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
Most people have played bingo at some point in their lives, but even those of us who have never played the game, generally do know how to play the game.
Traditionally bingo is played using cards containing a grid of squares (usually but not always a grid of 5 X 5 squares), with each square containing a different number. Each player is given one of these bingo cards, and the objective of the game is to mark off a row, column or diagonal of squares (in some versions, the objective is to obtain multiple lines, another square, or even get all squares marked off). Squares on the cards are marked off by the players when the bingo caller (who also acts as referee) calls out the corresponding number.
Bingo has undergone something of a renaissance in popularity in the last few years. While the traditional game remains popular, new variants of bingo are reaching new audiences. In each case, these variants of the game are played using bingo cards containing custom items related to a particular topic, rather than the standard numbered bingo cards.
Some examples include:
- Holiday bingo, using bingo cards with words and phrases themed around a particular holiday be it New Year, Valentine’s Day, July 4th, Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas.
- Wedding and baby shower bingo is a popular activity on these social events. Bingo cards containing items related to brides, weddings, or babies, are used as applicable.
- Educational bingo is getting more and more popular with teachers. Versions of the game can be produced for almost any type of class including English (including K12 and ESL), math, science, history, geography or even religious studies. Game play may also be varied by the teacher, so for example in math bingo, cards containing math problems may be used and students must write in the answers to these problems rather than simply tick off the squares.
In order to play any of these variants of the game, you will of course need bingo cards printed with the appropriate themed items. These are not always easy to obtain for every possible topic, and even when available can be expensive. Therefore the best option for most people is to simply print them using a computer and appropriate bingo card generator software.
By: Sunil Tanna
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
