Most people are familiar with the game of bingo, although, to be fair, many of us think of it only as a kids game or a game played by seniors at social events. While I wouldn’t want to deny that the game is played in these situations, bingo can be a lot of fun for people of all ages, and has also found use in classrooms as an educational tool.
The basic idea of bingo is that each player is given a bingo card. The card contains squares, within in each of which, is a randomly selected number. A bingo caller reads out numbers in a random order, and players mark off the corresponding squares on their cards. The objective of the game is to be the first player to achieve a winning combination of marked off squares – depending on the particular variant of bingo being played, this may for example be one or more straight lines going all the way across the bingo card.
One of the reasons why bingo can be adapted to different situations is that you don’t have to play using cards with numbers. Instead of numbers, bingo cards could be printed with words, phrases or even musical symbols. Thus the game can be adapted to different holiday themes such as Christmas, July 4th, New Year, or Halloween, to social events such as baby showers or wedding showers, to the classroom, by using bingo cards containing items chosen by the teacher, whether it be math problems (that the student must solve in order to mark them off), music symbols (that students must recognize), or even foreign language words (that students must translate).
To play a variant of bingo you will of course need to have special bingo cards with the items of your choice. You can create these by hand if you want to, but if you need a lot of bingo cards, it can be a lot of work. An easy solution is to use your computer – with the help of appropriate bingo card creator software, you just need to enter the list of words, phrases or items that you want, and the computer can generate the bingo cards for you with just a few mouse clicks.
By: Sunil Tanna
There are a lot of people out there who enjoy playing bingo. It’s true that the game is very simple to learn and play, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not fun! In fact, the ease of game play is one of the attractions of the game – you don’t need to learn complicated rules – you can just sit down and start playing. What’s more, somebody new to bingo can be introduced to the game, learn the game mechanics, and join in, with a few minutes.
As you know, bingo is traditionally played using bingo cards contain a grid of squares (usually 5 by 5 squares), with each of these squares containing a number. Players cross out squares on their cards when the corresponding number is announced by the bingo caller. Today however, since it is easy to make custom bingo cards with your computer, themed versions of bingo, with the squares containing words or phrases, are increasingly popular.
Our calendars are filled with holidays and special days, both religious and secular, and these days present a perfect opportunity to play bingo. Whether it be Christmas, July 4th, Halloween or President’s Day, you can easily adapt bingo to the occasion – simply by using bingo cards containing words or phrases relating to your chosen holiday theme.
Although bingo remains a popular leisure activity, it is also finding serious use in education, including K-12 and English as Second Language (”ESL”). Basic skills such as reading and recognizing words (especially “Sight Words”) can be practiced, and more sophisticated variations of the game can be used for more advanced students.
By: Sunil Tanna
At some point in their lives, most people have played the game of bingo, but even those who haven’t probably do know how to play the game. Even if you don’t know however, it’s very easy to learn!
1. One person acts as the bingo caller and referee.
2. The other participants are all players.
3. Each of the players is given a bingo card containing a grid of squares, each square containing a number.
4. The bingo caller calls out numbers in a random order, and the players mark off any square on their cards which matches the number.
5. When a player gets a complete line across his card (vertical, horizontal or diagonal), he calls out “Bingo!”. The first player to call bingo is the winner.
6. If you prefer a longer game, instead of a single winning line you can require two or more complete lines, or even players to mark off every single item on their bingo card.
So far so good – you’re probably already familiar with all the above. Today however, variations on the standard game, most frequently using bingo cards containing customized items based around a particular theme (instead of numbers), are growing in popularity.
Some examples include:
- Bingo has become very popular with teachers. This is because it can be adapted to almost any lesson or subject, and thus become a fun as well as educational classroom activity.
- Holiday bingo is played using cards relating to a particular holiday. For example a Christmas-themed game would be played using cards containing words like “angel”, Bethlehem or “shepherds”. Of course there are many other holidays around the year which can be used to inspire specially themed bingo games, including New Year, Valentine’s Day, July 4th, and Halloween.
- Wedding and baby shower bingo are also growing in popularity. As you might expect, these variants are played using words relating to weddings or babies.
If you fancy playing any of these versions of bingo, you will of course need bingo cards relating to your chosen theme. While it may be possible to obtain preprinted cards for certain (not all!) themes from a specialist publisher, the cheapest and most flexible option is almost certainly to print them yourself using your computer. If you use some bingo card creator software, you can simply put in a list of the possible items, and the software will generate as many different cards as you want.
By: Sunil Tanna
