Bingo is a popular and easy to learn game that is widely played around the world. Most people of course play the game for social reasons, but the game is increasingly being applied and adapted to educational uses, particularly in schools.
The main reasons why bingo is being used in this way is that it is fun, has simple game mechanics, can be easily be adapted in multiple ways, and does not require expensive materials, specialist equipment, or unusual resources that are out of reach to most educators.
In some situations, for example, for students learning English as a foreign language (EFL), simply playing the game can be an educational experience in itself. In EFL class, simply explaining and learning how to play the game, in English, can be a challenge for students.
More commonly however, teachers adapt the game to their classes and the particular subject they are teaching. For example, in a math class, the bingo squares might be printed with math problems instead of numbers, and students are required to solve the problems in squares rather than simply mark off squares. In a language learning class, the squares on the bingo cards might be printed with Spanish, French, German or Italian words (instead of numbers), and the students would be required to find the matching squares when the teacher calls out words in English.
The common element to many educational versions of bingo is the use of customized bingo cards – that is to say bingo cards printed with items of the teacher’s choice whether they be Spanish words, math problems, or anything else. Creating such bingo cards would be a tedious and time consuming task, but with the help of a computer and bingo card maker software is a breeze – simply enter a list of items that can appear on the bingo cards and the computer can easily print as many cards as you want.
By: Sunil Tanna
Most adults are familiar with the game of bingo. Most of us have either played it ourselves, or at least seen it played. For those few people who have not, the rules are simple and easily learned – you are given a bingo card which is printed with a grid of numbers, and cross off squares as the numbers are called out by the bingo caller – the goal is to be the first person to achieve a winning pattern of crossed out squares (the exact definition of the a winning pattern varies depending on the variant of the game being played).
One thing that you may not have considered however is because bingo is so simple, it can be played by children, and with just a few modifications can easily be adapted into a powerful but flexible learning aid. Many teachers have noticed this (not to mention the fact that bingo does not require expensive materials or specialist resources), and thus have introduced variants of the game into their classrooms. Today bingo is being used to teach a variety of K-12 school subjects including English (vocabulary, reading, etc.), math, foreign languages, and even science and history.
In most classroom variants of bingo, the game is played using bingo cards printed with items chosen by teacher. Additionally, game play may be modified somewhat. For example, in a vocabulary version of bingo, the bingo cards contain words that the teacher wants students to learn, the teacher calls out definitions of words rather than the words themselves, and the students must match the definitions to the words. Similar ideas can be used for reading practise, math problems, and foreign languages (calling out words in one language and require students to match printed words in another).
The main requirement for all these educational variants of bingo is the ability for the teacher to give each student a bingo card with items appropriate for the particular lesson. Fortunately this is quite easy – a PC and some bingo cards generator software can print a set of bingo cards containing whatever types of items the teacher wants, in just a few minutes.
By: Sunil Tanna
It is probably fair to say that most people know how to play the game of bingo. It’s a simple and easy to learn game that involves crossing squares off bingo worksheets (also known as “bingo cards” or “bingo boards”) as items are called out, in random order, by the bingo caller.
While many of us have played the standard game of bingo, what you may not know is that many variants of bingo are now being used in today’s classrooms. Bingo is in fact being used as a teaching age for a variety of K-12 school subjects including English (particularly reading and vocabulary), math, languages such as French, Spanish and German, and even geography, history and science. Furthermore, versions of bingo are also being used in some adult education courses such as English as a Second Language (”ESL”) classes.
The main difference between education variants of bingo and the standard game is that specialized bingo worksheets are used. These contain items chosen by the teacher and specific to the subject or lesson, instead of the usual numbers found on bingo worksheets. In an English class they might contain items of vocabulary (the teacher calls out definitions, the teachers must match them to words), in math class, they might be answers to math problems read out by the teacher, and so on.
So the key requirement for a teacher who is considering introducing bingo in their classroom is this custom bingo worksheets. Obviously, it would not be a good use of class preparation time to write out a worksheet for each student by hand, but fortunately there is an answer – using a PC and some bingo worksheets creator software, the worksheets can be made very quickly and with very little effort.
By: Sunil Tanna
