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
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
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
