Most people are familiar with the game of bingo. The idea of the game is simple: each player is given a bingo worksheet (or “bingo card” or “bingo board”) containing a grid of squares (each square usually contains a different number), and the goal is to cross out numbers as they are called out by the bingo caller, hopefully being the first to achieve a winning pattern or line (what is considered a winning pattern may vary depending on the rules being used).
One thing that you may not know however is that there are many variations on the basic game of bingo, and these have been applied for a variety of educational purposes. Bingo is in fact an excellent tool that can be used to help teaching reading, vocabulary, math, science and many other K-12 subjects, and also is of use in teaching English as Second Language (”ESL”).
The common theme in most educational variants of bingo is a requirement for custom bingo worksheets. This is because the bingo worksheets are printed with items chosen by the teacher and specific to the particular subject in question. For example, in a game of math bingo, the worksheets might be printed with numbers that are the answers to math problems called out by the teacher, in a game of foreign language bingo, the bingo worksheets might be printed out with French or Spanish words (the teacher makes the bingo calls in English), and so on. You might assume that creating custom bingo cards for every student in a class is a lot of time-consuming preparation work for teachers, but you would be wrong – it’s actually very easy to print custom bingo cards with the help from a computer and some bingo worksheets generator software.
By: Sunil Tanna
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
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
