| Bingo is an increasingly popular classroom activity with | | | | but that students must master recognizing in order |
| many teachers. This is because these teachers realize | | | | to achieve reading fluency. |
| that as well as being a lot of fun for their students, | | | | 2. Blending Bingo - The teacher says a word very |
| the game is perfectly suited to educational use, | | | | slowly such as "sss-ppp-ooo-ttt" or "mmm-aaa-t" and |
| including in the K-12 environment. This is because | | | | the students must find the word on the card. The |
| bingo is very easy to learn and play, highly flexible | | | | purpose being to help students practice "blending" |
| and adaptable to different topics and subjects, and | | | | letters to make words. |
| importantly given the financial constraints that many | | | | 3. Partial Word Bingo - The teacher says something |
| teachers work under, not requiring of specialist | | | | like "Find the word with 'mile' in it" and the student |
| expensive resources or materials. | | | | has to find "Smile". You can also use beginnings of |
| Although bingo can be used in teaching many | | | | words (e.g. find the word beginning with "r"), word |
| different subjects and topics, including math and | | | | endings, or sounds in the middle of words. |
| arithmetic, telling the time, or even geography, | | | | 4. Rhyming Bingo - The teacher says something like |
| history or science, one area in which the game is | | | | "Find the word that rhymes with 'plot'" and the |
| especially popular, is teaching reading. When teaching | | | | student has to find "slot". |
| reading the key aspect of the game is that each | | | | 5. Silent E Bingo - Ahead of time the teacher |
| student is given a bingo card printed with words (or | | | | prepares bingo cards using pairs of words with and |
| perhaps phrases), and although (as in standard bingo), | | | | without a silent E, for example "cap" and "cape", or |
| the objective remains to be the first player to get a | | | | "hat" and "hate". You then play normal bingo and |
| line of five items horizontally, vertically or diagonally, | | | | students have to learn to recognize the differences |
| game play can be adapted from simply calling out | | | | between these similar words. A variation is to use |
| words (or writing them on the blackboard if the | | | | only words without the final E, and when playing |
| teacher prefers). | | | | make bingo calls of the following form "When you |
| 1. Sight Words - The teacher simply calls out words, | | | | add an E, the word would be 'pine'", in response to |
| and students must find the corresponding word on | | | | which clue the students needs to find the square |
| their cards. This variant is most popular with so-called | | | | containing "pin". |
| "Sight Words" - words that can not be sounded out, | | | | |