Bingo Online » Educational Versions

Long Division Bingo

admin — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:36:23 +0000

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

Bingo Cards For Education

admin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:53:09 +0000

Bingo is a popular and easy to learn game that is widely played around the world. Most people of course play the game for social reasons, but the game is increasingly being applied and adapted to educational uses, particularly in schools.

The main reasons why bingo is being used in this way is that it is fun, has simple game mechanics, can be easily be adapted in multiple ways, and does not require expensive materials, specialist equipment, or unusual resources that are out of reach to most educators.

In some situations, for example, for students learning English as a foreign language (EFL), simply playing the game can be an educational experience in itself. In EFL class, simply explaining and learning how to play the game, in English, can be a challenge for students.

More commonly however, teachers adapt the game to their classes and the particular subject they are teaching. For example, in a math class, the bingo squares might be printed with math problems instead of numbers, and students are required to solve the problems in squares rather than simply mark off squares. In a language learning class, the squares on the bingo cards might be printed with Spanish, French, German or Italian words (instead of numbers), and the students would be required to find the matching squares when the teacher calls out words in English.

The common element to many educational versions of bingo is the use of customized bingo cards – that is to say bingo cards printed with items of the teacher’s choice whether they be Spanish words, math problems, or anything else. Creating such bingo cards would be a tedious and time consuming task, but with the help of a computer and bingo card maker software is a breeze – simply enter a list of items that can appear on the bingo cards and the computer can easily print as many cards as you want.

By: Sunil Tanna

Bingo Worksheet Creator

admin — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:30:40 +0000

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

Bingo Cards For the Classroom

admin — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:27:23 +0000

Most people are familiar with the game of bingo and how to play it. It may be that we have played the game at some point in our lives ourselves, or it may be that we have simply seen others play it and learnt that way – the rules are that easy to pick-up. One thing however that many people are not aware of, is that bingo can be adapted for use in schools and education, and these modified variants of the game, can be useful classroom tool.

The beauty of bingo in the classroom is that it provides an interesting and stimulating activity for students, but can easily be adapted for teaching almost any subject, whether that be reading, English, math, a foreign language such as French, German, Italian or Spanish, or almost anything else.

Although in some cases it may be necessary for the teacher to vary the rules of the game slightly, the main change in educational versions of bingo is the content of the bingo cards. In the traditional game of bingo, the bingo cards are printed with numbers, however in classroom versions of the game, the cards are instead printed with items of the teachers choice – these can be words, phrases, math problems or anything else that the teacher chooses.

Using these custom bingo cards, the game is then played. In an introductory level reading class, students may simply be required to find the matching item when a word is called out by the teacher. However, in a math class, the students may be required to correctly solve the problems in a square in order to mark it off, and in a language class, the cards might be printed with words in French or Spanish, and the students might be required to find the matching word when the teacher makes bingo calls in English.

By: Sunil Tanna

Fractions Bingo Cards

admin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:27:45 +0000

Today’s teachers are no longer satisfied with rote learning and boring classroom activities. As a result, fun, engaging and challenging educational activities are very much in demand, and one such activity that has become extremely popular in recent years is bingo. This is because bingo is ideally suited to educational environments – apart from being enjoyable, it’s very easy to play, it’s extremely flexible and adaptable, and it doesn’t require lots of expensive materials or specialist resources.

The traditional version of bingo is played using bingo cards containing a 5 X 5 array of numbers. Each players goal is to try to get a line (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) of items marked off their card – they mark off items as they are called out by the bingo caller. Educational versions of bingo use broadly the same rules (although teachers may of course vary the rules if they wish), but the bingo cards are instead printed with items specific to the particular subject or lesson – for example, place names in a geography class, historical figures in a history class, authors or book titles in an English literature class, and so on.

While it is true that bingo is can be used in many different subjects, one subject where it has proven especially popular with teachers is math. Usually math teachers will use bingo cards containing math problems, and ask the students to write in answers to these questions (as the questions are called out), but that isn’t the only way to play. You could use bingo cards containing numbers which serve as the solutions to various math questions – when the teacher calls out a math question, students must mark off the square containing the solution. Another idea when teaching fractions and/or decimals is to have cards containing the same number written in different ways – when a teach calls out “a half”, students may tick off a square containing 0.5, 2/4, 3/6, 4/8 or any other other representation of a half, regardless of format or base.

If you’re a teacher and want to use bingo in your classes, then obviously you’ll need to get the appropriate bingo cards. There are specialist publisher who offer preprinted materials, but these are sometimes expensive and also limit your choice of items and themes to those chosen by the publisher. It would be a lot more flexible if you could print the cards yourself – and installing some bingo card maker software on your PC will allow you to do exactly that.

