Teachers are always on the look out for fun, interesting and engaging classroom activities. Classroom games, obviously providing they have sufficient educational content are particularly welcome. This desire for interesting classroom activities extends to teachers of all subjects, including teachers of modern languages such as Italian.
One such activity that an increasing number of teachers are turning to is bingo. The reasons for this include the facts that bingo can easily be adapted to teaching different subjects, is very easy to learn and play, and that the game does not include any expensive or specialist materials.
There are many ways that bingo can be adapted to teaching Italian, here are a few possibilities:
1. You could play bingo using numbered cards (e.g. squares contain “5″, “34″ and “66″), but the teacher calls out numbers in Italian (e.g. “cinque”, “trenta quattro”, and “sessanta sei”). This type of game offers an excellent opportunity for students to practice their Italian numbers.
2. Instead of playing with cards containing numbers, you could play using cards containing times, dates, or letters of the alphabet. As with the previous type of game, you play Italian.
3. You could play with vocabulary. In this type of game you can use bingo cards either containing English or Italian words, but all calls are made in the other language.
In order to play these types of bingo there is really just one thing you need: bingo cards containing the appropriate item. At this point many teachers would probably start to worry about the cost of being specialist printed materials – however there is no need to worry – teachers can simply print the cards themselves using their computers. Teachers can download get ready-to-use free bingo printables from the Internet on a variety of topics, or alternatively can purchase affordable computer software for printing bingo cards which allows them to print cards containing any combination of items that they want in effectively unlimited quantities.
By: Sunil Tanna
Phonics is a very popular method of teaching children to read and write. It is based on the idea that particular letters or groups of letters can be associated with a particular sound. Teachers use a variety of teaching techniques, and classroom activities to teach children these phonics rules – typical classroom activities include flash cards, reading and writing games, and group activities. One particular classroom activity that is especially suitable for teaching phonics is phonics bingo.
All versions of phonics bingo are based on the same general principle: Each child is given a bingo card or worksheet, the teacher or parent reads out words or clues as bingo calls, and the children mark off squares from their cards which correspond to the bingo calls. The winner is the first child to achieve a winning pattern (for example, a straight line of five marked off squares) on their bingo card and call out “bingo!”.
The most basic phonics bingo game is “phonemic awareness bingo”. In this case, the children’s bingo cards are printed with a random selection letters. The teacher calls out words, and children must try to identify the beginning sound of the letter, and find the matching square on their card. For example, if the teacher called out “apple”, the children would look for a bingo square containing the letter “a”.
As students progress, more advanced versions of phonics bingo can be introduced. In these, children have to recognize a word called out by the teacher on their card. Generally you might start with “CVC words” (words consisting of consonant, short vowel, then another consonant), and then gradually progress through more advanced phonics concepts, such as consonant and vowel digraphs, r-controlled vowel words, bossy E words, etc.
One additional variation that can be a lot of fun, and again is good practise for students learning to recognize word sounds, is rhyming bingo. In this version, the teacher calls out a word, and students look for rhymes on their bingo cards. For example, if the teacher called out “bat”, students could match a square which contain “cat”, “hat” or “mat”.
By: Sunil Tanna
