Ways to create groups

When we think about making a group in class we may tend to separate it in two parts, ask kids to get in pairs or get in groups by themselves. What is the problem about that? That kids always get the same partner or the same group and sometimes we get kids left alone. How can we avoid that? It is easy, we can make the groups by playing a game.

One of this games could be to give every kid a number from 1 to 4. They will have to remember that number. Check that everybody is hearing and understanding you, that is an important point. When everybody has a number, you ask them to get in groups by the number they got.

Another way could be, after practicing some kind of vocabulary, let's say class material vocabulary, shapes and lenght, you ask kids to get into a circle and give every kid an object. They can't show what it is to the others. One by one they will have to descrive the object they have and when everybody is finish, they will have to guess who else has the same object as them. When they have discovered, they will have to get into groups and explain to the others what they have. Let's say, if one of the groups have sharpeners, they will have to say "our object is use to sharp the pen". The rest of the class will have to guess what object it is.

There are many other ways and games to creat groups, but these are a couple of examples. Even tho they are a bit long to do, I believe they are a nice and different way to create groups and everybody gets to participate.