Arithmetic is the oldest and simplest branch of mathematics. It also the first branch of mathematics which students encounter, beginning with counting, and then graduating to simple calculations such as adding, subtracting, multiplication and division. Eventually of course, students will encounter other branches of mathematics, such as geometry, trigonometry and algebra, but nevertheless understanding arithmetic continues to be an essential skill. After all, arithmetic is an essential foundation not only for other branches of mathematics, but also numerous areas of everyday life, including business, science and technology.
Like so many other things in life, practice makes perfect in math – the more math and arithmetic that students do, the better they get. While practice can certainly help many students, the other side of the coin is that excessive repetition can soon get boring – and bored students do not learn very well. Good teachers are however very well aware that new styles of presentation, interesting activities, and educational games, can all be used to provide some variation in classroom routines, enlivening what might otherwise seem mundane. One such activity that more and more teachers are turning to, is in fact the game of bingo.
There are many ways that bingo can be uses in math classes – one of the most attractive things about bingo is that it can be very easily adapted to different situations. Perhaps the most popular way of playing bingo in math classes, is for the teacher to act as bingo caller, and the students to each be given a specially printed bingo card containing math problems – instead of marking off items as they are called, students must fill them out with the correct answers.
The main thing that you need to play math bingo is of course the bingo cards printed with math problems. Fortunately that’s easy – you can simply print them from your computer – free ready-made math bingo printables, or easy-to-use bingo card creator software makes the job easy.
By: Sunil Tanna
If you mention the game of “bingo” to somebody, chances are that will be familiar with the game, and how it is played. It is a very simple game, one that can be learned in minutes, but which nevertheless provides enjoyment to many people. What you may not have realized however is, with a few simple modifications, bingo can be adapted for classroom use, and used by teachers as an educational tool.
Bingo can be an enjoyable activity for many students, and of course this can help them engage with the subject, but it is also ideal for classroom use since it does not require expensive or specialist materials, and the game is flexible enough to be adapted for teaching almost any subject.
The main way that the game is adapted to different subjects, is by using bingo cards printed with items chosen by the teacher, instead of standard numbered bingo cards. The items on the cards can be anything that the teacher feels appropriate for the subject in question, be they words, phrases, or perhaps math problems or musical symbols. Additionally, in some cases, the game rules may also be modified somewhat.
Examples of educational variants of bingo include
* Reading Bingo – This game is indented for younger students learning to read. They must simply find words on their cards when they are read out. Very often the words are chosen from the Dolch sight word list, or similar introductory word lists
* Math bingo – The bingo cards are printed with math problems that the students must correctly solve in order to check off the corresponding square. The problems could be equations, reducing a fraction, etc.
* Foreign language bingo – These version of the game could be played in a language learning class, be that French, Spanish, German, Italian or any other language. The bingo cards are printed with words in that language, and the students must find the correct matching word when the teacher calls out the English equivalent.
By: Sunil Tanna
Most people are familiar with the game of bingo. The idea of the game is simple: each player is given a bingo worksheet (or “bingo card” or “bingo board”) containing a grid of squares (each square usually contains a different number), and the goal is to cross out numbers as they are called out by the bingo caller, hopefully being the first to achieve a winning pattern or line (what is considered a winning pattern may vary depending on the rules being used).
One thing that you may not know however is that there are many variations on the basic game of bingo, and these have been applied for a variety of educational purposes. Bingo is in fact an excellent tool that can be used to help teaching reading, vocabulary, math, science and many other K-12 subjects, and also is of use in teaching English as Second Language (”ESL”).
The common theme in most educational variants of bingo is a requirement for custom bingo worksheets. This is because the bingo worksheets are printed with items chosen by the teacher and specific to the particular subject in question. For example, in a game of math bingo, the worksheets might be printed with numbers that are the answers to math problems called out by the teacher, in a game of foreign language bingo, the bingo worksheets might be printed out with French or Spanish words (the teacher makes the bingo calls in English), and so on. You might assume that creating custom bingo cards for every student in a class is a lot of time-consuming preparation work for teachers, but you would be wrong – it’s actually very easy to print custom bingo cards with the help from a computer and some bingo worksheets generator software.
By: Sunil Tanna
