Bingo is a popular and easy to learn game that is widely played around the world. Most people of course play the game for social reasons, but the game is increasingly being applied and adapted to educational uses, particularly in schools.
The main reasons why bingo is being used in this way is that it is fun, has simple game mechanics, can be easily be adapted in multiple ways, and does not require expensive materials, specialist equipment, or unusual resources that are out of reach to most educators.
In some situations, for example, for students learning English as a foreign language (EFL), simply playing the game can be an educational experience in itself. In EFL class, simply explaining and learning how to play the game, in English, can be a challenge for students.
More commonly however, teachers adapt the game to their classes and the particular subject they are teaching. For example, in a math class, the bingo squares might be printed with math problems instead of numbers, and students are required to solve the problems in squares rather than simply mark off squares. In a language learning class, the squares on the bingo cards might be printed with Spanish, French, German or Italian words (instead of numbers), and the students would be required to find the matching squares when the teacher calls out words in English.
The common element to many educational versions of bingo is the use of customized bingo cards – that is to say bingo cards printed with items of the teacher’s choice whether they be Spanish words, math problems, or anything else. Creating such bingo cards would be a tedious and time consuming task, but with the help of a computer and bingo card maker software is a breeze – simply enter a list of items that can appear on the bingo cards and the computer can easily print as many cards as you want.
By: Sunil Tanna
Most people think of bingo as a purely social or leisure activity, but nowadays variants of the game are also being used for serious educational purposes. Many K-12 teachers have introduced bingo into their lessons, and are using the game to assist them in teaching a wide variety of different subjects including English, foreign languages and math.
In educational variants of bingo, the teacher plays the part of the bingo caller, and the students are each given a bingo card (although you can also put students into groups if you want). Generally speaking, the educational versions of bingo are played according to roughly the same rules as the standard game, although in some cases it may be necessary to tweak the game mechanics somewhat. What does change however, is that special bingo cards are used – these contain items selected by the teacher and prepared in advance of class (this doesn’t have to be a big job, as with the help of a computer and some bingo card maker software, it’s easy to print as many custom bingo cards as you want).
Here are some ideas for using bingo in lessons:
* Bingo can be used to help teach reading an English. Bingo cards might be printed with letters or words, and students might be required to find the letter that begins the teacher’s bingo call (phonemic awareness bingo), that is the sight word read out by the teacher (sight word bingo), that matches a definition given by the teacher (vocabulary bingo), or matches a part of speech clue given by the teacher, such as “an adjective beginning with P” (parts of speech bingo).
* Bingo can be used to help teach math. In this case the bingo cards can be printed with numbers (although generally not the usual bingo numbers) or with math problems. In the latter case, students must not only check off squares on their bingo cards, must write in the correct answer to each square. Some math topics that could be covered in this way include addition, subtraction, multiplication and division (for example, “find the square that contains six times five”), fractions and decimals (”find the square containing three quarters” in response to which students need to locate the square containing “0.75″, etc.), and rounding (”find the square containing two point eight rounded to the nearest whole number”).
* In French, German, Spanish and other language classes, bingo cards can be printed with words chosen from that language, which students must match up to English words read out by the teacher. You can also do this the other way round, so students must English words to foreign language bingo calls made by the teacher. Or, in the case of more advanced students, why not try simply playing the whole game in the particular foreign language?
* The idea of the teacher giving clues as bingo calls and students being required to find matches can also be applied to teaching key facts in other subjects whether that be history, geography or science. The only limit really is the teacher’s imagination.
By: Sunil Tanna
Many of us, perhaps most of adults, have played bingo at one point or another in their lives. Maybe only once or twice, but nevertheless we know the rules – get a bingo card, check off items from your card as they are called out, and try to be the first person to shout out “Bingo!” if you achieve the winning pattern (a line of five items in any direction in most variants of the game, but sometimes other shapes or patterns may be used).
One thing that you may not have thought about, is how bingo cards are created. This is because, for most us, when we played the game, we were simply given a bingo card that was already printed with numbers, and creating a unique bingo card for each player was simply somebody else’s problem.
Today, you will find however that themed versions of bingo are growing in popularity. At Christmas, on July 4th, Halloween, Easter and other holidays, many people like to organize games based around the particular holiday in question. In this case, the bingo cards are in fact printed with words or phrases relating to the particular holiday. Similarly, more and more teachers are now using bingo as a classroom activity in a diverse range of subjects including K-12 Reading lessons, ESL (English as a Second Language), math, science, foreign languages and more – and in this case, bingo cards containing items appropriate for the particular lesson are used.
So how are these custom bingo cards prepared? One possibility is of course to do so manually – a person could prepare bingo cards using pen and paper, or even a word processor, but it would be a very time consuming process. The main alternative is to instead using special bingo card maker software – you enter a list of possible items, specify how many cards you want, click a button and you’re done.
By: Sunil Tanna
