Sort or match cards

Cards for kinaesthetic sorting, matching and ordering activities

A quick but very useful match-up activity that makes a good starter activity for financial literacy or employment skills courses - and it's bound to prompt discussion.

Editor's note

Written for an Australian audience but I have added a UK version on page 2.  Learners can draw lines to match the items or, for a reusable resource, the page could be laminated and/or cut into 12 cards. 

 

 

Level
Level 1
Level 2
Maths
Functional Maths
General numeracy / maths
Popular topics
General
Generic resources for literacy, numeracy and beyond
Context
Employment skills & Public services
Business & Money management

Cut and order word sort based on transport, money and grammar terms.  Tasks and extension tasks on the same sheet. Scissors needed for separating the cards. Works best with students working in pairs.

Editor's notes

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best! With useful extension ideas. Laminate for repeated use. Also handy for Functional English alphabetical order work.

Level
Entry Level 1
Entry Level 2
English
FE E2.15 Use 1st & 2nd letters to sequence words alphabetically
ESOL
ESOL Sd/E1.1a Take part in social interaction
ESOL Rw/E1.1a Recognise a limited number of words, signs and symbols
ESOL Rw/E2.2a Recognise a range of familiar words
ESOL Rw/E2.5a Sequence words using basic alphabetical ordering skills
Context
Motor vehicles & Transport

Word sort activity based on collective nouns/collocations for different types of foods. Suitable for E1/E2. Can be done in pairs as a reading and S+L activity, or individually. 

Editor's notes

With extension idea. Cards could be laminated for repeated use. Other vocabulary sorts are available from the same contributor.

Level
Entry Level 1
Entry Level 2
English
FE E1.8 Read correctly words designated for Entry Level 1
FE E2.7 Read correctly words designated for Entry Level 2
ESOL
ESOL Sd/E1.1a Take part in social interaction
ESOL Rw/E1.1a Recognise a limited number of words, signs and symbols
ESOL Rw/E2.2a Recognise a range of familiar words
ESOL Writing: word focus - spelling and handwriting (Ww)
Context
Catering Food Nutrition

Basic vocabulary word sorts, the first being based on fruit, vegetables and drinks, and the second on places (e.g. town, city), food and animals. Tasks and extension tasks on the same sheet. Scissors needed for separating the cards. Works best with students working in pairs.

Editor's notes

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best! With useful extension ideas. Laminate for repeated use. Also handy for Functional English alphabetical order work

Level
Entry Level 1
Entry Level 2
English
FE E2.15 Use 1st & 2nd letters to sequence words alphabetically
ESOL
ESOL Sd/E1.1a Take part in social interaction
ESOL Rw/E1.1a Recognise a limited number of words, signs and symbols
ESOL Rw/E2.2a Recognise a range of familiar words
ESOL Rw/E2.5a Sequence words using basic alphabetical ordering skills
Context
Catering Food Nutrition
Animals, animal care, farming & equine

Practise using reordering strategies with these extra E2 (E1 questions are in a separate Wordwall activity) questions for our recently updated E1-E2 Mental addition strategies (reordering) PDF worksheet (Maggie Harnew, 2005, updated Feb 2022). Match the correct answer to each addition problem. (Reordering involves adding up large numbers first and/or looking for pairs of numbers that add up to 10, 20, 30, etc.). Can be used independently of the original resource.

Level
Entry Level 2
Maths
FM Context free underpinning
FM E2.5 Add & subtract 2-digit numbers
Mental maths

Practise using reordering strategies with these extra E1 (E2 questions are in a separate Wordwall activity) questions for our recently updated E1-E2 Mental addition strategies (reordering) PDF worksheet (Maggie Harnew, 2005, updated Feb 2022). Match the correct answer to each addition problem. (Reordering involves adding up large numbers first and/or looking for pairs of numbers that add up to ten. Can be used independently of the original resource.

Level
Entry Level 1
Maths
FM Context free underpinning
FM E1.3 Add numbers which total up to 20, & subtract numbers from numbers up to 20
Mental maths

Practise using compensation strategies with these extra questions for our recently updated E2 Mental addition strategies (compensation) PDF worksheet (Maggie Harnew, 2005, updated Feb 2022). Match the correct answer to each addition problem.

Level
Entry Level 2
Maths
FM Context free underpinning
FM E2.5 Add & subtract 2-digit numbers

I put this together when I found so many of my learners trying to hone their employability skills did not know what a lot of the words on job descriptions meant. 

Resource 1 (Definition matching cards: job skills and attributes): I laminated these and cut them up and they worked in pairs or threes to match them up.

There are two other linked resources, as below, to help students with getting to grips with the keywords used in Job Descriptions and Person Specifications. 

Level
Entry Level 3
Level 1
Level 2
GCSE L1-5
T Levels - embedded maths or English
English
FE E3.11 Use strategies to find meaning of words e.g. dictionary, context, word types
FE L1.17 Read & understand a range of specialist words in context
FE L1.24 Use format, structure & language appropriate for audience & purpose
FE L2.25 Organise writing for different purposes using appropriate format & structure e.g. standard templates, paragraphs, bullet points, tables
ESOL
ESOL: Reading word focus - vocabulary, word recognition, phonics (Rw)
General
Generic resources for literacy, numeracy and beyond
Context
Employment skills & Public services
Health, Social care, Early years

Short sets of words for alphabetic sorting.   These can be used with literacy or ESOL learners.  I found they worked well at the beginning of each session while learners were still arriving into the class.  They work well as individual or pairs exercises.

The first set works best when each list is cut up and laminated as individual words in each group, so learners can sort them kinaesthetically.  

Level
Entry Level 2
Entry Level 3
English
FE E2.15 Use 1st & 2nd letters to sequence words alphabetically
FE E3.16 Use 1st, 2nd & 3rd letters to sequence words alphabetically
Alphabetical order
ESOL
ESOL Rw/E3.4a Alphabetical order 1st & 2nd place letters

I have used this organisational features matching exercise in two ways, either to test learners initial knowledge of the features or as a revision tool. 

Editor's note

Two versions - one, with images, for Entry Level and another for higher levels. Fully mapped to the reformed Functional English content which comes into effect in September 2019.

Level
Entry Level 2
Entry Level 3
Level 1
English
FE E3.12 Understand organisational features & use them to locate relevant information
FE L1.14 Understand organisational / structural features use to locate relevant information
FE WRITING Use format, structure & language (to meet purpose & audience)