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Classroom Bingo

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:01:37 +0000

Most adults are familiar with the game of bingo – we’ve came across the game at some points in our lives. It is true that many us of think of it as a game played in church and community halls in funding raising efforts, or by groups of seniors as a relaxing way of passing the time, but one thing you may not know is that bingo is becoming increasingly popular in education.

Many teachers have come to the conclusion that bingo is well suited to classroom use, because it is easy for students to learn and play, does not require expensive specialist materials, does not make a big mess, and is highly adaptable to teaching different subjects, different lesson plans, and different age groups. When organized by enthusiastic teacher, bingo can indeed be both fun and educational.

As hinted at previously, bingo can be used in a variety of educational environments, including teaching K-12, and for teaching older students. The game can be adapted to almost any subject including English and Reading, English as a Second Language (ESL), Foreign Languages (including Spanish, French, German and Italian), Math, Science, History and more. The main way that the game is adapted to each of these situations is by using custom bingo cards printed with items appropriate to the lesson, and by modifying the game play mechanics. In a K-12 reading class for example, students might just be required to recognize sight words, in a math class the students might be required to write in the answers to math problems into the squares rather than simply cross off squares, and in a foreign language class the bingo cards could be printed in one language but the calss made in another (for example, bingo cards printed with Spanish vocabulary – and students need to match up these words to bingo calls made in English).

By: Sunil Tanna

Bingo Cards Generator

admin — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:37:36 +0000

Most adults are familiar with the game of bingo. Most of us have either played it ourselves, or at least seen it played. For those few people who have not, the rules are simple and easily learned – you are given a bingo card which is printed with a grid of numbers, and cross off squares as the numbers are called out by the bingo caller – the goal is to be the first person to achieve a winning pattern of crossed out squares (the exact definition of the a winning pattern varies depending on the variant of the game being played).

One thing that you may not have considered however is because bingo is so simple, it can be played by children, and with just a few modifications can easily be adapted into a powerful but flexible learning aid. Many teachers have noticed this (not to mention the fact that bingo does not require expensive materials or specialist resources), and thus have introduced variants of the game into their classrooms. Today bingo is being used to teach a variety of K-12 school subjects including English (vocabulary, reading, etc.), math, foreign languages, and even science and history.

In most classroom variants of bingo, the game is played using bingo cards printed with items chosen by teacher. Additionally, game play may be modified somewhat. For example, in a vocabulary version of bingo, the bingo cards contain words that the teacher wants students to learn, the teacher calls out definitions of words rather than the words themselves, and the students must match the definitions to the words. Similar ideas can be used for reading practise, math problems, and foreign languages (calling out words in one language and require students to match printed words in another).

The main requirement for all these educational variants of bingo is the ability for the teacher to give each student a bingo card with items appropriate for the particular lesson. Fortunately this is quite easy – a PC and some bingo cards generator software can print a set of bingo cards containing whatever types of items the teacher wants, in just a few minutes.

By: Sunil Tanna

Reading Bingo

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:07:16 +0000

Bingo is an increasingly popular classroom activity with many teachers. This is because these teachers realize that as well as being a lot of fun for their students, the game is perfectly suited to educational use, including in the K-12 environment. This is because bingo is very easy to learn and play, highly flexible and adaptable to different topics and subjects, and importantly given the financial constraints that many teachers work under, not requiring of specialist expensive resources or materials.

Although bingo can be used in teaching many different subjects and topics, including math and arithmetic, telling the time, or even geography, history or science, one area in which the game is especially popular, is teaching reading. When teaching reading the key aspect of the game is that each student is given a bingo card printed with words (or perhaps phrases), and although (as in standard bingo), the objective remains to be the first player to get a line of five items horizontally, vertically or diagonally, game play can be adapted from simply calling out words (or writing them on the blackboard if the teacher prefers).

1. Sight Words – The teacher simply calls out words, and students must find the corresponding word on their cards. This variant is most popular with so-called “Sight Words” – words that can not be sounded out, but that students must master recognizing in order to achieve reading fluency.

2. Blending Bingo – The teacher says a word very slowly such as “sss-ppp-ooo-ttt” or “mmm-aaa-t” and the students must find the word on the card. The purpose being to help students practice “blending” letters to make words.

3. Partial Word Bingo – The teacher says something like “Find the word with ‘mile’ in it” and the student has to find “Smile”. You can also use beginnings of words (e.g. find the word beginning with “r”), word endings, or sounds in the middle of words.

4. Rhyming Bingo – The teacher says something like “Find the word that rhymes with ‘plot’” and the student has to find “slot”.

