Lesson - Random Groups of Twos

Choose pairs (e.g., salt & pepper, PB & J, macaroni & cheese, bread & butter, fish & chips, bacon & eggs, thunder & lightning, cookies & milk). Call one half of the group salt and another half pepper, for example, and invite students to find their "other half". Each pairing should have "salt" and "pepper". Great for jigsaw where students may move back and forth between large group work and work in pairs. Pairings 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 students a sheet with a clock on it, for example, or a randomized set of distinct object drawings (e.g., a leaf, a shell, a button, etc.; alternatively, these could be related to a theme). Students write down the names of peers they enjoy working with for each hand of the clock or for each object. Teachers call out "Find your 2 o'clock partner.", "Find your leaf partner.", "Find your human body partner."

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