Pretty much everybody knows how to play bingo right? Each player gets a card containing a grid of numbers (usually a 5 by 5 grid with a special “free space” square in the middle), the bingo announcer calls out numbers in random order, plays check off the corresponding numbers from their bingo cards, and the first player to get an agreed upon pattern (usually a line of five in any direction regardless of whether it’s horizontal, vertical or diagonal), is a the winner. You can buy ready-made bingo cards, so why would anybody make to make their own bingo cards?
The answer lies in the fact that themed variants of the standard game have become massively more popular in the bingo cards. In themed versions of bingo, the bingo cards are not printed with numbers, but instead are printed with words, phrases, or even math problems.
Probably the most popular themed versions of the game are those based around particular holidays such as Christmas, St. Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween or July 4th (US Independence Day). In these variants, they are printed with words or phrases relating to the particular holiday in question, so items like “Angel”, “Santa Claus” and “Yule” would be used for Christmas bingo, whereas as words like “Heart”, “Love” or “Romance” would be used for St. Valentine’s Day bingo.
Versions of bingo using custom bingo cards are also popular in education. Teachers can prepare them based around any subject or lesson plan, and can also vary game play, for example by calling out “clues” and requiring students to find the corresponding word or phrase. In language classes, bingo calls can be made in one language, and students required to match the corresponding word in another language.
In math classes, these can be printed with math problems in each square, and students can be required to write in the correct answer when an item is called, rather than merely tick off a square. Of course, even the standard game mechanics can be suitable for classroom use in the right situation – for example, an essential part of learning to read fluently is learning to quickly recognize common words (known as “sight words”) – and this can be practiced by playing sight word bingo.
By: Sunil Tanna
One of the attractions of bingo is that while being a lot of fun, it is also incredibly easy to learn how to play. If you get a bingo card and show it to somebody, you can explain how to play the game in just a few minutes.
In the traditional game of bingo, each player is given a bingo card containing an array of squares arranged in a 5 by 5 grid. Each square on the card contains a different number, and players mark off squares from the cards as numbers are called out by the bingo caller. While this basic game can be a lot of fun, more and more people are today turning to variants of the game. Using a computer and bingo card maker software, it’s very easy to print custom bingo cards with squares containing words, phrases, or even math problems, instead of numbers.
With so many people getting together, holidays are in fact a perfect opportunity to play bingo. Obviously if playing on (or in the run-up) to one of these holidays, it’s more fun to play using bingo cards themed around the holiday. Whether it be Christmas, Easter, St. Valentine’s Day, New Year, July 4th, Halloween, or any other holiday, you can play bingo – in each case picking words or phrases for the cards that relate to the particular holiday in question.
Many teachers are also turning to bingo as a classroom activity. The game is well suited to use in schools, since it can be adapted in a wide variety of different ways, game play mechanics can be varied, and of course cards on literally any theme or subject can be prepared. Younger students can benefit from bingo by practising reading the items on the cards, in math lessons, students can be required to write in answers to problems rather than simply mark off squares, and in language lessons students can be required to recognize items written in one language when bingo calls are made in another.
By: Sunil Tanna
