending with ck
Students cut out printed words and place each word in the correct column for many word-family pages (Activities 2.2, 3.3, 4.2). Students use word-building cards to make and read words for given families (an, ab, ag; am, ad; ack, eck, ick, ock, uck) and then sort those words into the labeled columns. The activities ask students to correct misplacements by sounding out words and to glue the words into the appropriate category.
Lesson 6
Open Syllables and Digraph th
Students sort words and pictures into two columns labeled open and closed syllables (Activity 2.1), using letter cards to make and move words like he/hen, so/sob, me/met. Students sort pictured items into three columns for the sounds /t/, /h/, and /th/ by naming each picture and placing or gluing it under the correct column (Activity 4.1). Students also group pictures into rhyming pairs by coloring matching pairs the same color (Activity 3.3).
Lesson 7
Consonant Digraphs ch, sh, wh, ph
Students cut out and place pictures on pages that require sorting pictures into columns labeled for the digraph sounds /ch/, /sh/, /w/ (wh), and /f/ (ph) (Activity 2.2). Students read, highlight, and place words into columns based on which digraph they contain, then glue the words and read each column aloud (Activity 4.1). Students also point to word-building cards to match sounds and point to cards that show the sound in spoken words, reinforcing category membership by sound.
Lesson 8
Blends with s
Students cut out pictures and place them in labeled columns to show their beginning s blends (Activity 2.1) and then glue the pictures when correct. Multiple Student Activity Pages provide graphic organizers with columns or balloons labeled st, sm, sn, sk, sp, sl, sw (and paired columns like sk/sp, sl/sw) for students to sort images under the appropriate blend headings. Students are also prompted to say the words in each column and to list or collect objects that begin with the blends.
Lesson 9
Blends with l
Students cut out pictured objects (glass, glove, plant, clock, etc.) and place them into labeled columns that represent beginning blends (gl, pl, cl, bl, sl, fl). Students name each picture and then say the words in each column after sorting, using two separate student activity pages that show columns headed by the specific blends. Students also complete fill-in-the-blank pages where they choose and write the appropriate initial blend for pictured items, reinforcing sorting by initial sound.
Lesson 10
Blends with r
Students cut out pictures and place them in labeled columns for the seven beginning r blends (cr, br, dr, fr, gr, pr, tr), then say the words in each column and glue them when correct. Multiple Student Activity Pages provide graphic organizers with columns labeled cr/br/dr, fr/gr, and pr/tr for sorting pictures. Activity 4.1 directs students to write dictated words under the correct beginning-blend headings, extending the sorting practice to written words.
Lesson 11
Ending Blends
Students name pictures on the "Ending Blends nd, mp, lf, and nt" pages, cut them out, and place them in the correct columns to show their ending blends (Activity 3.2). The lesson provides multiple student activity pages (nd Words, mp Words, lf Words, nt Words) where students write or glue words under the appropriate blend heading. Students also sort using balloon graphic organizers labeled "nd"/"mp" and "lf"/"nt," then say the words in each column after sorting.
Lesson 12
Double ll, ss, ff, zz (FLOSS)
Students cut out word cards and place each one in the correct column on the "ll Word Families" pages (all, ell, ill), then glue them into their Word Collection binder. Several Student Activity Pages titled "LL WORD FAMILIES" show columns or grids where students read words and sort or fill words into the appropriate word-family column. Activities ask students to listen to and classify words by their ending sound (ll, ss, ff, zz) when using word-building cards.
Lesson 13
Glued Sounds ng and nk
Students cut, sort, and glue word cards into labeled columns for spelling rules (Activity 1.2) and for ng and nk word families (Activities 2.2 and 3.2). In Activity 5.1 students listen to words and point to the ending (ng or nk) they hear, and Fill-in-the-Blanks/word-building activities require placing specific endings into word categories. Multiple student activity pages provide columns labeled for ang/ing, ong/ung, ank/ink, and onk/unk for students to populate and keep in a Word Collection folder.
