Folder Activities With Velcro: Miscellaneous Sorting and Comparing
All of these folder activities involve sorting or comparing skills. They are at a kindergarten-first grade level, but they are appropriate for any students who are at this academic level. I made these materials with special education students in mind, but they can be used with general education students as well. When I taught special education, I made a lot of materials with Velcro because I had a number of students with autism that preferred it. You can adapt these materials without Velcro.
I used Boardmaker visuals for all of the folder activities in this hub, except for the counting and sorting objects folder. I found my counting objects pictures with online image searches. I used these pictures solely for this educational material, which I only used in my own classroom and have not sold or marketed in any way. I buy manila file folders in bulk from Office Depot. I buy my Velcro dots in bulk from fastenation.com.
Color sort: I've made multiple versions of this folder. The color circles at the top have Velcro so you can change the color order. You can make bigger pictures and/or a smaller number of items for the students to sort. If you have trouble locating enough pictures in different colors in Boardmaker, start keeping a color list as you make other materials.
Count, then sort by number: I detailed this in my miscellaneous math folder activities hub because it fits into math skills as well, so I won't give more detail about it here.
Comparing: Water vs. sky comparison is just one of numerous possibilities for a comparison folder activity. I Velcro the comparison categories so that I can switch different categories into the same comparison manila folder. Typically I include 9 components to sort for each category. You can decrease or increase this number as it is appropriate for your students.
Comparing continued: I made an aquarium vs. not aquarium animals folder for a 2nd grade comprehension lesson. It works well as a stand alone comparison activity, too. Other comparison sorts with animals include: animals with fur vs. animals without fur, cold blooded vs. warm-blooded animals, and animal groups (fish vs. birds, etc.)
A few more comparison ideas: I have also made comparison sets for summer vs. winter clothing, rainy vs. snowy clothing, and swim vs. fly animals. I have made some sets that are for specific general education texts or comprehension lessons, such as the folder pictured here.
All photographs in this hub are copyrighted by me, Rose Clearfield. Please contact me if you would like permission to use any of them. Thank you!