Category Play

Building basic categories and subcategories is so critical to students' functioning in the classroom.  If they don't build basic schema for describing items, as we know, it gets really difficult as vocabulary and concepts become more advanced.  Toy Theater is a simple website that can be used as one way to build some basic categories (I also always liked Linguisystems' Category Card Games), even if out of context.  You can create a picture array by selecting different items in a category, changing their size and position, and switching categories to create a more diverse picture if you like.  With many examples given in each category, it seems a great opportunity to discuss essential similarities and differences between items.  The site does not give you an option to print, but this would be a good place to use your screenshotting skills!