Most people are familiar with the game of bingo, it’s one of those games that pretty much everybody knows how to play. Of course, most of us think of bingo as leisure activity, but modified versions of the game are increasingly popular with teachers as an educational activity.
There are many reasons why teachers are adapting bingo to classroom use. Apart from being very easy to learn, some of the reasons why bingo is so popular in education is that game play can easily be modified to match a variety of educational situations, and, given the financial limitations which most teachers work under, the fact that no specialist or expensive materials are required to play bingo.
Bingo is an especially popular activity with teachers of foreign languages, including, of course, Spanish. There are many different ways in which the game can be utilized in Spanish class.
Here are some ideas for how Spanish teachers could use the game in their classes (in each case the teacher should act as the bingo caller):
1. Use bingo cards with numbers (as digits) printed in each square (e.g. “4″, “23″ and “57″), but the teacher calls out the numbers in the Spanish (e.g. “cuatro”, “veinte tres”, or “cincuenta siete”). This style of playing is a wonderful way for students to practise their Spanish numbers.
2. You could play use bingo cards printed with letters of the alphabets, times or dates. As with the previous variant, all game play should be conducted in Spanish.
3. You could practice Spanish vocabulary – use bingo cards containing English words, but all bingo cards are made in Spanish.
4. You could also practice English to Spanish translation – for this variant of the game, you should use cards printed with Spanish words, and the teacher makes the calls in English.
As you can see, for most variants of the game, you will need special bingo cards containing things other than the usual numbers. You’re probably wondering how to obtain such cards – but the good thing is that you don’t need to buy them – you can simply print your own bingo cards from your computer. This is easier than you might think – you can download ready-to-use free bingo printables from the Internet, or simply buy some affordable software for printing bingo cards. If you decide to get bingo card printing software, this has the advantage that you will be able to print bingo cards whenever you want, containing whatever customized items you want, in effectively unlimited quantities.
By: Sunil Tanna
Most people have played bingo at some point in their lives, but even those of us who have never played the game, generally do know how to play the game.
Traditionally bingo is played using cards containing a grid of squares (usually but not always a grid of 5 X 5 squares), with each square containing a different number. Each player is given one of these bingo cards, and the objective of the game is to mark off a row, column or diagonal of squares (in some versions, the objective is to obtain multiple lines, another square, or even get all squares marked off). Squares on the cards are marked off by the players when the bingo caller (who also acts as referee) calls out the corresponding number.
Bingo has undergone something of a renaissance in popularity in the last few years. While the traditional game remains popular, new variants of bingo are reaching new audiences. In each case, these variants of the game are played using bingo cards containing custom items related to a particular topic, rather than the standard numbered bingo cards.
Some examples include:
- Holiday bingo, using bingo cards with words and phrases themed around a particular holiday be it New Year, Valentine’s Day, July 4th, Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas.
- Wedding and baby shower bingo is a popular activity on these social events. Bingo cards containing items related to brides, weddings, or babies, are used as applicable.
- Educational bingo is getting more and more popular with teachers. Versions of the game can be produced for almost any type of class including English (including K12 and ESL), math, science, history, geography or even religious studies. Game play may also be varied by the teacher, so for example in math bingo, cards containing math problems may be used and students must write in the answers to these problems rather than simply tick off the squares.
In order to play any of these variants of the game, you will of course need bingo cards printed with the appropriate themed items. These are not always easy to obtain for every possible topic, and even when available can be expensive. Therefore the best option for most people is to simply print them using a computer and appropriate bingo card generator software.
By: Sunil Tanna
After addition, it would be fair to say that subtraction is the basic of arithmetic operations. Indeed, many students learn the two concepts of adding (addition) and “taking away” (subtraction) together. Of course, it’s usual for students to begin by learning how to do simple subtractions such 3 minus 2, 4 minus 3, 5 minus 2, etc., and then gradually progress towards being able to subtract numbers with multiple digits and carrying numbers between columns. High quality teaching is obviously one of the main foundation stones to this learning process, but regular practice is also very important.
While repetition and practice are of course important, it’s also certainly true that too much repetition can bore even the most diligent student. In the old days, many teachers weren’t too concerned about this issue – as long as the students were doing the work required of them, the teachers knew they were learning, and were therefore satisfied. Teaching has fortunately progressed considerably since those days. Nowadays teachers generally actively seek out interesting classroom activities for their students, because they know that such activities can be very effective in encouraging learning. One particular activity that many teachers are using in their classes, is bingo.
Bingo is ideally suited to use in math classes; it’s almost infinitely adaptable, it’s extremely easy to learn and play, and you don’t need expensive resources or materials. Educational variants of bingo are very similar to the traditional game of bingo, however bingo cards containing items relating to the subject of the lesson are used, instead of ordinary numbered bingo cards. Obviously in the case of subtraction, the items on the cards would be subtraction problems, and students would be required to write in their answers to these, rather than simply crossing items off the card.
The only thing that I haven’t yet explained is where teachers can obtain their subtraction bingo cards. The answer is a bit of a surprise for many teachers: they simply print them from your computer! With the help of some affordable and easy-to-use bingo card maker software, teachers can print unlimited bingo cards on any subject that they want.
By: Sunil Tanna
