Division is often the last of the basic arithmetic operations that students learn. Of course, when students first starting to doing divisions, they will begin with very simple problems such as dividing 4 by 2, dividing 6 by 3, or dividing 8 by 4. The next stage is to learn how to divide multi-digit numbers by a single digit one, and only after mastering this can students advance to long division (dividing one multi-digit number by another). Good and patient teaching is of course essential for students to progress, but by itself it is not enough: students also need plenty of practice at performing divisions.
It would probably be fair to say that in days gone by, some math teachers were not too concerned about finding fun and interesting classroom activities for their students – as long as students practised their sums, the teacher would be satisfied. Teaching methods have fortunately moved on since those days. Today’s teachers know that students who are engaged with their class tend to learn better, and hence interesting classroom activities and educational games are becoming increasingly popular. One such educational game that has become increasingly popular in recent years, is bingo.
It turns out that bingo is ideally suited for use in math class: it’s adaptable to a wide variety of classroom situations and styles of play, it’s incredibly easy for students to play (but still enjoyable), and importantly given the financial constraints that teachers often work under, it doesn’t require expensive materials or resources. The mechanics of the game in educational versions of bingo are basically the same as in normal bingo, but there is one key difference: instead of using bingo cards containing numbers, items relating to the topic of the lesson are used instead. So, obviously in a math class, math problems such as long divisions would be used. Students are then required to write in the answers to these questions, rather than simply mark items off their cards.
So what if you’re a teacher, and you’d like to try bingo out with your students? Well obviously you’ll need some suitable printed bingo cards – but where do you get them? Actually it’s very easy – you can print them yourself using your computer: download some bingo card creator software, and it’s a snap to print as many bingo cards as you want, on any subject at all.
By: Sunil Tanna
Most of us know how to play the game of bingo. Thus, the way to play bingo is probably may already be familiar, but if not, here is a quick recap:
1. Each player is a bingo worksheet (also known as a “bingo card” or “bingo board”).
2. The bingo worksheet contains a grid of squares. Each square usually contains a different number
3. The bingo caller calls out the items printed on the worksheets in a random order.
4. As items are called out, the players cross items off their worksheets. The winner is the first player to achieve a winning pattern of crossed out items on their worksheet (in different versions of the game, different winning patterns may be used).
Although of course the standard game of bingo is well-known by many people, and played by many as a leisure activity, what is not so widely known is that modified versions of bingo can be of great use in education. In fact, bingo is becoming increasingly common in classrooms, and can be used as a teaching aid in a number of K-12 subjects including reading, vocabulary, math, foreign languages and even science and history, as well as in adult education, in for example English as a Second Language (ESL) classes.
The common element in most educational versions of bingo is the use of modified bingo worksheets. Instead of the standard worksheets that contain numbers, the teacher creates, ahead of class, worksheets that contain items chosen for the lesson. In the math class, the items might still be numbers, but the numbers are the answers to problems called out by the teacher. In a language class, the worksheets might be printed with Spanish or French words, which the students must match to calls made in English by the teacher. Really there are almost endless possible variations, and innovative teachers are inventing new ones all the time.
You might think that this is all very well, but where can the special customized bingo worksheets be obtained. Obviously, it would not be a good use of a busy teacher’s time to spent a lot of time manually preparing a worksheet for each student. Fortunately, there is an answer – a PC and some bingo worksheet creator software can make light work of printing worksheets on any theme that the teacher chooses.
By: Sunil Tanna
