Ice breaker bingo cards are bingo cards printed with people’s names, or with activities or attributes that describe people (e.g. “owns a cat”, “likes eating pizza”, etc.). These cards are used in the game of ice breaker bingo, which is fun method of facilitating introductions between members of a school or college class, or among attendees of a seminar or workshop.
The way that these cards are used are as follows:
1. Before the class, seminar, or event, the teacher or organizer prepares the set of bingo cards. One card needs to be prepared for each attendee, and of course each card should be different from all of the others. It is possible to prepare these cards manually, simply using pen and paper, but of course this can be very time consuming – so it may be easier to make the cards using a computer, printer, and bingo card maker software.
2. Bingo cards with names tend to be most suitable for younger students and introductory English as a Second Language (ESL) classes. Cards with activities are require more confidence and more sophisticated language skills, so are generally more suitable for older students, confident English speakers, etc.
3. In both variants of ice breaker bingo, each player aims to achieve a straight line of 5 items (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) across their bingo card, and the first player to achieve such a line is the winner.
- If playing with names, the teacher (or organizers) goes round the group in random order, asking each person to stand up, talk briefly about themselves, and finishing by introducing themselves by name (e.g. “I love animals of all types. I have a pet named Rover, and I also have two cats named Moggy and Thomas. I am pleased to meet you all, my name is Boris.”). As people introduce themselves, the players cross their names off their card, and the first player to get a line can call “bingo!” – but their bingo doesn’t count unless they can identify each of the people in their winning line.
- If playing with activities or descriptions, the players spend some time circulating among themselves and introducing themselves to each other. When they first a person matching one of the items on the card, they write that person’s name in the square – but each person’s name can only appear once per card.
By: Sunil Tanna
Aug 06
