Sort living and non-living things, animal groups, floaters and sinkers, solids, liquids and gases. Nine topics, five levels from easy to why, and printable worksheets.
Science Sort builds one skill: putting things into groups by a reason. A child sees a picture and a word and decides where it belongs: living or not living, mammal or bird, floats or sinks, solid, liquid or gas, sticks to a magnet or not. Sorting by a reason is the first habit of a scientist, and it matches what children are asked to do in the early grades of the Next Generation Science Standards, which cover what living things need, how animals are grouped, and what materials are like. The game is made for children of about 6 to 8. Each answer ends with one short sentence of why, so the child learns the reason and not only the answer.
Level 1, Sort it, has obvious cards for living and not living, natural and made by people, and floats or sinks. Level 2, Groups, adds animal groups, what an animal eats, where it lives, solid, liquid and gas, and the magnet test. Level 3, Three bins, sorts into three groups at once and adds plant parts we eat, such as a carrot root, a lettuce leaf and an apple fruit, plus short life cycles and food chains to put in order. Level 4, Tricky ones, includes things that surprise people, such as a seed that is alive, a bat that is a mammal, a penguin that is a bird and a heavy steel ship that floats, with a question that asks which sentence is true. Level 5, Scientist, is built on the edge cases, such as a whale, a spider, a tomato and a platypus. It asks which sentence is true when a tempting wrong sentence about the same animal or object is also offered, which one does not belong when a look-alike really does belong, and why. Everyday recall questions sit at lower levels.
There are 298 sorting cards in nine topics, and each card belongs to exactly one group in its topic. The puzzle kinds are: which one is in this group, which one is not, which group does it belong to, sort several cards into their groups, which sentence is true, put a life cycle or food chain in order, and a why question. Wrong choices come from other groups of the same topic, so they are wrong according to the card bank, and a card is shown only at the level where it fits. Cards name a specific animal or object where one name would not be true of every kind, such as a brown bear, a howler monkey, a steel horseshoe or a dry leaf. The floats or sinks cards mean what happens when the thing is dropped into plain water, and a magnet card that says steel means plain steel, because some stainless steels do not stick. Each fact comes from standard science teaching for the early grades, and the sources are listed per topic in the project notes. Tricky cards carry a reason that is shown after the answer. The tests run 500 seeds per level and check every answer against the card bank, and a separate table of spot-checked facts, written independently of the bank, checks the riskiest cards.
By default the game moves up a level after three right answers in a row and down after two wrong in a row, and a child or parent can pick a level. Today's 5 is five puzzles made from the date on your device, so everyone with the same date gets the same five. Print a worksheet makes a page of 4, 6 or 8 puzzles on Letter or A4 paper with new puzzles each time and an answer key at the end. Prints do not rely on colour. The pictures are emoji, so how they look depends on your device.
It is a sorting and fact game, not a replacement for doing real experiments. Dropping a rock and a leaf in a bowl of water teaches more than any card, and the floats or sinks cards are a good prompt to try it. The cards use common everyday cases, so an unusual object, such as a very light wood that floats or a metal that is not magnetic, can differ from the general rule, which is why the game picks plain examples. It does not test spelling or reading, nothing is uploaded, and no account is needed.
It is written for ages 6 to 8. Level 1 has two groups and obvious pictures, such as a dog and a rock. Level 5 asks why a whale is a mammal and not a fish, which many adults enjoy.
Nine topics: living or not, natural or made by people, floats or sinks, animal groups, what animals eat, where they live, solid liquid and gas, magnets, and plant parts. Life cycles and food chains are also included.
No. A whale breathes air and feeds milk to its calf, so it is a mammal. The game uses it at a high level and explains it after the answer.
Each card comes from standard early-grade science teaching, and the sources are listed per topic in the project notes. Surprising cards, such as a seed or a bat, are held back for higher levels and come with a reason.
Yes. Choose a level, then 4, 6 or 8 puzzles and Letter or A4 paper. Each print has new puzzles and an answer key on the last page, and it still works in black and white.
It stays in this browser on this device. Nothing about your child is uploaded, and no account is needed. The page counts visits with Google Analytics, never answers.