Educational versions of bingo are growing in popularity with teachers. More and more educators are using the game as a teaching tool during their lessons. There are numerous reasons for this, but they include the facts that bingo is easy to adapt to different lesson types and subjects, that the game is very simple to learn (many students probably already know how to play), and given the financial restrictions that most teachers work under – bingo card be played using affordable materials and classroom supplies.
One of the main ways that bingo can be adapted to different subjects is by using special subject-specific bingo cards. As you probably know, traditional bingo cards simply contain a grid of squares, each square containing a different number. Educational versions of bingo use cards containing a grid of squares, however the squares contain items specific to the subject or lesson, such as the names of cities, mountains or rivers in a geography class, the names of historical figures in a history class, etc.
Bingo can be used in many different subjects, but is especially suitable for math. Teachers can prepare bingo cards containing either questions or answers, and then vary game playing accordingly. If questions are used, students must write in the answers when the question is called. If answers are used, the teacher calls out questions, and students must mark off the particular square that answers the question.
Bingo can be used in almost any math class, but is particularly popular for practice at arithmetic, and especially multiplication tables (”times tables”). Many math teachers also find the game a useful tool for practising fractions and decimals – in this case as well as solving problems, students may be required to do base conversion (when the teacher calls out “a quarter”, the student must mark off squares contain 1/4, 2/8 or 0.25).
In order to play any of these variants of bingo, you will of course need the appropriate custom bingo cards. While it is possible to order preprinted cards for many subjects, they can get kind of expensive. A better alternative is to get some bingo card maker software and make the bingo cards using your PC. Appropriate software will allow you to print bingo cards containing anything you want, and with no limit as to the quantity.
By: Sunil Tanna
Most people know how to play the game of bingo, after all it’s a game that many of us either played as kids or learned to enjoy in later life. The idea of the game is quite simple: every player is given a bingo card (sometimes known as a “bingo board” or “bingo sheet”), each of the squares contains an item (traditionally a number), and players tick off squares when the corresponding items are called out by the bingo caller. The objective of the game is to be the first player to get a continuous line of items diagonally, vertically or horizontally across the card, and then claim the win by calling out “Bingo!”.
As already mentioned, in traditional versions of bingo, the items in the squares of the bingo card are numbers. Today however many variations of the standard game have also become popular, and in these variants, words, phrases, dates, times or even math problems can be used for hte items on the cards.
- Holiday versions of bingo are increasingly popular. Bingo is a great activity for family and community events since people of all ages can play together. In holiday variants of the game, words or phrases relating to the particular holiday are used, so words like “Advent” or “Santa Claus” in a Christmas game, or “Revolution” or “George Washington” in an Independence Day game.
- Bingo games with words and phrases are popular in K-12, English as Second Language (ESL) and foreign language teaching. They’re a fun way for students to practice word recognition, reading and spelling.
- Bingo cards can also be printed with math problems. They’re good way to practice multiplication tables (”times tables”) as well as arithmetic. Students are required to write in the correct answers to problems as they are called out, rather than simply ticking items off their cards.
In order to play most of these variants of the game, you will of course need bingo cards containing items relating to your chosen theme. Obtaining preprinted cards can be difficult – even if you can find somewhere to buy them, they can be expensive and may not contain the exact items that you want. Preparing bingo cards by hand is possible, but very time consuming! The best answer is to get your computer to do the work – with the right bingo card maker software you can print custom bingo cards with consummate ease.
By: Sunil Tanna
Good teachers are always on the look-out for engaging, interesting and fun educational activities to use in their classes. One such activity that is growing in popularity, is bingo. The reasons for this, are that bingo is very easy to learn and play, adaptable to almost any type of lesson, subject or student age group, and is not requiring of expensive specialist materials. In short, it’s an ideal game for use in schools, colleges and other educational situations.
When bingo is played as an educational game, one of the main differences from traditional bingo is that a different style of bingo cards are used. In traditional bingo, bingo cards containing a 5 X 5 grid of numbers are used. However, in educational versions of bingo, each item on the grid is an item specific to the subject being taught – for example the name of a country, city, mountain or river in a geography class, or the names of different plants or animals in a biology class, and so on. Bingo is suitable for use in a range of subjects across the entire curriculum, but is a particular favorite among math teachers. The most common way to play the game is to use bingo cards containing math questions – students must write in the answers to questions that come up, rather than simply tick off squares, but there are other variations too. Another idea is to use bingo cards containing numbers, and in this case, the teacher calls out math problems (or writes them on the blackboard), and the students must mark off the number which is the solution to the problem.
There’s no limit on the kinds of math classes which bingo can be used for. It’s probably fair to say that it’s most popular as a tool for encouraging practice of basic arithmetic, especially multiplication and multiplication tables. That’s not bingo’s only use though! Another popular activity is bingo using fractions or decimals – in this version students may be required to convert between different representations of the same number (e.g. marking off any of 1/2, 2/4, 3/6, 4/8, or 0.5, if the teacher calls “a half”).
To play fraction bingo, or in fact any other educational version of bingo, you will of course need the appropriate special bingo cards. Once upon a time, it wasn’t possible to get cards customized to your exact requirements, and the closest thing was preprinted cards from a specialist publisher (which were also often quite expensive). Today however you can simply print bingo cards using your computer – download some bingo card creator software, and it’s a simple job to printed as many cards as you want, whenever you want.
By: Sunil Tanna