5. Silent E Bingo – Ahead of time the teacher prepares bingo cards using pairs of words with and without a silent E, for example “cap” and “cape”, or “hat” and “hate”. You then play normal bingo and students have to learn to recognize the differences between these similar words. A variation is to use only words without the final E, and when playing make bingo calls of the following form “When you add an E, the word would be ‘pine’”, in response to which clue the students needs to find the square containing “pin”.

By: Sunil Tanna

Phonics Bingo

admin — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:32:11 +0000

Phonics is a popular method of teaching children to read that is based around the child learning to connect sounds with letters or groups of letters. For example, the child would learn that the hard “k” sound is associated with the letters “c”, “k” or “ck”. To be fair, using phonics as a method of teaching reading has not been without controversy, particularly in the United States of America, at least since the mid 19th century, and especially since the reemergence of phonics in the 1950s.

Those teachers who do use phonics, generally use them in a variety of different classroom activities, not just when students are reading from books or writing. For example, phonics and phonics-based skills can be incorporated into many different classroom activities and educational games, including, for example, bingo.

Phonics bingo is played like the traditional game of bingo: Each player (student) is given a card containing a five by five grid of squares, and aims to mark of a line of items (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) in response to items called out by the bingo caller (teacher). The different however between phonics bingo and traditional bingo, is that the cards, instead of being printed with numbers, are printed with words appropriate to the subject of the lesson. Additionally, game play may be modified in a variety of different ways.

Some ideas for phonetics bingo include:

1. Partial word bingo – The teacher says something like “find the word with ‘pin’ in it”, in response to which the students would have to find “spin”.

2. Blending bingo – The teacher reads out a word slowly, for example “sss-nnn-aaa-p”, and the students must find the corresponding word.

3. Rhyming bingo – The teacher reads out a word, and students need to find the word that rhymes with it.

4. Silent E bingo – The teacher reads out a word like “pin” and asks what what word you would get by adding an E.

It should also be remembered that phonics is not a complete solution to learning reading. Students must also learn to recognize some common words which can not be sounded out (the most common list of such words is known as Dolch Sight Words). Many teachers also emphasize learning to sight read other common words (such as “is” or “it”) as this can improve reading fluency. Therefore as well as playing phonics bingo, you can also play sight word bingo in class.

By: Sunil Tanna

Bingo Card Software

admin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:50:01 +0000

Most people are familiar with the game of bingo. Many of us probably think of it as a child’s game, or perhaps as a game played by older people at social events. However what many people are not aware of is that variations on the game of bingo have proven useful in an educational environment, and many teachers have found ways to make use of the game in their classrooms.

To recap the idea of the game that each player is given a card containing a grid of squares, and each square traditional contains a number. The umpire or bingo caller then calls out the number in a random order, and players have to check squares off their cards as the corresponding numbers are called out. The goal of the game is to be the first player to shout “Bingo!” or “House!” on achieving a win number of checked off squares (the winning criteria can be varied and need to be agreed before starting to play – typically, achieving a line or lines of consecutive checked off items is the criteria).

When using the game in the classroom, the game mechanics are, broadly speaking, unchanged (the teacher acts as the bingo caller, and the students are the players). However, what is changed is the items on the cards. Instead of using the bingo cards simply with numbers, they can be printed with words, phrases, mathematical puzzles or even musical symbols. The teacher can also vary the game play by instead of calling out the items on the cards, calling out clues that lead to the items – for example, in a French class, the teacher might call out words in English, and students have to find the corresponding French word printed on their bingo card.

Of course, applying bingo in a classroom in this way will require special bingo cards containing items of the teachers choice. This might sound daunting to any teachers considering the idea – preparing a lot of bingo cards by hand, or even with a word processor, could be a lot of work. Fortunately there is an easy solution – specialist bingo card software that can be used to print the cards – simply enter a list of items to appear on the cards, and the software can print as many bingo cards as you want.

By: Sunil Tanna

Reading Bingo Cards

admin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:02:25 +0000

Educational bingo is increasingly popular as a classroom activity as more and more teachers are realizing that the game can easily be adapted to a variety of different lesson plans. Apart from the simple fact that students of all ages can enjoy the game, there are many other reasons by bingo is growing in popularity, not least the fact that it’s very inexpensive to play (important given the constraints that today’s teachers work under), but also the facts that game play mechanics can be modified to teaching pretty much any subject to any age range of students.

Bingo can play a role in teaching many different subjects, including math (the squares on bingo cards can be printed with math problems for which students must write in the answers rather than simply marking off squares), telling the time, geography, history, science, foreign languages, and yes, reading. In fact, bingo particularly excels in reading classes, and it is here that the game is most commonly encountered in schools.

