Bingo Rules Confusion
 

Hello everyone, I've just started teaching several classes of primary school children in France and would like to try some of bingo worksheets. I'm assuming that if I have a class of 20 kids I have to hit the shuffle button 20 times and print them out. The problem is that I'm confused about the answer key - how does that fit in with the calling out? I remember bingo being called out like 'under the I, under the B etc.

Can anyone enlighten me please?

Re: Bingo Rules Confusion
 

Here's a whole page of bingo ideas
MES-English.com - Flash Cards

Re: Bingo Rules Confusion
 

Also, you don't need to make different bingo cards for everyone. If you break your class up into groups to play, you can just make 10 or so boards and print out 5 sets.

Does that make sense?

Re: Bingo Rules Confusion
 

What I do is print out the answer key, cut them into pieces and then pull them out of a hat. You can randomly assign B,I,N,G or O to the object that you call out, but don't forget to either write the letter on the paper or make a note of it on a different piece of paper.

Personally, I would use pencil and just write the letters across the top of the paper very small. That way you can use the cards many times and still easily keep track of what you called.

Re: Bingo Rules Confusion
 

I am new to this forum and website, and have the same question as Frenchgirl. Forgive my ignorance but I am STILL confused. Could some kind person give methodical step by step instructions for bingo please? For instance, for a class of x students, print x to x number of cards,then be very specific about the next steps. (I never played before.) Thanks in advance.

Re: Bingo Rules Confusion
 

Hello,
Well, this is how I do it. I figure out how many students I will have, then I make enough different cards to give one to each student, plus have some extra. I don't use the BINGO across the top. I like to create bingo cards with a 5x5 grid and no free space. Any word can be in any cell on a bingo card. I print out all the cards on cardstock. (Here in California, that's very heavy paper we use to make cards.) If you teach kids, just use regular colored paper and have each bingo card laminated. I create a separate call sheet (for me to use as we play) with 32 words. That means on every bingo card, 7 words are not there! This adds to the suspense. I also put a number (small size, in the footer) on each bingo card. Then if a card gets damaged, I know what number to replace, without having to replace all the cards.
When we play, each student and I get a paper cup half-full of dried lima beans. No person writes on a bingo card. When a student gets a word I call, he/she puts a bean on the word. When I call a word, I put a bean on the word on the call sheet. I use Microsoft Word to create a table (4 columns and 8 rows) for the call sheet. This type of bingo game has been a hit many times in my past adult education ESL classes. I like to use a game that can be re-used many times, thus saving me the money and time of making new sets of bingo cards.

Re: Bingo Rules Confusion
 

After some trial and error, I have fallen in with the system of letting the students write their own bingo cards. I provide a photocopied grid for each student, of 4x4 squares - this can be hand-ruled or printed from Excel. Often there is a vocab list that they can use, eg a page in their course book, or I give them a vocab sheet for revision first, or you can write a list of the target vocab on the board. This way there is a finite number of words for them to choose from. About 30 words will give a good random selection for each person's grid. Also, for any class not absolute beginners, when I call the words to cross off on their grids, I put the target vocab into a sentence (eg, "I don't like strawberries" or "Yesterday I had icecream for dinner".) I prepare the sentences in advance, and tick them off as I go. I really enjoy lessons that involve this game, and the students seem to too.