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
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
Most people are familiar with the game of bingo. Even those people who have never played bingo, probably do know how the game is played. However, just in case you are one of those rare few who don’t know how to play, he are instructions:
1. One person acts as the bingo caller (and referee), the others act as players.
2. Each of the players is given a bingo card containing a grid of squares (normally 5 by 5, but other sizes may be used), with each square containing a different number.
3. The bingo caller calls out the numbers in a random order, and players mark off the squares containing that number from their cards.
4. The player’s objective is to get a row, column or diagonal of squares marked off (or in some variants, other shapes or all the items on the card). When a player achieves this he shouts “Bingo!”, and the first who shouts this is the winner.
There are of course many variants of the game, and it is these variants that are bringing bingo to the attention of a much wider audience. Some examples of these include:
- Baby Shower Bingo – Played as a baby shower game, using bingo cards printed with items related to babies.
- Wedding Shower Bingo – Played at wedding and bridal showers, this time using bingo cards with items related weddings.
- Holiday Bingo – Bingo played on special occasions such as Christmas, New Year, Valentine’s Day, July 4th, Halloween or Thanksgiving – however themed for the day by using bingo cards containing items relating to the particular holiday.
- Educational Bingo – Bingo is also as increasingly popular activity with teachers and educators. Educational variants of bingo are commonly played in schools, colleges, Sunday schools, and in ESL classes. Once again specially printed bingo cards are used, be it with words student must learn to read, math problems, names of countries or cities, chemical elements, or anything else.
The common thread running through all these different variants of bingo, is that non-standard bingo cards are used. In some cases, it may be possible to order preprinted cards from a specialist publisher, although this can get expensive fast! In other cases, preprinted cards may simply not be available. As a result, usually the best option is for the game organizer to prepare the bingo cards – fortunately with the help of a computer and suitable bingo card maker software, this can be a quick and easy job.
By: Sunil Tanna
