Thanksgiving is a harvest festival that is celebrated principally in the United States and Canada. In the United States it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, and is a federal holiday (in Canada it is held on the second Monday in October, coinciding with Columbus Day in the United States). Common activities associated with Thanksgiving include a break from work or school, a Thanksgiving dinner, parades, and American football games.
In the United States, Thanksgiving is very much associated with the survival of early English settlers in Plymouth, Massachusetts, with the help of the local Native American population. As result, the run-up to Thanksgiving provides a wonderful opportunity for students to learn about their history. Schools often organize events such as Thanksgiving plays, but individual teachers can also introduce Thanksgiving-activities into their classroom – why not a game of Thanksgiving bingo?
Thanksgiving bingo is played just like a normal game of bingo (with the teacher taking the part of the bingo caller), but, instead of using standard bingo cards, cards printed with words or phrases related to the Thanksgiving holiday are used instead. It can be a lot of fun, and can also help remind students of the history of Thanksgiving.
You might be wondering where you can obtain Thanksgiving bingo cards, but this is actually quite easy – you print them yourself using your computer! You can download ready-to-print cards from the Internet, or if you prefer, you can download bingo card maker software that allows you to print custom bingo cards on almost any topic you like.
By: Sunil Tanna
If you want to play bingo, of course you need bingo cards – one for each player. However, as far as traditional bingo (the game played using bingo cards printed with numbers) is concerned, there is probably no desperate need to create the cards yourself. However these days, the traditional game is not the be all and end all of bingo. More and more people are taking to playing themed versions of the game, and these versions of bingo require custom cards printed with words or phrases relating to the particular theme, rather than the traditional numbered cards.
Perhaps the most popular themed versions of bingo are those based around holidays and seasonal events. For example, you could play versions of bingo tying in with any secular or religious occasion, be it Christmas, July 4th, President’s Day, Columbus Day, Easter, Halloween, St. Valentine’s Day, or for that matter, any other day too. Whatever the occasion, all you need is bingo cards printed with items relating to the theme, so things like “Egg” and “Resurrection” for Easter, “Black Cat” and “Witch” for Halloween, and “Nativity” and “Silent Night” for Christmas.
Themed versions of bingo are also popular in educational environments, especially K-12 and English as Second Language. In this situation, the teacher picks a theme based on the subject and lesson plan, and students play bingo in class. Game play can also be varied to enhance the educational content of the game, so in a math class, the bingo cards might be printed with math problems and the students required to write in the answers rather than simply mark off squares, and in a foreign language class, these could be made in one language which students must match against cards printed in another language.
Regardless of the theme or the reason for playing, the main thing that is needed to play is of course the custom bingo cards. The best way to prepare custom ones is to get your computer to do the work – using bingo card maker software, you can print an unlimited quantity of cards, on any topic you like, with consummate ease.
By: Sunil Tanna
