Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives Sort: Write Each Word in Its Bin

This 2nd grade nouns, verbs, and adjectives sort worksheet floats twelve word chips across the top of the page like fridge magnets. The four nouns are toys and each carries a tiny picture beside the word — a kite, a robot, a puzzle, a drum — while the verbs and adjectives, draw, pull, laugh, shiny, heavy, purple, are plain words. Below stand three tall bins, each with an icon on its lid: a framed picture for nouns, a running figure for verbs, and overlapping color blobs for adjectives, with the label printed underneath. The child reads each chip, decides whether it names, does, or describes, and writes it on a line inside the right bin.

Sorting words by their job is the first grammar most children do consciously, and it works because the three questions are concrete: can you point to it, can you do it, does it tell you what something is like. The pictures on the noun chips are training wheels — a picture can only be attached to a naming word — and they are removed at the hardest level. Writing each word into its bin instead of drawing a line makes the child re-read it. The teacher looks at the adjective bin, which is where words like heavy and shiny sometimes end up beside verbs; that confusion between describing and doing is exactly what the page is designed to surface.

Print the PDF free and have the child say each word inside a short spoken sentence before placing it, since the sentence usually settles the question. The easier version uses nine chips whose adjectives stay concrete — colors and sizes, plus everyday ones like hot, cold, wet and fast; the harder version uses fifteen chips with no pictures, adjectives of state and character like curious, sleepy and gentle, and tougher verbs. The abc order page is the other kind of word sorting in the catalog, and the write about the picture page is where the child starts choosing nouns, verbs, and adjectives to build sentences.