Monday Made It: August 3, 2015

Hi guys!

Today I'm linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics again to share my newest Monday Made It. Read on to check out what I've been hard at work on.

This is my newest creation and I'm super excited about it!

These are called Random Grouping Sticks and they are an awesome grouping tool that foster collaboration and learning how to work with different people. I love them because they're quick, simple, and totally random! There are also so many grouping options within this one set. Basically you pass out (or let your kids choose) one of the sticks. Every stick is different but there are some similarities throughout them, which is precisely what allows you to use them for grouping purposes. Call out an attribute and students can group themselves accordingly. For example, you can say, "we're going to get into animal groups. All students who have owls should get together. All students who have jellyfish should get together, etc..." Students won't know what you're going to group them by until after they pick a stick. This is helpful because it decreases the likelihood that they'll end up with the same kids every time.
 
In my packet, I have included a page of suggested grouping options that can be used with these sticks but there are many more. Here's a peek at that page:

Another thing that's great about these sticks is that you can also regroup students again and again without even passing the sticks out again. Let's say you had already grouped your kids by the animals on their sticks and wanted to mix up the groups again. Well, your students can actually use their same sticks and regroup by something else. You might say, "now get into groups by your number. All ones go here, all the twos go here, etc..." You can see how versatile the grouping choices are with these. And that's great because it keeps this tool fresh and exciting every time you use it!

There are 3 template pages (36 sticks in all) as well as directions for making the sticks using jumbo craft sticks. If you don't have a need for that many sticks, you can just eliminate a number or color set altogether to bring the number down. Do what works best for you and your kiddos. As a side note, (I realized this after I was done with mine) you could actually just print them out on card-stock and laminate them instead of going the whole craft stick route. Truthfully, that's probably much quicker but I prefer the durability of the Popsicle stick method. Either way you make them, they'll still work the same.

As an added incentive, I'm going to have these on sale in my shops for the next 2 days! If you act quickly, you can also take advantage of the TPT back to school sale and you'll save even more! Clicking on the picture below will take you right to my TPT store:

Alright, that's all for now. Be sure to check out Tara's page to see what other awesome Monday Made-It's have been posted!
Kindly,