Forming Random Groups

There are times when you'll want to carefully plan your group members and other times when you might want to quickly form random groups. Here are a few ideas for forming random groups:

• All the kids in my room have numbers to quickly put us in order or for random drawing. I put each student's number on a popsicle stick and place a container with the sticks in my room. You can pick partners or choose individuals to come up to the front in a random order.
• Play "Firefly". I bought a cheap set of matching picture cards that younger students could use for a matching game. Give each student a different card (call it his/her firefly) and she/he must hold the card carefully so the firefly doesn't fly away. Once all students have a card, they stand up and try to find a match by carefully showing their card for a quick second to each individual in the room. They can't show the card for too long or their firefly will fly away!
• Flippity.net has a ton of fun games you can modify for your classroom but it also has a random name picker that can choose a student randomly or make random groups for you to use for student collaboration. 
• SMART notebook has a Random Group Generator. You can type students' names in at the beginning of the year, choose how many groups you want and click "Generate" and it will make random groups for you.
• I just read about this one. It's a sneaky way to teach synonyms and new vocabulary. :) You take enough index cards for your whole class and write synonyms for each pair of cards. Give everyone a card and the synonyms have to find each other. Ex. Timid and shy, appreciative and thankful