Raise your hand if as soon as you announce to your students that they’ll be working in partners, they immediately look at their friend like this…
Without fail, right?
Long long ago {to assure that my kids weren’t always selecting the same partner} I created a set of cards to match-up them up randomly. I am completely embarrassed to share the picture! I mean, I didn’t even laminate these cards!
I guess I’ve been making things for my classroom for a long time – thankfully my skills have improved slightly! 🙂
These partner cards make pairing up students SO much easier than students doing it on their own {because someone is always left out, right?!}
To make it easy, I just hand out a random stick to students as I quickly walk around the room. Students then pop up an find their match.
I’ve included all 33 pairs in a few different options so you can choose what works best for your students. The black-topped versions are a bit more challenging because it requires students to really pay attention to the pictures, whereas the colored versions allow them to “cheat” a bit by matching up colors!
Black-Topped Circles
This set is full color but has a basic black topper. It’s a little trickier to use for the youngest readers because some of those words are challenging!
Matching Color-Topped Circles
This is also a full color set of circles but with color tops which make it a tiny bit easier for our friends who may not be able to read all the options just yet!
Black-Topped Rectangles
This black and white version is simple to cut with a paper cutter!
Color-Topped Rectangles
This set is also easy to cut…but again uses color for the matching sets!
Get the Partner Cards for pairing students here!
What’s your favorite way to pair up students?
