At school, we separate students into different grades.
In our jobs, everyone knows who is the big boss and those that work for him or her.
In sports, we separate players into different teams and the positions each player occupies.
We classify foods into major groups such as vegetables, fruits, meats and junk food.
There are endless ways to classify. Scientists use classification to help in understanding the world - living organisms such as plants and animals, and non-living things such as rocks and stars.
Scientists place items in groups that make sense together. First, they separate them into really large groups. Then, little by little, they sort them into consecutively smaller groups until there is only one thing that matches a description.
Try your hand at sorting some unusual animals and creating an identification key in Creature Feature.
When you get the idea of how to do classification, then try identifying fish in Fishin' for a Name.