Encourage critical thinking and classification skills with our Sorted How? PowerPoint. This interactive resource presents students with a range of sorted image groups and challenges them to figure out the rule used to organise each set. It’s a great way to introduce or reinforce sorting, categorising and patterning concepts in an engaging visual format.

Each slide displays a collection of objects that have been sorted into groups based on an unseen rule. Students examine the images and use their reasoning skills to identify what the objects in each group have in common. This encourages discussion, observation and vocabulary development around attributes such as colour, size, shape, purpose and more.

Sorted How? PowerPoint is perfect for whole-class warm-ups, small group activities or quick logic-building sessions during your maths or literacy block. Use it as a visual prompt for rich classroom discussion and justification of thinking.

Key Learning Outcomes:

• ✅ Identify and describe rules used to sort and classify objects
• ✅ Use reasoning and justification to explain groupings
• ✅ Develop observation, vocabulary and categorisation skills

What’s Included:

• Interactive PowerPoint with multiple “sorted” image slides
• Each slide displays 2 or more image groups sorted by an underlying rule
• No text clues – students must reason and justify the grouping themselves

Materials Needed:

• Interactive whiteboard or display screen to run the PowerPoint
• Optional: mini whiteboards for students to record their thinking

How to Use:

1. Open the PowerPoint and display one slide to the class or group.
2. Ask students to observe the images and decide what rule was used to sort the groups.
3. Facilitate a class discussion where students share their thinking and justify their answers.
4. Move through additional slides as needed to reinforce reasoning and classification strategies.

Ideas for Classroom Use:

• 💡 Use as a warm-up activity during maths, science or literacy lessons
• 💡 Include in rotations or small group reasoning tasks
• 💡 Pair students for partner talk before sharing ideas as a class
• 💡 Use as a discussion prompt for exploring similarities and differences
• 💡 Extend the activity by asking students to sort classroom items in a similar way

Top Teacher Tips:

• 💛 Encourage students to use descriptive language to explain their thinking
• 💛 Reinforce vocabulary such as “attribute,” “category,” and “sort rule” during discussion
• 💛 Invite students to create their own “Sorted How?” slides as an extension activity

Sorted How? PowerPoint is an engaging, low-prep way to build reasoning, logic and classification skills across any subject area – perfect for fostering critical thinking in young learners.

You might be interested in the printable sorting cards version.