Bingo is a very simple game that anybody could learn, even young children. This simplicity also means that the game can be adapted to classroom use. As a result, many elementary and other K-12 school teachers are now using specially modified versions of the game bingo as a teaching aid.
Bingo can be used in the teaching of many different subjects, including reading, English, foreign language, math, science, history and geography. Here are a few examples of how it can be integrated into lesson plans:
* When teaching reading, bingo can be played using bingo cards printed with letters or words. Students might be required to check off squares from their card when the match a word read out by the teacher (”sight word bingo”), or contain the letter that the teacher’s word begins with (”phonemic awareness bingo”).
* In English classes, bingo cards with words are again used. In this case students might be required to find the matching word for the teacher’s definition (”vocabulary bingo”), or when they contain a particular part of speech beginning with a letter chosen by the teacher (”a verb beginning with S”, etc., – “parts of speech bingo”).
* In language classes, bingo cards can be printed with French, German, Italian or Spanish words. In this case, students might be required to match these against English words read out by the teacher. You can also reverse this, and use bingo cards printed in English and have the teacher say words in the foreign language.
* In math classes, bingo cards can be printed with numbers chosen by the teacher, or even with math problems (students must mark off squares by writing in the correct answers). When using numbered cards, students must solve a math problem to find the matching square, and this math problem could be a simple addition, subtraction, multiplication or division sum, a problem involving fractions or decimals (”find the square containing one and a quarter” is called out by teacher, and students must match this to a square containing “1.25″, etc.), etc.
* Bingo can also be used in history, geography and science classes. In these cases, the bingo cards are printed with items appropriate for the subject, and the students must match them to clues given by the teacher (for example: “this is a country in Western Europe, it has coasts on the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, and its capital is Madrid”).
By: Sunil Tanna
Many teachers are looking for interesting ways to spice up their classes. The idea is that by making learning fun, students will pay more attention, progress faster, take in more initial, and recall more later – and many teacher’s experience suggests that this is indeed the case. One such idea is being used in many classrooms in introducing the game of bingo, since it is very easy to learn, and doesn’t require expensive materials. Indeed, bingo is now being used to help teach a wide variety of different school subjects, including not only math, but also English, reading, foreign languages, and even science, history and geography.
The simplest version of bingo for math classes is to play using bingo cards containing numbers chosen by the teacher. Each student is given one such card and told to mark off a square if it contains an answer to a math problem posed by the teacher. The teacher then calls out a series of math problems, and the students have to figure out the answers in order to play the game. This type of bingo can be used for practising addition, subtraction, multiplication (especially “times tables”), and division. It can also used for practising fractions and decimals as well as rounding – in this case, the teacher may call out something like “one fifth” and student be required to find the square containing “0.2″, or the teacher might call out “14.7 rounded to the nearest whole number”.
Another way to play math bingo is to use bingo cards with math problems. In this case, the teacher calls out the problem (or writes it on the board), and the students must find the matching problem on their card, solve it, and write in the correct answer. When everybody is ready, those students who figured out the correct answer, can mark off the corresponding square – those who didn’t, can’t.
In either case, the key requirements to play these games in class are of course the bingo cards containing the items that the teacher wants to use for that class. Obviously, preparing a set of bingo cards by hand for each student would be quite time consuming and a waste of the teacher’s class preparation time – so the best method to make the bingo cards is to use a computer and some bingo card maker software – that way the cards can be printed with very little time and effort.
By: Sunil Tanna
