Classification Lesson Plans

This activity will help students examine their preconceptions and assumptions about racial categories and understand the impossibility of constructing a consistent system of human racial classification.

Fourth graders design a classification system to categorize animate and inanimate objects. They discuss the advantages of grouping things as they classify buttons, leaves, shells.

Students create classification system for Arctic-dwelling animals, the Arctic hare in particular.

Students move a variety of objects into groups by categories.  In this classification competition lesson, students discover as many ways to sort objects as possible in ten minutes. Students present their groups.

Third graders choose a book from the non-fiction section of the library and write a summary of one paragraph from the book. They illustrate one section of the book and add their drawing to a classroom mural that shows the sections of the Dewey Decimal Classification system. They visit assigned web sites to complete online activities.

Students explore differences in resource organization systems. In this research lesson, students view a tutorial on the Library of Congress Classification System. Students work in pairs to access a website and complete a graphic organizer comparing and contrasting this system with the Dewey Decimal System.

Students use pictures of animals to make a classification system. In this classification lesson plan, students are given pictures of different animals. They create a classification system for the animals and identify what they have in common by giving a title for each group. They compare their system to students in the class. Students create their own classification system for things at their home.

Learners research and present information about the classification of animals. They participate in a teacher-led discussion, and in small groups devise their own way of classifying everyday objects in class, developing two-part names for several objects in the room.

Learners are introduced to classification and some of the difficulties surrounding classification and how classification systems need to be able to adapt and how they may need to be changed when new information is discovered. They practice using their observation skills, collecting data, and re-work their orginal design.

Students use shoes to make a classification flow chart. In this classification lesson plan, students all take one of their shoes off and put it on a table. In groups they create a classification system based on 3 characteristics of the shoes. They make a flow chart and then pass 3 shoes to the next group and each group makes another classification flow chart. Students answer 5 questions about the lab and write a conclusion about what they learned.