We’re “Pear Pairs!"

In the above article, I wrote a blog about fun and fair ways to pick partners. 

I was diddling with homonyms and fooling around with the word pear and pair and thought making pears as puzzles would also be a fun way to pick a partner. 

A bunch of alphabet, shape and number pears later, I had a 48-page packet!

Click on the link to view/download Pear Pair Puzzles

 Here's What To Do:

• Run off the pears on yellow or green construction paper.
• Laminate the sheets.
• Cut them out and then cut the puzzles apart.
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• Put the uppercase letters in one bag and the lowercase letters in another.
• Explain to your students the homonym pears and pairs.
• Make sure that you only use enough letters as you have children present.
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• Have ½ your students choose a puzzle piece from one bag and the other ½ choose from the other bag.
• When everyone has a pear puzzle piece, have students go find their partner so they can make a pear pair!
• This can simply be a game of who can make a pear pair the fastest as a fun review, or as a fun and fair way of choosing a partner for whatever activity you have planned.
• Keep the pears in separate envelopes when not in use.
• You can also use them as a Memory Match game, or as an independent matching game.
• Make an extra set to send home with a struggling child, or make individual booklets and have students TRACE the letters and then take them home to make their own game.


• I’ve given you a blank set for you to dream up other ways to use them.
• There is a plain pear as well as one with a face on it.
• You could make sets for compound words, or contractions.
• Make up equations on one ½ and answers on the other.

• Another fun “pear pair” is to make a personal one for each student.
• This is perfect for younger students who need to learn how to recognize their name as a report card standard.
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• Glue a student’s school picture on the top and print their name on the bottom puzzle piece,
• Scatter the pear pieces on the floor and have students find their photo and matching name as a fun “Name Game Pear-Pair”!


• You can make a set with a color word on the bottom.
• Run these pears off on that color of construction paper.
• You can use these for your word wall or other color activities.

• I’ve also made a set with a shape matched to a word.
• These can be used to pick a partner if you are only using a few children. (6 or less.)
• If you plan to use shape cards for partners, run them off on 4 different colors so that you will have 24 cards.
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• I’ve also made a cover for these, so you can run these sheets off and your students can make a shape puzzle booklet or a game of their own to take home.
• This booklet is ideal to get some cutting practice in, as it’s only a few pages.
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• Instead of having a rectangular booklet like the letter or number booklet, have students cut out the pears.  Seems perfect, as this is a “shape” booklet!
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• To give this booklet more pizzazz, have your students COLOR the shapes in rainbow colors and then TRACE the shape word in the matching color.
• This is a fun way to teach the colors of the rainbow and review colors with your students at the same time you are reviewing shapes! (More bang for your “time” buck!)


• There is also a set with dots and numbers and numbers and number-words.
• I’ve also made covers if you want to run them off so that students can make their own booklet.
• This is a great sequencing activity.
• Students can also number the sets of circles, color them, put a smilie sticker in one of the dots on each page, or have fun using bingo dot markers at a center!
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• Run off just one pear number and have students use 2 bingo colors to show a math equation and then write it on the pear. i.e., The #9 pear has 4 pink bingo dots + 5 green  bingo dots = 9 total bingo dots.
• If you want to use numbers as pear pairs and you have 20-22 students, make a set of yellow and a set of green pears.
• You can also use the number-word pear pairs as well and add a 3^rd color if you have more students than 22, such as a light yellow and a bright yellow, or a lime green and an emerald green.