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The BEST Classroom Management Strategy: Partner Paring Cards

I am so excited to be sharing my FAVORITE classroom management strategy with you today! This strategy is easy to create, fun for students, simple to teach, and probably one of the most adorable classroom resources I have created to date. The best part about this classroom management strategy: students LOVE it and will be asking to use it over and over again! I will also be sharing 5 different ways to use this strategy in the classroom (activities included)!

The BEST Classroom Management Strategy

My favorite classroom management strategy that you can grab and start using Day 1 in your classroom is: Partner Paring Cards, also affectionately known as Peanut Butter and Jelly Partners (referencing the adorable food pairs). Gone are the days of students being nervous about having a partner, only wanting to work with their best friend, or feeling left out! Here to stay are the days of students getting excited for partner work and partner activities! These cards work be assigning a food to a student. Each student has a partner food that they will have to locate.

You will notice this classroom management strategy turning into magic when students become engaged, get moving around the classroom (great for those wiggles), and forget about only working with their best friend! I have included a Google Slide that you can use to make sure students are finding their correct partner. This will be super helpful the first few times you use your partner paring cards with your class. Eventually, your students will remember all the food pairs!

5 Ways to Use Partner Paring Cards in Your Classroom

Not only are these partner cards ADORABLE, fun to use, and an exciting way to change up your classroom management, but there are so many different ways to use them.

  1. Morning Meeting
  2. Brain Breaks
  3. Partner Work/Centers
  4. Reading Comprehension
  5. Writing, Editing, and Sharing

Implementing this Classroom Management Strategy

Morning Meeting: One of the easiest ways to introduce partner cards to your students is to use them for morning meeting! This is a great back to school activity for students that are getting to know each other. Bring students to the carpet and pass out the partner cards. Have students find their match (use the “Find Your Partner” Slide) then choose a morning meeting activity from the included slides. Examples include: “Tell your partner your favorite breakfast food” or “Decide on an act of kindness that you both will try to do during the school day.”

Brain Breaks: We all know brain breaks are a fantastic way to give students a short break from their work. My brain break slides include different movement activities that students can do with their partner. This classroom management strategy works so well at getting students moving and engaging with their classmates- especially with classmates they might not spend a lot of time with.

Partner Work/Centers: One of the most common ways to use partner pairing cards is for…. you guessed it…Partner Work! Need to pair students up for a review game? How about some quick center rotations? Easy and done! Use the partner cards to keep students from becoming discouraged when they don’t get to work with their bestie.

Reading Comprehension: I love pairing students up for discussion during whole group activities. After you and your class have finished a read aloud, students can turn to their partners to answer important questions. For example, one of the included slides asks students to share with their partner what they predict will happen next in the book and why. Spend less time worrying about who is sitting next to who on the carpet and more time watching your class engage in rich conversation with each other.

Writing, Editing, and Sharing: Assigning partners during writing is another great opportunity for this classroom management strategy to shine! Students can read their writing to each other, help each other check for spelling errors, research together, and more! Really, the options here are endless. These partner cards are so fun, so easy, and so cute. Students will be asking for them over and over again.

Classroom Management Made Easy

Classroom management should not be hard or intimidating. The strategies that you choose to use in your classroom should be easy enough to implement from day one.

Partner pairing cards are great for morning meeting, brain breaks, centers, stations, get-to-know-you activities, back to school, ice breakers, group work, partner activities, and so much more. Gone are the days of students being upset about finding a partner, and here are the days where students can’t wait to see what food picture will be on the card they receive!

Use these peanut butter and jelly partner cards to assign students a buddy for a whole day, a whole week, a single activity, a brain break, or anything you can think of! Don’t forget, this resource comes with 60+ slides full of activities you can do with your class. I have included morning meeting activities, brain breaks, reading ideas, writing ideas, and slides that are completely editable. Type in whatever you want students to do! Slides are available in PPT and Google Slides.

Grab this entire classroom management resource for $5.50 in my Teachers Pay Teachers shop today! All pictures in this post are linked directly to the product! Click any of them to check it out! Or click the button!

One More Thing!

You know I love creating classroom management resources for you! I have recently finished up 2 sets of editable center rotation slides. These slides are perfect for you to use with your reading and math small groups. Take control of your groups, engage students better, and watch your small groups take off! Check out how I use these slides in the following blog post: Reading and Math Small Groups Made Easy.

Click the picture to head right over to the product!

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