Organizational skills help keep our lives and our classrooms streamlined and free from clutter. Although learning organizational skills can take time, there are many games to play in the classroom that can help make it easier for your students to learn proper organizational skills.

Blindfolded Sorting

As the shape of objects often dictates how things are organized, this game helps students understand the importance of spatial dimensions in organization. Sit blindfolded students on a chair in front of a table. Place at least four wooden boxes with cut-out shapes on the top in front of each student. Each student is given a bag of different-shaped wooden blocks. When the game begins, students will grab a box and use their fingers to feel the shape in the box top. As they place blocks into the appropriate boxes, students will organize the boxes by shape to make sorting easier. Play continues until one player puts all the blocks into his boxes.

Memory Organization

Another important aspect of organization is memory. Employ a simple memory game with students by giving each student 50 cards with one word on each card. There should be five groups of 10 words in a particular category. For example, one group of words could be about animals and another about vehicles. Lay the cards face down on the table. Students should have small cardboard boxes with a category name written on the box front. Students then pick up the card and put it in the correct category box as quickly as possible. When the first student finishes, check all the boxes for accurate organization. The student who has scored the most points wins.

Director and Builder

For this game, divide the classroom into groups of four. One student (the director) in each group takes 10 building blocks and a building base. Another student (the builder) takes another 10 blocks. The two remaining students are deliverymen. In a separate room, the director creates an object out of the building blocks, writing the instructions for the building on index cards. The deliveryman takes these index cards to the second delivery man, shuffling the cards as he walks. The second deliveryman takes these directions to the builder, again shuffling the cards. After receiving the index cards, the builder attempts to organize the directions correctly and build a copy of the director’s structure. The winner is decided by which team's buildings match each other.