Most adults are familiar with the game of bingo – we’ve came across the game at some points in our lives. It is true that many us of think of it as a game played in church and community halls in funding raising efforts, or by groups of seniors as a relaxing way of passing the time, but one thing you may not know is that bingo is becoming increasingly popular in education.
Many teachers have come to the conclusion that bingo is well suited to classroom use, because it is easy for students to learn and play, does not require expensive specialist materials, does not make a big mess, and is highly adaptable to teaching different subjects, different lesson plans, and different age groups. When organized by enthusiastic teacher, bingo can indeed be both fun and educational.
As hinted at previously, bingo can be used in a variety of educational environments, including teaching K-12, and for teaching older students. The game can be adapted to almost any subject including English and Reading, English as a Second Language (ESL), Foreign Languages (including Spanish, French, German and Italian), Math, Science, History and more. The main way that the game is adapted to each of these situations is by using custom bingo cards printed with items appropriate to the lesson, and by modifying the game play mechanics. In a K-12 reading class for example, students might just be required to recognize sight words, in a math class the students might be required to write in the answers to math problems into the squares rather than simply cross off squares, and in a foreign language class the bingo cards could be printed in one language but the calss made in another (for example, bingo cards printed with Spanish vocabulary – and students need to match up these words to bingo calls made in English).
By: Sunil Tanna
Bingo has been re-born. Over the past 10 years, inline with the growth in the popularity of the internet bingo has boomed to be one of the biggest pastimes of many people, covering all age groups. Bingo used to be a game for your Grandma to play, forcing you to sit with her and her friends on a wet Sunday afternoon playing game after game of Bingo. But things have changed greatly since then and although the game is the same as it used to be it has been spruced up somewhat and brought up to date.
The growth in Bingo has been brought on by the growth in popularity of the online game where you can sit in the comfort of your own home and play for hours on end at any number of varieties of the game. Online bingo is huge business and has grown in popularity to almost be as big as poker. The attraction of bingo over poker is that you do not have to know any complicated rules, card hands, betting sequences or techniques for bingo, you simply dab off the number on your bingo card as it is displayed on the screen.
Bingo may sound a little dull but when the numbers are flying at you and you only need one more to fill a bingo card then it can be really exciting. Bingo halls up and down the country are seeing a huge increase in the numbers of people of all ages who are coming through the doors once more.
Bingo does not only have to be played using the standard bingo cards and numbers, it can be played using themed bingo cards and instead of numbers you can play the game using words to help educate children. Instead of calling numbers in the normal way you can call out equations and sums with the answers being the numbers on the cards. The children have to work out the equation to discover the number.
Themed bingo cards offer a nice touch to any game that is being played around a special occasion such as winter, summer, fall, spring, Christmas, Easter and birthdays. Themed bingo cards can add a little more fun to a game.
You can download and print your themed bingo cards from sites that are on the internet but occasionally you may struggle to find cards that match your theme. To overcome this problem it is possible to purchase software from the internet that is specially designed to help you create your very own themed bingo cards. These themed bingo cards are really easy to create and enable you to have a themed bingo game to your own specification.
Bingo is a game that is so easy to pick up and play that it can be played by people of all ages, as long as you can understand numbers then you can play bingo, and although you have to be of the legal age to gamble to play online bingo for money there is nothing to stop you creating and printing off your very own themed bingo cards and having a game at home with all the family.
Enjoying a family game of bingo with your themed bingo cards can be hours of fun for all the family and can be linked in with any family or social event that you may be holding so why not create your own themed bingo cards and start playing bingo today.
By: Harwood E Woodpecker
