Bingo is a relatively simple game. Most adults know how to play the game, and it’s easy enough to learn that even young children can master the game in just a few minutes. Because of this simplicity, as well as the facts that the game does not require investing in expensive materials or specialist equipment, and that the game can easily be adapted in numerous ways, many teachers now use bingo as a teaching tool.
In classes involving younger children, teachers have adapted the game of bingo to help them with their reading and English. In these situations the class plays pretty much a standard game of bingo, with the teacher acting as the bingo caller, but instead of using bingo cards printed with numbers, the cards are printed with letters or words chosen by the teacher.
Some ideas for using bingo in the classroom include:
* Helping to Teach Phonemic Awareness – The students are each given a bingo card printed with letters in the squares. When the teacher calls out a word, the students must identify the letter than begins the word and find the matching square.
* Practising Sight Words – Sight words are words that students must learn to recognize to achieve reading fluency (the most famous list of sight words, is probably the Dolch Sight Word list). Sight words can be practised by using bingo cards printed them – students must find the matching square when the teacher calls out the word.
* Improving Vocabulary – Again the bingo cards are printed with words chosen by the teacher, in this case however students must find the matching square when the teacher gives a word’s definition.
* Identifying Parts of Speech – As with the vocabulary bingo game, the cards are printed with words chosen by teacher. However, in this case, students must find a part of speech based on a description given by teacher, for example, “a verb beginning with S”.
In all these cases, the main requirements to play the game are an enthusiastic teacher, and of course bingo cards printed with items of the teacher’s choice. While it may be possible to purchase some preprinted educational bingo cards, this could quickly get expensive if a lot of bingo cards are needed, and in any case the cards may not contain the exact items that the teacher wants for their class. The alternative is for the teacher to prepare the bingo cards in advance of their class. Of course, making a lot of bingo cards by hand is probably not a good use of class preparation time – but fortunately bingo card maker software can automate the process – using such software, you just enter a list of items that you want on your bingo cards, and the computer can generate as many cards as you want.
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
Although bingo tends to be mainly thought of as a leisure activity, it is also true that variations on the standard game are being used by many teachers. These teachers have introduced bingo in their classes as a way to helping children to engage with their studies, and are using the game to help teach many different subjects including English, foreign languages and mathematics. In reading classes in particular, bingo tends to be particular useful. Here a few ideas for reading lesson plans that involve classroom bingo:
* Phonemic Awareness Bingo – Each student is given a bingo card containing letters. The teacher reads out words, students must then identify the letter than begins the word and find the corresponding square on their cards.
* Sight Word Bingo – Each student is given a bingo card containing words (these, for example, might be words chosen from the Dolch Sight Word list). The teacher reads out a word aloud, and the students must find the matching word square on their cards.
* Rhyming Bingo – Each student is given a bingo card containing words chosen by the teacher (ones which the teacher knows rhymes for). The teacher says a word (for example, “small”) and students must find a rhyming word on their card (for example, “ball”).
* Vocabulary Bingo – Again the students are given bingo cards that contain words chosen in advance by their teacher. In this case, the teacher gives the definition of a word, and students must find the word being defined.
By: Sunil Tanna