In reading bingo, the game is played using the same basic game play mechanics as traditional bingo – the player’s (student’s) objective is to find a line of five matching items vertically, horizontally or diagonally as the items are announced by the bingo caller (teacher), however the bingo cards are printed with words instead of the usual numbers. These words can be sight words (words that students must learn to immediately recognize in order to achieve reading fluency), words that students are in the process of practicing this week, or they can be chosen specially in order to practice a variety of phonics games. Some examples of phonics games, include the teacher asking students to find rhymes, find a longer word that contains a shorter word or sound, find a word that the teacher reads out slowly (e.g. “fff-lll-aaa-p”) so that students must practice “blending” letters, and so on.

By: Sunil Tanna

Bible Bingo

admin — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 12:29:00 +0000

Most people are familiar with the game of bingo – it’s a wonderful game that can be enjoyed by young and old, and is very popular with church and community groups. But did you know that bingo can also be important educational tool? An increasing number of teachers, have found that bingo is ideal for classroom use. This is because the game is easy to learn, highly adaptable, doesn’t require expensive materials, and most important, is a lot fun.

In the traditional game of bingo, players are of course each given a card containing a 5 by 5 grid of numbers, and check off squares on their cards when the bingo caller calls out the corresponding number. Depending on which version of the rules you prefer, the objective is for a player either to get a line of five items checked off, or to check off every item on their card. The winner of the game is the first person who checks off their items and shouts out “Bingo!”

In educational variants, the basic game is exactly the same, but there are usually some differences in detail. The first and most important modification is that instead of using bingo cards containing numbers, you use bingo cards containing whatever is the subject of the lesson. If the subject was English, you might use words from the spelling test, if the subject was geography you might use names of countries, states or cities, and in a religious or bible study class, you would use items related to theme of the class, for example, books of the Old or New Testament, names of the people in biblical stories, saints’ names, etc. And, don’t forget, you can also play themed versions of bingo to celebrate particular times of year like Christmas or Easter too!

As well as changing the bingo cards, some teachers also like to vary the game play. If you want to make the game into a kind of test, you can require the person claiming “Bingo!” to describe each of the items that they have marked off on their bingo cards – in other words, they can’t claim (for example) “Noah” as part of their winning line, unless they know a little bit of Noah’s story (including of course his building of the ark). Alternatively, if you prefer not to make the game into a test, you could for example have a class discussion after item is called out, or ask for a volunteer to explain the particular bible story or character, etc. Really, your imagination is the limit.

Of course, in order to play these variants of bingo, you will need specially themed bingo cards. In the bad old days, you would have to had to send off for them to a specialist publisher – which could be kind of expensive, even for just one set of bingo cards. Modern technology has however made this part much easier – you can simply print the bingo cards from your computer: Easy-to-use and affordable bingo card maker software makes it straightforward to print bingo cards on any theme that you like, in unlimited quantities.

By: Sunil Tanna

Bingo Cards Printables for Teaching Spanish

admin — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:33:18 +0000

Most people are familiar with the game of bingo, it’s one of those games that pretty much everybody knows how to play. Of course, most of us think of bingo as leisure activity, but modified versions of the game are increasingly popular with teachers as an educational activity.

There are many reasons why teachers are adapting bingo to classroom use. Apart from being very easy to learn, some of the reasons why bingo is so popular in education is that game play can easily be modified to match a variety of educational situations, and, given the financial limitations which most teachers work under, the fact that no specialist or expensive materials are required to play bingo.

Bingo is an especially popular activity with teachers of foreign languages, including, of course, Spanish. There are many different ways in which the game can be utilized in Spanish class.

Here are some ideas for how Spanish teachers could use the game in their classes (in each case the teacher should act as the bingo caller):

1. Use bingo cards with numbers (as digits) printed in each square (e.g. “4″, “23″ and “57″), but the teacher calls out the numbers in the Spanish (e.g. “cuatro”, “veinte tres”, or “cincuenta siete”). This style of playing is a wonderful way for students to practise their Spanish numbers.

2. You could play use bingo cards printed with letters of the alphabets, times or dates. As with the previous variant, all game play should be conducted in Spanish.

3. You could practice Spanish vocabulary – use bingo cards containing English words, but all bingo cards are made in Spanish.

4. You could also practice English to Spanish translation – for this variant of the game, you should use cards printed with Spanish words, and the teacher makes the calls in English.

As you can see, for most variants of the game, you will need special bingo cards containing things other than the usual numbers. You’re probably wondering how to obtain such cards – but the good thing is that you don’t need to buy them – you can simply print your own bingo cards from your computer. This is easier than you might think – you can download ready-to-use free bingo printables from the Internet, or simply buy some affordable software for printing bingo cards. If you decide to get bingo card printing software, this has the advantage that you will be able to print bingo cards whenever you want, containing whatever customized items you want, in effectively unlimited quantities.

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

Create Your Own Bingo Cards

admin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 04:35:05 +0000

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