By: Sunil Tanna

Bingo Lesson Plans For Teachers

admin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:02:45 +0000

Most people think of bingo as a purely social or leisure activity, but nowadays variants of the game are also being used for serious educational purposes. Many K-12 teachers have introduced bingo into their lessons, and are using the game to assist them in teaching a wide variety of different subjects including English, foreign languages and math.

In educational variants of bingo, the teacher plays the part of the bingo caller, and the students are each given a bingo card (although you can also put students into groups if you want). Generally speaking, the educational versions of bingo are played according to roughly the same rules as the standard game, although in some cases it may be necessary to tweak the game mechanics somewhat. What does change however, is that special bingo cards are used – these contain items selected by the teacher and prepared in advance of class (this doesn’t have to be a big job, as with the help of a computer and some bingo card maker software, it’s easy to print as many custom bingo cards as you want).

Here are some ideas for using bingo in lessons:

* Bingo can be used to help teach reading an English. Bingo cards might be printed with letters or words, and students might be required to find the letter that begins the teacher’s bingo call (phonemic awareness bingo), that is the sight word read out by the teacher (sight word bingo), that matches a definition given by the teacher (vocabulary bingo), or matches a part of speech clue given by the teacher, such as “an adjective beginning with P” (parts of speech bingo).

* Bingo can be used to help teach math. In this case the bingo cards can be printed with numbers (although generally not the usual bingo numbers) or with math problems. In the latter case, students must not only check off squares on their bingo cards, must write in the correct answer to each square. Some math topics that could be covered in this way include addition, subtraction, multiplication and division (for example, “find the square that contains six times five”), fractions and decimals (”find the square containing three quarters” in response to which students need to locate the square containing “0.75″, etc.), and rounding (”find the square containing two point eight rounded to the nearest whole number”).

* In French, German, Spanish and other language classes, bingo cards can be printed with words chosen from that language, which students must match up to English words read out by the teacher. You can also do this the other way round, so students must English words to foreign language bingo calls made by the teacher. Or, in the case of more advanced students, why not try simply playing the whole game in the particular foreign language?

* The idea of the teacher giving clues as bingo calls and students being required to find matches can also be applied to teaching key facts in other subjects whether that be history, geography or science. The only limit really is the teacher’s imagination.

By: Sunil Tanna

Fraction Bingo

admin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 23:39:30 +0000

Bingo is an increasingly popular activity with teachers looking for interesting, challenging, and fun activities to use as teaching aids in their classrooms. There are many reasons why this is happening, but underlying all of them is the fact that teachers are recognizing the suitability of bingo to educational environments. For example, teachers know that bingo is not only easy for students to learn (and fun for them to play), but they also can see the game can be easily adapted to different subjects or lesson plans, and that it can be played using ordinary inexpensive materials.

Pretty much all educational variants of bingo are played using special custom bingo cards. These cards are printed with items specific to the subject of the lesson being taught, rather than the usual numbers, so for example, in an English class, the items might be words that students are learning to read, in a science class, the items might be names of chemicals or elements, and in a geography class, the items might be names of cities, states or countries.

Bingo is particularly suitable for use in math classes; this is because there are a variety of ways to play the game. For example, the bingo cards might be printed with math problems, and students must write in the (correct) answers rather than simply mark items from their cards. Or the cards might contain numbers, and when the teacher calls out a problem, the student must find the corresponding number. Or when teaching fractions, the same number might be presented in different ways (e.g. 3/6 versus 2/4 versus 1/2), and students might be required to solve this type of conversion problem in order to get an item marked off their card.

For all the different educational versions of bingo, the main thing that teachers need is suitable bingo cards. The best way to get them is to print them from your computer – get some bingo card generator software, and it becomes very easy to generate as many as you want. This is much better and cheaper than buying preprinted bingo cards, because you can use the software again and again, and you can also customize the cards’ content to your heart’s content.

By: Sunil Tanna

Fractions Bingo

admin — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 23:24:31 +0000

Educational versions of bingo are growing in popularity with teachers. More and more educators are using the game as a teaching tool during their lessons. There are numerous reasons for this, but they include the facts that bingo is easy to adapt to different lesson types and subjects, that the game is very simple to learn (many students probably already know how to play), and given the financial restrictions that most teachers work under – bingo card be played using affordable materials and classroom supplies.

