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
At some point in their lives, most people have played the game of bingo, but even those who haven’t probably do know how to play the game. Even if you don’t know however, it’s very easy to learn!
1. One person acts as the bingo caller and referee.
2. The other participants are all players.
3. Each of the players is given a bingo card containing a grid of squares, each square containing a number.
4. The bingo caller calls out numbers in a random order, and the players mark off any square on their cards which matches the number.
5. When a player gets a complete line across his card (vertical, horizontal or diagonal), he calls out “Bingo!”. The first player to call bingo is the winner.
6. If you prefer a longer game, instead of a single winning line you can require two or more complete lines, or even players to mark off every single item on their bingo card.
So far so good – you’re probably already familiar with all the above. Today however, variations on the standard game, most frequently using bingo cards containing customized items based around a particular theme (instead of numbers), are growing in popularity.
Some examples include:
- Bingo has become very popular with teachers. This is because it can be adapted to almost any lesson or subject, and thus become a fun as well as educational classroom activity.
- Holiday bingo is played using cards relating to a particular holiday. For example a Christmas-themed game would be played using cards containing words like “angel”, Bethlehem or “shepherds”. Of course there are many other holidays around the year which can be used to inspire specially themed bingo games, including New Year, Valentine’s Day, July 4th, and Halloween.
- Wedding and baby shower bingo are also growing in popularity. As you might expect, these variants are played using words relating to weddings or babies.
If you fancy playing any of these versions of bingo, you will of course need bingo cards relating to your chosen theme. While it may be possible to obtain preprinted cards for certain (not all!) themes from a specialist publisher, the cheapest and most flexible option is almost certainly to print them yourself using your computer. If you use some bingo card creator software, you can simply put in a list of the possible items, and the software will generate as many different cards as you want.
By: Sunil Tanna
Bingo is one of those games that pretty much everybody knows how to play. Most people have probably played the game at some point in their life, but even those who haven’t, generally do know the rules. In case you’re one of those rare people who don’t know the game, here’s a quick recap:
1. Each player is given a bingo card, usually (but not always) 5 x 5 squares. Each of these squares contains a different item – in tradition bingo a number, but in the various themed variants of the game, words, phrases, names, dates, or even math problems may be used.
2. One person acts as the bingo caller and referee. That person calls out items in random order.
3. As the items are called out, players inspect their cards and look for matching squares, and mark off any that they find. In many versions of the game, the center square is a “free space”, and players can mark that square off whenever they want.
4. Usually the objective of the game is to be the first player to get a line of items horizontally, vertically or diagonally on the card, and call out “Bingo!”. The rules can be varied however so that other shapes such as two lines, a postage stamp, or even marking off all squares on the card, is required before “Bingo” can be claimed.
While it’s true that many people do enjoy the traditional game using numbers, themed variants relating to holidays such as Christmas, Halloween, Easter or Valentine’s Day are increasingly popular. Additionally, the game can easily be adapted to educational use and is increasingly popular in schools (including K-12) and English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching environments.
In order to play a themed version of bingo, you will of course need bingo cards printed containing the appropriate items for the theme. Many people consider this is a stumbling block since preparing bingo cards by hand is very time consuming, and preprinted bingo cards may not be expensive or even impossible to obtain. There is however a simple solution to this conundrum: simply print custom bingo cards using your computer – with suitable bingo card creator software, it’s very easy and straightforward.
By: Sunil Tanna
