Teachers are always on the look out for fun, interesting and engaging classroom activities. Classroom games, obviously providing they have sufficient educational content are particularly welcome. This desire for interesting classroom activities extends to teachers of all subjects, including teachers of modern languages such as Italian.
One such activity that an increasing number of teachers are turning to is bingo. The reasons for this include the facts that bingo can easily be adapted to teaching different subjects, is very easy to learn and play, and that the game does not include any expensive or specialist materials.
There are many ways that bingo can be adapted to teaching Italian, here are a few possibilities:
1. You could play bingo using numbered cards (e.g. squares contain “5″, “34″ and “66″), but the teacher calls out numbers in Italian (e.g. “cinque”, “trenta quattro”, and “sessanta sei”). This type of game offers an excellent opportunity for students to practice their Italian numbers.
2. Instead of playing with cards containing numbers, you could play using cards containing times, dates, or letters of the alphabet. As with the previous type of game, you play Italian.
3. You could play with vocabulary. In this type of game you can use bingo cards either containing English or Italian words, but all calls are made in the other language.
In order to play these types of bingo there is really just one thing you need: bingo cards containing the appropriate item. At this point many teachers would probably start to worry about the cost of being specialist printed materials – however there is no need to worry – teachers can simply print the cards themselves using their computers. Teachers can download get ready-to-use free bingo printables from the Internet on a variety of topics, or alternatively can purchase affordable computer software for printing bingo cards which allows them to print cards containing any combination of items that they want in effectively unlimited quantities.
By: Sunil Tanna
Most people are familiar, or failing that at least aware of, the game of bingo. We’ve probably either played the game ourselves, or seen others play the game. What many people do not know however is that the game of bingo, with only a few minor modifications, can be adapted for educational use, and has been introduced by many teachers into their classrooms.
As you are no doubt aware, the traditional game of bingo is played using bingo cards printed with squares, each square containing a different number. Players mark off squares from their cards as numbers are called out, and the winner being the first player to achieve a winning pattern (the required pattern may vary depending on the variant of rules being used, but is typical one or more lines of marked off squares across the card).
Educational games of bingo are basically played in the same way, with the teacher acting as bingo caller, but instead of being printed with numbers, the bingo cards are often printed with items specially chosen by the teacher, for example:
* In a game of math bingo, the squares on the bingo cards may be printed with mathematical problems, and students must mark off squares by writing in the correct answers.
* In a game of foreign language bingo, the squares of the bingo cards may be printed with French, German, Spanish or Italian words that the students must recognize when the teacher calls out words in English (or vice-versa).
There really no limits on what teachers can come up with, but the common element required for all these ideas are bingo cards printed with items of the teachers of choice. Here there are really two options. The first option is to prepare the cards by hand – a tedious and potentially time-consuming task. The second option is to use a computer, because, with the help of some bingo card maker software, it’s a surprisingly easy job to print custom bingo cards.
By: Sunil Tanna