One of the main ways that bingo can be adapted to different subjects is by using special subject-specific bingo cards. As you probably know, traditional bingo cards simply contain a grid of squares, each square containing a different number. Educational versions of bingo use cards containing a grid of squares, however the squares contain items specific to the subject or lesson, such as the names of cities, mountains or rivers in a geography class, the names of historical figures in a history class, etc.

Bingo can be used in many different subjects, but is especially suitable for math. Teachers can prepare bingo cards containing either questions or answers, and then vary game playing accordingly. If questions are used, students must write in the answers when the question is called. If answers are used, the teacher calls out questions, and students must mark off the particular square that answers the question.

Bingo can be used in almost any math class, but is particularly popular for practice at arithmetic, and especially multiplication tables (”times tables”). Many math teachers also find the game a useful tool for practising fractions and decimals – in this case as well as solving problems, students may be required to do base conversion (when the teacher calls out “a quarter”, the student must mark off squares contain 1/4, 2/8 or 0.25).

In order to play any of these variants of bingo, you will of course need the appropriate custom bingo cards. While it is possible to order preprinted cards for many subjects, they can get kind of expensive. A better alternative is to get some bingo card maker software and make the bingo cards using your PC. Appropriate software will allow you to print bingo cards containing anything you want, and with no limit as to the quantity.

By: Sunil Tanna

Bingo Cards in Education

admin — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 19:18:01 +0000

Most of us, are, I think, familiar with the game of bingo. Pretty much everyone knows how to play, even those people who are not dedicated bingo enthusiasts. Something that is less well known, is that modified versions of bingo are nowadays being used in many classrooms to help teach a diverse range of subjects.

One of the biggest challenges facing today’s teachers is how to engage with their students and sustain their interest. The fact that bingo is an enjoyable game can perhaps be of some help. Furthermore, the game play mechanics can easily be adapted or modified by the teacher, depending on the particular subject being taught. Finally, the fact that bingo does not require a large investment in expensive materials or specialist resources is of course important given the financial constraints that most teachers work under.

The most common way to adapt bingo to classroom use, is by varying the contents of the bingo cards. In the standard game of bingo, the cards are generally printed with numbers, however in educational versions of the game the bingo cards are printed with words, phrases, or even math problems of the teacher’s choice. Additionally, game play mechanics may be varied: in an introductory reading class, students may simply be required to simply locate words printed on their cards, but in a language class they may be required to find a French or Spanish word when the teacher says the English equivalent, and in a math class, the students might be required to solve the math problems on their cards as they are called out.

By: Sunil Tanna

Fraction Bingo Cards

admin — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 00:35:38 +0000

Good teachers are always on the look-out for engaging, interesting and fun educational activities to use in their classes. One such activity that is growing in popularity, is bingo. The reasons for this, are that bingo is very easy to learn and play, adaptable to almost any type of lesson, subject or student age group, and is not requiring of expensive specialist materials. In short, it’s an ideal game for use in schools, colleges and other educational situations.

When bingo is played as an educational game, one of the main differences from traditional bingo is that a different style of bingo cards are used. In traditional bingo, bingo cards containing a 5 X 5 grid of numbers are used. However, in educational versions of bingo, each item on the grid is an item specific to the subject being taught – for example the name of a country, city, mountain or river in a geography class, or the names of different plants or animals in a biology class, and so on. Bingo is suitable for use in a range of subjects across the entire curriculum, but is a particular favorite among math teachers. The most common way to play the game is to use bingo cards containing math questions – students must write in the answers to questions that come up, rather than simply tick off squares, but there are other variations too. Another idea is to use bingo cards containing numbers, and in this case, the teacher calls out math problems (or writes them on the blackboard), and the students must mark off the number which is the solution to the problem.

There’s no limit on the kinds of math classes which bingo can be used for. It’s probably fair to say that it’s most popular as a tool for encouraging practice of basic arithmetic, especially multiplication and multiplication tables. That’s not bingo’s only use though! Another popular activity is bingo using fractions or decimals – in this version students may be required to convert between different representations of the same number (e.g. marking off any of 1/2, 2/4, 3/6, 4/8, or 0.5, if the teacher calls “a half”).

To play fraction bingo, or in fact any other educational version of bingo, you will of course need the appropriate special bingo cards. Once upon a time, it wasn’t possible to get cards customized to your exact requirements, and the closest thing was preprinted cards from a specialist publisher (which were also often quite expensive). Today however you can simply print bingo cards using your computer – download some bingo card creator software, and it’s a simple job to printed as many cards as you want, whenever you want.

By: Sunil Tanna