Lesson - Random Groups of 3 or more

Teacher selects a number of animals/noise variations and secretly tells them to individual students (e.g., "You're a chicken.). With a younger group, go through all the animals and make sure everyone knows what they all sound like. Establish acceptable noise level limit and a visual signal for silence. Students play by walking around the room. When a group has found each other, they can stay together. At the signal, each player must bark, quack, meow, neigh, bleat, etc. Players may only communicate with their own animal’s noise. No talking! Give the group 30 seconds-1 minute depending on size. Use a visual signal (teacher raises hand) to return to silence. Ask if everyone found their group.

Choose pairs or groups of words (e.g., earth, wind, fire, & water; heart, veins, arteries, lungs; drummer, guitarist, singer, tambourine player). Call sections of the class each of the words, and invite students to find the other words in their group (e.g., "heart" will look for "lungs", "veins", and "arteries" to complete their group). Great for jigsaw where students may move back and forth between large group work and work in small groups. Word groupings could be linked to curriculum. When appropriate, encourage students to create a gesture for their word and to find their group members non-verbally.

Give each student one part of a compound word on a cue card,  e.g. door and bell. Have them find one another. Have them find another pair that go with the first pair e.g., mail and box. You can make these words thematically related to whatever big idea you are working on.