Group Up!

Why “Group Up!”?: It is important to be mindful of how to group kids and to have
different strategies for splitting kids up into groups for team challenges. A huge part of
entrepreneurship is working in teams and there are many opportunities for students to
work in groups in the VentureLab lessons, so it will be helpful to have lots of ways to
group kids. Group work will help students think of ideas they never would have had
and gives them confidence in knowing they are part of a team that helps solve
problems.

This document has ideas for grouping students with a description and materials
needed listed with each grouping idea. Following the grouping ideas listed out are
cutout cards. These can be used if you wish to draw or have a student draw a card to
choose how they will all be grouped for a specific activity.

Partner (2 students) Grouping Ideas:

1. Elbow Partners - turn to the person at your elbow (either one) and partner up
with them
2. Coin Flip - Each student gets a coin. Flip it in the air. Look how the coin or
counter landed and find a person with the same coin face (heads or tails) and
pair up with them. Materials needed: enough coins for each student to have one
3. Stand, Sit, Squat - Everyone will walk around the room (to music if you’d like).
Once the music stops or you say, “freeze,” students will decide if they want to
sit, stand, or squat. Once they make their choice, students will partner with
someone who did the same action as them. Alternatively, for a larger group
suggestion, have all sitters in one group, all standers in another, and squatters
together.
4. Freeze Dance - Play music and have kids can dance or just walk around (they can
walk or dance in slow motion if they want to!). Stop the music. Kids must high-
five the person closest to them; that is their partner. Materials needed: Phone,
computer or radio to play music on
5. Animal Act-It-Out- Act like your favorite animal. When instructor says, “freeze,”
find a partner that acted out either the same animal as you or someone whose

© VentureLab 2017
 animal has the same characteristics (same body covering, same animal group,
same habitat, etc.).
6. Inside Circle, Outside Circle- Half the group will stand in a large circle and the
other half will form a smaller circle inside and facing the students in that large
circle. Either play music or just have students walk around in their respective
circles. When the music stops or instructor says, “freeze,” students will stop
moving. The person they are facing is their partner.

Larger Grouping Ideas (written with 4 students per group in mind, but can be modified
easily with group sizes ranging from 3-6):

Note: Any of the strategies for creating partner groups from above can also be used to
form larger groups as well; simply repeat activity, adding or combining groups until
you have the desired number of group members.

1. Team Shake App - Enter student names and how many groups you need, and
the app generates random groups for you. Materials needed: device that can
support Team Shake app
2. Student Choice - Students choose their own partner (do not use if there will be a
partner group you are not okay with)
3. Puzzle Pictures - Print as many pictures as the total number of groups you want
to have of anything your kids might like (puppy, superhero, snack, etc.). Cut the
picture into 4 pieces. Students will walk around to find the matching pieces to
make the complete picture and form their group. Materials needed: pictures and
bag to store pieces
4. Popsicle Stick Groups – Gather enough popsicle sticks for all of your students
and then divide them into 4 groups—label the popsicle sticks in each group with
the number 1,2,3 or 4. Put the labelled popsicle sticks in a cup. Students will
draw out a stick, and all of the students with same number on them will be in a
group Materials needed: Popsicle sticks
5. I Am an Entrepreneur - Stand in a circle (If you have a board or large chart
paper, write “I Am An Entrepreneur.” If not, say that sentence out loud to
students). Go around and each student will say one word of that sentence. Tell
them to remember what word they said. After everyone in the circle has said a

© VentureLab 2017
 word, tell all of the “I’”s to go to one corner of the room, all the “Am”s in
another, the “An”s in the third corner, and the “Entrepreneur”s in the last
corner.
6. You Choose - Let students choose a partner. Then, instructor chooses partner
groups to combine to make groups of 4.
7. Card Deck - Decide how many groups of 4 you will need and put in four cards of
the same suit for each group (for example, if you want to have 5 groups of 4,
leave 4 aces, 4 queens, 4 kings, 4 jacks, and 4 10’s in the pile of cards students
will draw from). Have students draw a card from the pile or leave a card face
down on their desk. Students will find and stand with group members with the
same card. Materials needed: Deck of cards
8. Draw a Color - Put four strips or squares of paper of four (or the total number of
groups you will have) different colors in a bag. Students will draw out a strip or
square and find their group members with matching colors. Materials needed:
small strips or squares of paper in four different colors
9. Picture Match - Put four copies of four (or the total number of groups you want
to have) different pictures in a bag or hat (pictures could be of anything that will
interest your kids-animals, superheroes, TV shows they enjoy, public figures they
are learning about or admire, etc.). Students will draw out a picture and find
their group members with a matching picture. Materials needed: Four copies of
four (or the total number of groups you want to have) pictures
10. Opposites Attract – For each group of 4 students, print 2 cards with one picture
and 2 cards that have the opposite picture (for example, 2 (identical) pictures of
summer and two (identical) pictures of winter). Give out one card to each
student. Students will first find the match to their card, and then find the 2
opposites to their card to form a group of 4 (Picture ideas could include
hot/cold, day/night, empty/full, left/right, sweet/sour, heavy/light).

© VentureLab 2017