This month’s free Kindergarten printable template of the month is…. Bingo!
Here’s how I play Bingo with my preschool English classes.
First, I prepare the materials. I typically only play Bingo using a set of 6-8 vocabulary items. Any less, tends to make the game finish too quickly. I prepare two sheets of mini-flashcards for the vocabulary being studied. For the vocabulary items number 7 and more, I put them on the second sheet of mini-flashcards and replicate them a few times. You can find my downloadable, editable mini-flash card template here.
Next, I sit the children in a semi-circle formation on the floor and demo a ‘cutting dictation’ with the children. This is simply a ‘listen and cut’ of the mini-cards, one card at a time. Its a great settling activity and a chance for the children to develop their motor skills. It also saves you cutting all of the mini-flash cards and sorting them into packs of cards. If you have a lot of students in the class, this will save quite some time.
We next clean up the scraps of paper and put them in the bin. The children retain their six mini-flash cards and, I distribute the additional cards (numbers 7+) to the students to give them each a full set.
After this, I demo how to play Bingo! with a teaching assistant or a strong student.
Because the students have already been seated for a few minutes during the cutting dictation, I try to keep this demo short, and correct the kids (with the assistance of the teaching assistants) as we play the first few rounds of Bingo!.
The game itself is very simple.
Each student chooses three cards from their pile of mini-flash cards and places them face-up on the Bingo board. I sit at the front of the horse shoe formation (where I can easily see all of the student’s Bingo boards), and turn over the large flash cards, one at a time. The students say the word, and if they have one of that card on their board, they turn it over.
When a student successfully turns over all of their cards, they shout ‘Bingo!’. I continue turning over all of the flash cards until all of the students get Bingo! This way, nobody loses.
There are many ways you can add to, or modify the game to get more language out of it.
At the end of the game you collect the Bingo boards to re-use another time. You could even print them on card stock, and laminate them to use in other classes. The mini-flash cards themselves can be used with other games and activities for the same theme.
I hope your classes enjoy Bingo! as much as mine have.
