Categorising

Activities to support categorising

• Category bag: Provide 2 bags of different toys. For example, 1 bag could contain toy vehicles and the other bag toy food. Explore them with a child or group of children, and see if the child can name the 2 categories. This is called convergent naming.
• Category game: Choose a category, for example, food, fruit, vehicles or colours. Take it in turns to name items that belong in that category. This is called divergent naming. You can make it harder by playing the ‘shop’ game. For example, “I went to the shop and bought an apple,” “I went to the shop and bought an apple and a pear”. This relies on them having good memory skills.
• Pairs: Ask the child to decide what objects or pictures go together. You can use items like a bucket and spade, fork and knife, sock and shoe.
• Odd one out: This can be played with objects, pictures, or as a listening game if the child can manage this. Select 4 to 5 objects or pictures from the same group/category and 1 that is not. Tell the child that you are going to find the odd one out and show them how you did it. For example, label all the pictures then say, “I think the hat is the odd one out because we wear it, it is clothing, and the other ones are animals”. See if they can find the odd one out in the next group.
• Sorting game: Use objects or pictures from different groups, such as food, transport, clothes and animals. Explain what the categories are, for example, "These are things you can eat, they are all foods. These are things you travel in, they are types of transport". Choose 2 different categories. At first choose 2 very different groups, for example, food and animals. Mix up the pictures or objects from both categories and ask the child to sort them into the groups. You could have a label or picture for each group to help them. As the child sorts the pictures, name each picture and talk about the similar features, such as "They all have 4 legs, they all live on a farm". To make the game harder, choose 2 similar groups, such as zoo animals and farm animals. This can be linked to topic learning, for example 2D and 3D shapes, animals that live in similar habitats, or feelings.
• Category book: Use a scrapbook and title each page with different groups from a magazine, for example, home and toys. Cut up pages from the magazine and sort which page they go on and talk about the similar features. Add new pictures as you come across them in magazines. You can also quiz the child on the different words in the scrapbook, by saying a word and asking the child to give you a definition. Or you can give the child a definition and ask them to find the word.

Read more about strategies to support vocabulary development.