Most adults are familiar with the game of bingo – we’ve came across the game at some points in our lives. It is true that many us of think of it as a game played in church and community halls in funding raising efforts, or by groups of seniors as a relaxing way of passing the time, but one thing you may not know is that bingo is becoming increasingly popular in education.
Many teachers have come to the conclusion that bingo is well suited to classroom use, because it is easy for students to learn and play, does not require expensive specialist materials, does not make a big mess, and is highly adaptable to teaching different subjects, different lesson plans, and different age groups. When organized by enthusiastic teacher, bingo can indeed be both fun and educational.
As hinted at previously, bingo can be used in a variety of educational environments, including teaching K-12, and for teaching older students. The game can be adapted to almost any subject including English and Reading, English as a Second Language (ESL), Foreign Languages (including Spanish, French, German and Italian), Math, Science, History and more. The main way that the game is adapted to each of these situations is by using custom bingo cards printed with items appropriate to the lesson, and by modifying the game play mechanics. In a K-12 reading class for example, students might just be required to recognize sight words, in a math class the students might be required to write in the answers to math problems into the squares rather than simply cross off squares, and in a foreign language class the bingo cards could be printed in one language but the calss made in another (for example, bingo cards printed with Spanish vocabulary – and students need to match up these words to bingo calls made in English).
By: Sunil Tanna
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
Educational bingo is increasingly popular as a classroom activity as more and more teachers are realizing that the game can easily be adapted to a variety of different lesson plans. Apart from the simple fact that students of all ages can enjoy the game, there are many other reasons by bingo is growing in popularity, not least the fact that it’s very inexpensive to play (important given the constraints that today’s teachers work under), but also the facts that game play mechanics can be modified to teaching pretty much any subject to any age range of students.
Bingo can play a role in teaching many different subjects, including math (the squares on bingo cards can be printed with math problems for which students must write in the answers rather than simply marking off squares), telling the time, geography, history, science, foreign languages, and yes, reading. In fact, bingo particularly excels in reading classes, and it is here that the game is most commonly encountered in schools.
In reading bingo, the game is played using the same basic game play mechanics as traditional bingo – the player’s (student’s) objective is to find a line of five matching items vertically, horizontally or diagonally as the items are announced by the bingo caller (teacher), however the bingo cards are printed with words instead of the usual numbers. These words can be sight words (words that students must learn to immediately recognize in order to achieve reading fluency), words that students are in the process of practicing this week, or they can be chosen specially in order to practice a variety of phonics games. Some examples of phonics games, include the teacher asking students to find rhymes, find a longer word that contains a shorter word or sound, find a word that the teacher reads out slowly (e.g. “fff-lll-aaa-p”) so that students must practice “blending” letters, and so on.
By: Sunil Tanna
