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
Most people have played bingo at some point in their lives, but even those of us who have never played the game, generally do know how to play the game.
Traditionally bingo is played using cards containing a grid of squares (usually but not always a grid of 5 X 5 squares), with each square containing a different number. Each player is given one of these bingo cards, and the objective of the game is to mark off a row, column or diagonal of squares (in some versions, the objective is to obtain multiple lines, another square, or even get all squares marked off). Squares on the cards are marked off by the players when the bingo caller (who also acts as referee) calls out the corresponding number.
Bingo has undergone something of a renaissance in popularity in the last few years. While the traditional game remains popular, new variants of bingo are reaching new audiences. In each case, these variants of the game are played using bingo cards containing custom items related to a particular topic, rather than the standard numbered bingo cards.
Some examples include:
- Holiday bingo, using bingo cards with words and phrases themed around a particular holiday be it New Year, Valentine’s Day, July 4th, Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas.
- Wedding and baby shower bingo is a popular activity on these social events. Bingo cards containing items related to brides, weddings, or babies, are used as applicable.
- Educational bingo is getting more and more popular with teachers. Versions of the game can be produced for almost any type of class including English (including K12 and ESL), math, science, history, geography or even religious studies. Game play may also be varied by the teacher, so for example in math bingo, cards containing math problems may be used and students must write in the answers to these problems rather than simply tick off the squares.
In order to play any of these variants of the game, you will of course need bingo cards printed with the appropriate themed items. These are not always easy to obtain for every possible topic, and even when available can be expensive. Therefore the best option for most people is to simply print them using a computer and appropriate bingo card generator software.
By: Sunil Tanna
