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
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