Lesson 14
Three-Letter Beginning Blends
Students cut out and place words into columns by their three-letter beginning blends in Activity 4.2: Word Sorting Three-Letter Blends. Multiple student activity pages provide columns labeled with blends (scr, str, spr, spl, squ, shr, thr) and lists of words for students to categorize and then glue into the correct column. The activity requires students to read the words aloud after sorting, demonstrating they grouped items by a shared feature (beginning sound).
Lesson 16
R-Controlled Vowels (ar)
Activity 4.1 instructs students to cut out word cards and place them in columns labeled by ending sounds (r, rm, rn, rd, rk, rp, rt, rf). Multiple student activity pages show lists of words to be sorted into these columns, and students read the words aloud after sorting. Other activities (fill-in-the-blanks, word chains) reinforce grouping words by shared r-controlled vowel patterns.
Lesson 17
Semester Review
In Activity 3.1 students are instructed to group lowercase letter cards and word-building cards into four piles (vowels, consonants, blends/digraphs/trigraphs, and word family endings) and then sort the cards into their correct piles. In Activity 5.2 students cut out word cards and place them into groups to show words that rhyme, then read each group aloud. Several other activities ask students to choose and sort cards for word-building games and to organize word family pages into their Word Collection binder.
Unit 2: Semester 2
Lesson 1
Long Vowels a and i with Silent e
In Activity 2.1 and Activity 3.1 students are asked to name pictured items, listen for the vowel sound, cut out images, and place each picture into the correct column labeled for short vs. long a or i. Directions explicitly tell students to listen for one of the sounds the vowel makes and to sort pictures into the /a/ (short a) or /ā/ (long a) and /i/ (short i) or /ī/ (long i) columns. The activities require students to glue the sorted pictures to the page, reinforcing the categorization action.
Lesson 2
Long Vowels o, u, and e with Silent e
Students cut out pictured objects (e.g., bed, wheel, mop, boat, tub, cube) and place or glue each image into two-column pages labeled for short vs. long vowel sounds for e, o, and u. Students write and sort word lists into columns for different long-vowel categories (/ā/, /ī/, /ō/, /ū/) and spell words aloud as they decide which vowel category they belong to. Students are asked questions about which vowel sound each picture or word has and to listen for the sound as they sort.
Lesson 4
More R-Controlled Vowels (er, ir, or, ur)
Students cut words out and place them into labeled columns (er, ir, ur) as described in Activity 3.1, then glue the words in the correct column. Multiple student activity pages show a three-column grid labeled er, ir, and ur with blank spaces for students to fill with words. Activity 2.1 and Day 5 refer to divided/written columns and comparisons (e.g., form vs. worm; ar and or pairs) that require students to sort words by spelling or sound patterns.
Lesson 5
Long a Spellings ai, ay
Students cut apart word cards and place them into labeled columns based on their spellings in Activity 3.3 (ai Word Sorting). Students write or list words under labeled endings (ake, ate, ace, ape, ame, age, ane, ale) in Activity 1.2 and on the Student Activity Pages. Students complete grouped word lists and fill-in-the-blank pages that require choosing words belonging to specific word-bank categories (e.g., clay, spray, way, may, stay).
Lesson 6
Long e Spellings ee, ey, ea
Students cut out word cards and place them on labeled pages for "Short e" and "Long e" (Activity 1.2), grouping words by the vowel sound. Students also use colored highlighters to mark ee, ea, and ey spellings and then read the grouped words (Activity 2.1). In Activity 3.2 students name pictured items and write words that share the ea spelling, linking pictures to a spelling category.
Lesson 7
Long i Spellings y, igh, ie
Students cut out word cards and place them into labeled columns (ide, ice, ike, ime, ipe, ine, ire, ite, ive) in Activity 1.2 and similar word-sorting pages. Students group sight-word cards by long vowel sounds (e.g., /ī/: my, like, by) in Activity 2.1. Multiple Student Activity Pages show graphic organizers with columns labeled for different long-i spellings (i_e, y, igh, ie) that students fill by sorting words.
