Most people know how to play the game of bingo, after all it’s a game that many of us either played as kids or learned to enjoy in later life. The idea of the game is quite simple: every player is given a bingo card (sometimes known as a “bingo board” or “bingo sheet”), each of the squares contains an item (traditionally a number), and players tick off squares when the corresponding items are called out by the bingo caller. The objective of the game is to be the first player to get a continuous line of items diagonally, vertically or horizontally across the card, and then claim the win by calling out “Bingo!”.
As already mentioned, in traditional versions of bingo, the items in the squares of the bingo card are numbers. Today however many variations of the standard game have also become popular, and in these variants, words, phrases, dates, times or even math problems can be used for hte items on the cards.
- Holiday versions of bingo are increasingly popular. Bingo is a great activity for family and community events since people of all ages can play together. In holiday variants of the game, words or phrases relating to the particular holiday are used, so words like “Advent” or “Santa Claus” in a Christmas game, or “Revolution” or “George Washington” in an Independence Day game.
- Bingo games with words and phrases are popular in K-12, English as Second Language (ESL) and foreign language teaching. They’re a fun way for students to practice word recognition, reading and spelling.
- Bingo cards can also be printed with math problems. They’re good way to practice multiplication tables (”times tables”) as well as arithmetic. Students are required to write in the correct answers to problems as they are called out, rather than simply ticking items off their cards.
In order to play most of these variants of the game, you will of course need bingo cards containing items relating to your chosen theme. Obtaining preprinted cards can be difficult – even if you can find somewhere to buy them, they can be expensive and may not contain the exact items that you want. Preparing bingo cards by hand is possible, but very time consuming! The best answer is to get your computer to do the work – with the right bingo card maker software you can print custom bingo cards with consummate ease.
By: Sunil Tanna
Most people are familiar, or failing that at least aware of, the game of bingo. We’ve probably either played the game ourselves, or seen others play the game. What many people do not know however is that the game of bingo, with only a few minor modifications, can be adapted for educational use, and has been introduced by many teachers into their classrooms.
As you are no doubt aware, the traditional game of bingo is played using bingo cards printed with squares, each square containing a different number. Players mark off squares from their cards as numbers are called out, and the winner being the first player to achieve a winning pattern (the required pattern may vary depending on the variant of rules being used, but is typical one or more lines of marked off squares across the card).
Educational games of bingo are basically played in the same way, with the teacher acting as bingo caller, but instead of being printed with numbers, the bingo cards are often printed with items specially chosen by the teacher, for example:
* In a game of math bingo, the squares on the bingo cards may be printed with mathematical problems, and students must mark off squares by writing in the correct answers.
* In a game of foreign language bingo, the squares of the bingo cards may be printed with French, German, Spanish or Italian words that the students must recognize when the teacher calls out words in English (or vice-versa).
There really no limits on what teachers can come up with, but the common element required for all these ideas are bingo cards printed with items of the teachers of choice. Here there are really two options. The first option is to prepare the cards by hand – a tedious and potentially time-consuming task. The second option is to use a computer, because, with the help of some bingo card maker software, it’s a surprisingly easy job to print custom bingo cards.
By: Sunil Tanna
