Creative ways to split into groups!
"Find you mate"
Hand out cards that each contains one half of a well-known (so that all children can recognise them) couple or pair, things or names. These couples / pairs should comprise a more general section, e.g.
- Salt-pepper, oil-vinegar, bread-butter, potatoes-eggs, spaghetti-minced meat > food
- Sun-moon, plant-soil, fish-water > environment
- Romeo-Juliet, Tom-Jerry, Beautiful-Beast > famous couples
- Haste-makes waste, too many cooks- spoil the broth, early bird - catches the worm > proverbs
Tell the children first to find their mate and then their group.
This game can be adapted easily to different topics. For example, on the topic of passages / identities: Iran-farsi, grandchild-grandmother, travel-suitcase, war-peace, hope-fear, child-adult.
"Find your song"
Choose some well known (to the children) songs and hand out cards containing the song’s title and some verses. The number of the songs and verses depend on how many and how large groups you want. The children walk around the room muttering the song and looking for those who are quietly singing verses of the same song in order to form groups.
Numbers
The children walk around the room. Call out a number randomly. The children must quickly get into groups of that number. Repeat with different numbers – the groups must change their composition constantly. You may include more instructions besides the number (e.g. 3 - we touch elbows, 5 - in a circle, 2 - back to back). Depending on the number of the groups you want, leave this number last.
Make a salad!
Give each child (orally or by card) the word of a vegetable (lettuce, carrot, tomato, cucumber, olive, cabbage, etc.). Each word is given so many times depending on the groups you want to form. Tell the children to make "salads", that is, groups that each includes only one of the salad’s “ingredients”.
Line up!
Ask the children to line up without talking to each other (only gestures allowed!) in order of shoes’ size, fb friends, birthday date, alphabetical order of their names, etc. Once the line is made up (so the groups is mixed up), split into the groups you want.
