Tag: Alphabetical Order

Alphabetical Order/ABC Order

One way to organize objects with words like books or movie titles or any other grouping of words is to put them in alphabetical order. This means to put the words in order by the letters they begin with and the following letters in each word according to the alphabet (so words starting with A come first, then B, then C and so on). For example, if I had the words, apple, cat, pillow, zebra, I would start by finding the word that begins with A. Apple is the only word that starts with A so that goes first. Then I go to the next letter in the alphabet, B. Any words with B? No. Move on to the next letter which is C. I have one word with C: Cat. So that goes next in my list. Then I keep going according to the alphabet and the letters that each word I have to sort begin with.

1. Apple
2. Cat
3. Pillow
4. Zebra

What happens if there are two words that start with the same letter? For the example above, if I had another A word such as Ant. I would figure out which would come first between Apple and Ant. they both begin with A so they are at the beginning of the list. To figure out which comes next, I look at the second letter in each word. Those letters are P and N. According to the alphabet, N comes first, and so Ant would go before Apple.

The new list would be:

1. Ant
2. Apple
3. Cat
4. Pillow
5. Zebra

Here is a video that helps to demonstrate the concept of arranging words in alphabetical order: Video

Grade 1’s please complete one of the worksheets below. Grade 2’s please work to complete both worksheets below. *If you don’t have a printer, please complete on a blank sheet of paper. 

Worksheet: Alphabetical Order