Math is EDUCATIONAL!!

The game of bingo is both very simple to play and extremely popular. As a result of these two facts, it is probably fair to say that most adults know how to play bingo, and many have actively played the game themselves. While that may be true, many people do not know, however, that many teachers are also using versions of the game of bingo as an educational activity in their classrooms.

Possibly, the most widely known variants of classroom bingo are those used for teaching English, closely followed by those used for teaching foreign languages such as French, German and Spanish. In each of these cases, the game is played using bingo cards which are printed with letters or words. As in traditional bingo, the player’s (i.e. student’s) goal is to achieve one or more lines of marked off squares across their bingo squares – however the twist is in the criteria that used to determine how squares are marked off: squares might be marked off if they contain the letter than begins the teacher’s word (“phonemic awareness bingo”), if they contain a word matching the definition given by the teacher (“vocabulary bingo”), or perhaps if they contain the appropriate foreign language translation of the English word read out by the teacher.

It would incorrect however to assume that it is only English and language teachers who introduced bingo in their classrooms.

Many math teachers have also found that educational versions of bingo can be used in their subject. These include:

* Simple math operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division can be practised in an interesting way with the help of bingo. In this case, the game is typically played using bingo cards printed with numbers, and the teachers must mark off the corresponding square in response to a math problem given by the teacher (for example, marking off “42″ if asked to “multiply 6 by 7″).

* Likewise fractions and decimals can be practised using bingo.

The students’ cards contain fractions or decimals chosen by the teacher, and they must find the corresponding square in response to the teacher’s bingo calls. Some problems might be simple, such as finding the square containing “0.5″ if the teacher says “nought point five” or “five tenths”, and others might be hard, such as finding the square containing “1.25″ if the teacher says “five quarters”.

* Other math problems that can also be practised including rounding (for example finding the square containing “30″ if asked to “round 28 to the nearest multiple of ten”) – but really the only limit is the teacher’s imagination.

If you’re a teacher and interested in introducing bingo into your classes, one question that you’re probably concerned about is where to get the bingo cards? While it is possible to buy printed educational bingo cards, it can soon get expensive, particularly if you need a large number of cards, and in any case the cards may not contain the particular items you want for your class. The answer is to prepare the bingo cards yourself. No, I’m not going to suggest creating them by hand – that would be tedious and time-consuming – instead use your computer! If you use some bingo card maker software, all you need to do is enter a list of items that you want to appear on the cards, and the computer can print off as many bingo cards as you want, with just a few mouse clicks.

Math teachers are always on the look out for ideas to make their subject more approachable and enjoyable for students. One such idea that many teachers have used with success is math bingo. This offers a interesting way for students to practice different types of mathematical problems, while having a little fun a long the way. What is more, it is not expensive, does not require specialist materials, and is flexible enough to be adapted to teaching a wide variety of different mathematical topics, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, rounding, fractions and decimals.

The way that the game is played:-

1. Before class, the teacher chooses a series of math problems on the chosen topic.  Each problem should have a different answer, and you need at least 24 (but preferably a bit more than 24, perhaps 50) such problems.

2.

Each student is given a bingo card. The cards contain a random selection of answers to these problems (rather than the usual bingo numbers),

3. You now play bingo in class, with the teacher playing the part of bingo caller. However, instead of just calling out numbers, the teacher reads out the math problems.  Students then solve the problem and try to find the corresponding number on their card.  The problems can be as easy or hard as the teacher wants.  For example, a multiplication problem could be a times table type question or a long multiplication.  Likewise a fraction question might require converting from one denominator to another, or from a decimal into a fraction.

The key requirement to play these games is of course a bingo card for each student. These need to be specially prepared depending on the topic being taught.

 Fortunately, there’s no need for the teacher to spend a lot of time manually writing out lots of bingo cards – a PC and bingo card generator software can print as many cards as you, containing whatever types of items you want, in just a few minutes.