Idea for Bingo

MES-Zealot! Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 361 Location: Japan

I have just had a simple idea for streching out the Bingo games as on this site. I am referring to the Bingo games esp on the flash card pages such as
http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards/files/animals1_bingo.pdf

Currently there are about 12 cards in any set (??). Thats fine for small classes, but if you want to use it for longer games or for more students, try this;
Make 2 complete sets of the bingo cards (for any theme) and simply put a cross (batsu in Japanese) over one of the items for any particular thing.
Effectively making the cards all unique and them have 2 sets of teacher cards for calling out the bingo. 1 with a cross on.
So, if you print out animals, There will be 2 of every bingo card (2 cards exactly the same), so make them unique by putting a cross over the cat, dog and horse on one etc

Therefore,, in calling them out (playing the game) you can say sentences like:
I like cats (it has no cross on it) or I don't like cats (for the one with the cross over it)
or
I can skate or I can't skate (for the one with the cross over it)
or
there is a bank, there isn't a bank
etc etc

I hope my explantion was simple enough?
it probably sounds more difficult than it actually is!

enjoy

MES-Addict Joined: 07 Jul 2009 Posts: 28

You can also make them play with flashcards: they chose a number of cards (for example 6 over 9) and put them like on a bingo card. You can also make them take all the cards and place them as they want.

Then you play the game as usual. The pupils turn the cards when they hear their name.

This way you print much less material and use your cards a bit more...

MES-Zealot! Joined: 09 Feb 2006 Posts: 361 Location: Japan

I have another idea for using the MES Bingo cards

this can be done in many ways but to give you an idea;

example; your theme is clothes
print off the bingo cards. One team chooses a bingo card and the other team has 5~6 (??) chances to guess the clothes they have (on their cards)

If they guess one they get a point but if they guess the middle item (in the centre of the bingo card) they get 5 points

You could use various grammar in the game, eg "Are you wearing a hat?" for higher levels or
"hat" for very low

Its very simple but good for a quick game with little prep[/i]

Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 1:49 am

i really like these ideas! thanks for posting. especially for making an option for larger classes. Im hoping to find more ideas for games and such for classes of 40-45+. I cannot use many of the games with cards etc. for such large classes. but bingo i do find so useful.

MES-Addict Joined: 19 May 2009 Posts: 33

These are good ideas for bingo.

I don't play using the mes-english cards but I do play bingo quite often. I actually hate it but the students love it and it is good speaking practice for them. I give them a blank bingo sheet and have them draw or write from a selection of answers.

Whenever I play I always ask the first question and the student I ask has to ask the question to another student to give them practice asking as well as answering the question.

For things like I like - the student asks "do you like cats?" and the other student has to answer "I like cats" only if they have a cat on their bingo sheet. If they don't have a cat they answer "I don't like cats". The students are only allowed to cross out cats on their bingo sheets if the student answers "I like cats" which means that they have to listen to the whole sentence and not just "cats".

I hope that explanation is clear. It is a little difficult to explain to the students but they soon get the hang of it.

Posted: Fri May 28, 2010 10:14 pm

My students love bingo. It is a small class of Spanish and two elderly Chinese, man and wife. It has been very hard to get the Chinese gentleman to spontaneously volunteer sentences. I use candy as the prize for winners. He brightened up the other day when I brought out the bingo cards, and said before I could start, "What is the prize?" They all learn the words, and sentences associated with the words much faster now.