An increasing number of teachers and educators are finding that variations of the game of bingo are highly suitable for classroom use. It is for this reason that is no longer uncommon to see bingo cards used for teaching reading (including practicing phonics and sight words), math, foreign languages, history, geography, science, and English as a Second Language (ESL).
Applying bingo to lessons on each of these subjects, generally requires bingo cards printed with words or phrases (on in the case of math, math problems) rather than the standard bingo cards printed with numbers that are used in the traditional game. While it is possible of course to prepare bingo cards manually using nothing more than a pen and paper, it is potentially very time consuming. Most teachers already have more than enough demands on their time without unnecessary busywork, and so using a computer and bingo card maker software to do the job, is probably the best solution.
Of course, there’s no reason why teachers need be limited to printing bingo cards on a specific subject or lesson plan. The ability to quickly and easily print custom bingo cards, can also be utilized for other purposes – for example, facilitating introductions between students at the start of a new term or school year, using the game of “icebreaker bingo”:
- Each student is given their own bingo card. Depending on the age level and confidence of the students, these bingo cards can either contain the names of members of the class, or general descriptions (e.g. “owns a dog”, “has been skiing”, “plays guitar”, etc.) – use the former for younger or less confident classes, or the latter for older more confident students.
- As usual, the aim of the game is for students to achieve a straight line of five marked off squares on their bingo card. The line may be horizontal, vertical or diagonal.
- If playing using names, the teacher goes round the class tapping students on the shoulder one at a time. That student stands up, tells the class a little bit about themselves, and finishes by giving their name. Players can then mark their name off their card – however a winning line only counts if the player can identify the other students corresponding to each of the names in their winning line.
- If playing using descriptions, the players circulate among themselves. The players can mark off a square, by writing in a name, when they meet a person who meets a description in one of the squares. The key point to note however is that each name may only be used once on each bingo card – and obviously this restriction greatly encourages students to meet and talk to as many of their classmates as possible.By: Sunil Tanna
About the Author:
By S. Tanna. To create your own custom bingo cards, please go to http://www.bingocardprinter.com/