Lesson 8
Long o Spellings ow, oa, oe
Students cut out word cards and place them on Short o and Long o pages (Activity 1.2), sorting words into two categories by vowel sound. Students read long-o words and use colored highlighters to mark ow, oa, and oe spellings, then group words accordingly (Activity 2.1). Students cut out long-o words and place them into groups based on ending sounds, write a title for each group (ope, oke, ote, oat, etc.), and glue the groups into boxes (Activity 4.2).
Lesson 9
Long u Spellings ue, ew, ou
Students are asked in Activity 4.1 to read, cut out, and place word cards into labeled columns (u_e, ue, ew, ou), then glue them into place, explicitly sorting words by spelling pattern. Activity 4.2 and 4.3 reinforce grouping by asking students to unscramble letters to form long-u words and to spell groups of words using a specified long-u pattern, requiring them to recognize and use category labels for spellings.
Lesson 10
Other Long Vowel Patterns
Students read, cut out, and place word cards into columns on the 'Wild Word Sorting' pages, sorting 30 words into five columns labeled ild, ind, ost, old, and olt. Students are instructed to read each word, decide which column matches its spelling pattern, and glue the words into the correct columns. Additional sorting pages ask students to list or sort words under headings (ild, ind, ost, old, olt), and students explain word meanings as needed while sorting.
Lesson 12
Other Vowel Sounds oi, oy
Students cut out word cards and place them into columns labeled ō, oi, and oy (Activity 2.2), gluing the words into the correct columns to show category membership. Students also sort words into oi and oy columns after watching a video and discuss where oi and oy fall in each word (Day 2, Activity 2.1). The student activity pages provide a three-column sorting grid and multiple opportunities to read, sort, and record words by vowel category.
Lesson 13
Other Vowel Sounds ou, ow
In Activity 2.1 students cut out words from the "Sorting o Spellings" page, sort them into groups of their choosing, and are asked to explain their groupings. In Activity 2.2 students place the same words into a three-column organizer headed OW = ō, OW, and OU and glue words into the correct column; the lesson prompts them to read each word aloud and discuss where ou and ow occur. Day 3 and Day 4 activities have students highlight ou/ow in words, unscramble and build words with those spellings, and answer the question "Where do you find ou and ow in words?" to reinforce their category reasoning.
Lesson 14
Other Vowel Sounds aw, au
Students cut out word cards from the "Short o Words" page and sort them into groups of their choosing while answering, "What do you notice about all of these words?" (Activity 2.1). Students place those same words into a three-column organizer labeled aw, au, and o, read each word aloud, and glue them into the correct column, explaining patterns such as that au never appears at the end of a word (Activity 2.2).
Lesson 15
These Make More Than One Sound: oo and ea
Students name picture cards (spoon, book, boot, hook, foot, stool, etc.), cut them out, and sort the oo Pictures into two groups based on the sound of oo (long u vs. the foot-like sound). Students watch a video, name ea Pictures (dream, bread, bear, head, pea, steak, etc.), cut them out, and sort them into three groups by the ea sound (long e, short e, long a). Students also read printed word lists and cut/glue words into columns labeled by target sounds (Sorting oo Words and Sorting ea Words), and answer questions about which group contains which vowel sound.
Lesson 16
Silent Starts: kn, wr, gn
Activity 4.1 asks students to cut out words, read them aloud, and place the words in groups based on their vowel sounds. The activity requires students to create explicit vowel-sound groups (e.g., gnat/wrap short a, wren/wreck short e) and to name the vowel sounds. The same activity then has students sort the words into three columns labeled gn, kn, and wr, placing each word in the correct silent-beginning category.
Lesson 17
Year-End Review
Students read, cut out, and place words into columns labeled by long vowel sounds in Activity 2.1 (Long Vowel Sounds Sorting). In the "Which Words?" activity students locate and group words that match explicit categories (e.g., FLOSS rule, glued sounds, consonant blends, silent starting letters, words that rhyme), answering prompts that require selecting words that belong to each category.