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
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
