Have you ever noticed all objects around us are alike or different? To get it better, we may say that apples and oranges have similar attributes as they are round and yummy. But talking about bicycles and bananas, it takes us a great deal of effort to find the common details.

So what is a category? A category is a way to group things on similar attributes. We apply giraffes, lions, and elephants to one category as they are animals. And we denote cars, trains, and planes as another category - transport.

To show it to your kids, you may use toys and empty boxes. Put animals in one box and cars with planes in another, as it's shown in the picture.

There are plenty of ways to categorize words. For example, winter and summer clothes, colors and size, numbers and shapes, etc. Look at the following words: mom, sister, dad, granny. How would you describe these words? What category do they belong to? You`re right! They all denote members of our families. And what about these words: Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday? These are days of the week.

We may classify the words the same way we grouped the toys. To make it easier you may use cards with pictures and written words. Start with two categories. Ask your kids to put all fruits to the left side and clothes to the right. Try to choose different categories to make it easier for your kids to find similar objects.

When finished playing with these cards you may add another group to make it more challenged. As we said, try to add a different category, for example, numbers.

Now it's time to write these words. Ask your kids to write down the words of objects they have sorted out: apple, car, three, train, banana, pear, five, bicycle. To help your kids to find the connection between words and these objects, challenge children to put the written words to the cards they have grouped. It helps students to get all the nuances in the meanings of the words.

So here we get to the significant point. It's time to sort words into categories without cards. Put all words in the pile and take them one by one. Prepare three boxes or baskets and ask your students to put these words there. You may stick a picture on each basket to help your children to find the group. Well, having sorted out all the written words, congratulate your kids on their achievements!

The next level of sorting the words is to identify real-life connections between words and their use. How can we show it to our children? To do this prepare a photo of a house or you can use the following picture.

Ask your kids what places they consider cozy, homely, and very comfortable? It may be a bedroom, an attic, and a room with a chimney. So, we can define them in the category of ‘cozy’ words. In the same way, children may find all the winter pictures among or autumn ones, for example, the winter forest, snowflakes, and mittens among pictures with autumn trees and yellow leaves. After showing these cards, ask kids to write these words on the board in two columns, which will define the winter and autumn categories of words.

The next significant skill is to define words according to one or more key attributes. We offer a list of riddles to help students classify words according to a few qualities. You may write the words on the board and challenge your kids to find the right one. Here are the riddles:

It is a red insect with black spots (ant, fly, ladybug).

This animal has spots and a very long neck (giraffe, lion, monkey).

It is a bird that can swim (rooster, duck, pigeon).

It is a big animal with a long trunk (zebra, gorilla, elephant).

The next activity will immerse you in the depth of words categories and help to distinguish shades of meaning among words that are different in manner. To do this you ask kids to act different emotions: crank and cheerful, happy and delighted, glance and stare.

Also, to get the difference between shades of meaning, use may explain the difference between big and huge. Show children the cards of small, big, and giant objects, then ask them to show these words with their hands. Discuss that small is opposite to big and giant. We may classify the words big and giant to one group, but taking into account that giant is much bigger.

We hope this article will bring some joy to your studying!