Team Up

Goal: Divide into teams or groups of equal numbers

Grades: K, 1, 2, 3, 4

Group size: Any

Time: 10 minutes or less

Spotlight: Dividing: forming groups

Materials:

None

Prerequisites:

None

1. Get ready to team up

Announce the size or number of teams, and then pose a question, such as:

Can everyone have a partner, or is someone left over?

We need three groups for choice time. Can we make groups with the same number of kids in each?

For more challenge, pose an open-ended question:

How many ways can the 12 of us break into teams with the same number in each? What size teams make the most sense for a relay race?

2. Figure out how many

If children need help getting started, suggest one of these approaches:

Try it out.

Count off.

Draw a picture of people in groups.

3. Decide what to do if you can't make even teams

Pick one of these options: children can rotate in and out, a staff member can participate, or children who are not on a team can do a special job, such as timekeeper or referee.

Variations

Two Teams (Grades 1, 2)
Children decide how to break into two groups of equal or almost equal size. How many in each group? Is anyone left over?

Team Sports (Grades 3, 4)
Children find ways to divide up for sports that require teams of a certain size. For instance, if 48 children want to a game requiring teams of 10, they could divide into 4 teams, with 2 on the sidelines to rotate in for each team.

Job of the Week (Grades 3, 4)
Children decide how to break into work teams to accomplish a set of regular chores, such as cleanup, taking attendance, and watering plants.

Books and Other Resources

outdoors

Book ideas to come!

Spotlight

Division: forming groups

Dividing into teams is a way of acting out the process of division.

12 figures

Connections

Assigning people to equal-size groups

In school and afterschool, children need to divide up into equal-sized groups for projects, on field trips, and for activities involving limited resources such as computers.

In the professional world, conference organizers, party planners, and restaurant managers divide people and supplies into groups for seating in rows or at small tables. Dividing up large groups of people also underlies aspects of public life, such as assigning students to classrooms and schools, assigning voters to districts and polling places, and determining numbers of state representatives.

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