Bingo is an increasingly popular classroom activity with many teachers. This is because these teachers realize that as well as being a lot of fun for their students, the game is perfectly suited to educational use, including in the K-12 environment. This is because bingo is very easy to learn and play, highly flexible and adaptable to different topics and subjects, and importantly given the financial constraints that many teachers work under, not requiring of specialist expensive resources or materials.
Although bingo can be used in teaching many different subjects and topics, including math and arithmetic, telling the time, or even geography, history or science, one area in which the game is especially popular, is teaching reading. When teaching reading the key aspect of the game is that each student is given a bingo card printed with words (or perhaps phrases), and although (as in standard bingo), the objective remains to be the first player to get a line of five items horizontally, vertically or diagonally, game play can be adapted from simply calling out words (or writing them on the blackboard if the teacher prefers).
1. Sight Words – The teacher simply calls out words, and students must find the corresponding word on their cards. This variant is most popular with so-called “Sight Words” – words that can not be sounded out, but that students must master recognizing in order to achieve reading fluency.
2. Blending Bingo – The teacher says a word very slowly such as “sss-ppp-ooo-ttt” or “mmm-aaa-t” and the students must find the word on the card. The purpose being to help students practice “blending” letters to make words.
3. Partial Word Bingo – The teacher says something like “Find the word with ‘mile’ in it” and the student has to find “Smile”. You can also use beginnings of words (e.g. find the word beginning with “r”), word endings, or sounds in the middle of words.
4. Rhyming Bingo – The teacher says something like “Find the word that rhymes with ‘plot’” and the student has to find “slot”.
5. Silent E Bingo – Ahead of time the teacher prepares bingo cards using pairs of words with and without a silent E, for example “cap” and “cape”, or “hat” and “hate”. You then play normal bingo and students have to learn to recognize the differences between these similar words. A variation is to use only words without the final E, and when playing make bingo calls of the following form “When you add an E, the word would be ‘pine’”, in response to which clue the students needs to find the square containing “pin”.
By: Sunil Tanna
At the start of a school year, or in an event such as seminar or workshop, it can be helpful for the teacher or organizer to find a fun activity that will facilitate introductions. One such activity that is definitely worth considering is the game of ice breaker bingo. Ice breaker bingo is in reality at least two different games – both variants of the classic game of bingo, and the teacher or organizer should select the most appropriate version of ice breaker bingo depending on the age, confidence level and English-language skills of the players (or students).
1. In both versions of the game, each player is given their own bingo card. The objective of the game is to be the first player to achieve a line of five marked off items on your card, whether that line is horizontal, vertical or diagonal.
2. In the simpler version of ice breaker bingo, the bingo cards contain the names of members of the group – a different name in each square. What happens is the teacher (or organizer) goes around the group asking people to stand up one at a time, telling the others a little bit about themselves, and finish by stating their name. The other players can then mark that name off their card, and the first player to achieve a line of five can call a bingo – however their bingo only counts if they can correctly identify the people corresponding to each of the names in their winning line.
3. In the more complex version of the game, the squares of the bingo cards are printed with descriptions or activities (e.g. “owns a cat”, “can play piano”, “is a vegetarian”). The players then circulate among themselves trying to find others who match these descriptions, and, when they find a match, they write that person’s name in the square. The catch is that each name may only be used once per card, and that of course encourages the players to meet and talk with as many other members of the group as they can.
By: Sunil Tanna
