Blank Bingo Boards: Low-prep, high engagement!
- Lindsay Whaley
- Apr 21, 2022
- 3 min read
Week 3: Work Smarter Not Harder
As a teacher, time is a valuable thing. We are always looking for activities and lessons that are engaging and meaningful that do not take all our prep time. Enter, the blank bingo board.
The opportunities are endless with this simple game. This week's post is all about different ways to use a blank bingo board in the classroom. The basics for all the following ideas are the same:
Give each student the blank bingo board.
Write/project possible answers where students can see.
Have students fill out their board at random and start posing questions!
That's it, so simple and hardly no prep needed. Just make sure you have the questions ready in advance (ideas below!). The blank boards could be used in whole group, centers, small groups, and more. There are so many ways to get creative with these. It is also easy enough to change the size of the board depending on the number of questions/problems you have. They are a perfect and fun way to review a concept and students will be on the edge of their seats, just waiting for that next question they need to get their BINGO!
Math Fact Practice
Depending on the facts you are working on, have students write numbers of their choice within a given range on the board. For example, with multiplication facts students can choose numbers from 1 to 100. Just choosing the numbers themselves are great practice for students to think about factors and multiples! Teachers could use flash cards or even a deck of cards to create problems for students to solve. I did this when my 4th graders were practicing multi-digit multiplication; I came up with about 20 to 30 problems and wrote the answers on the whiteboard for students to use to build their bingo board. We had so much fun and they all wanted to keep playing until they got a blackout!
Letters or Number Identification
For our younger grades students can fill their bingo spaces with letters of the alphabet or numbers from one to twenty. The teacher could say letters and/or numbers aloud for students to cover. With letters teachers could also say various words aloud and students need to cover the letter that the word starts/ends with.
Solving Task Cards
Pull out the answer key and write all the possible answers for a given set of task cards on the board. Students can fill their board with these answers at random. Read out or project the cards and have students solve for/ identify an answer and mark this out on the bingo board. You could even try doing this with task cards that have multiple-choice answers. Tell students to fill their board with the letters A, B, C, and D. There will be duplicates, but now students will need to use strategy when choosing which bingo square to cover.
Vocabulary Definition Review
List vocabulary words from your current unit for students to choose from to fill their bingo boards. Read off definitions and let students find the corresponding word! In the image I used math geometry words, but this could be done with any topic or subject. I have done this with science in the past and it worked well!
Getting to Know our Classmates
A fun way to connect with peers wold be to have students write the names of people in their class in the bingo spaces. Then, have students go around the room. They can mark off a bingo square when they find 3 things in common with the named person. This could also be used over a longer period of time, having students color in a bingo space after they have worked with that person as a partner on activities or assignments. This would encourage students to branch out and work with other people!
Spelling/Phonics Word Practice
Students could fill their boards with spelling or phonics patterns (ex. ow, oo, ai). The teacher calls out words, and/or shows pictures of words, and students need to identify the correct pattern from that word to cover on their bingo board. Much like multiple choice questions, there will be duplicates, so students will need to use strategy to determine which square they'd like to cover.
These are just a few of MANY ways to use a blank bingo board. I'd love to hear more ideas you have in the comments! The bingo boards are so easy to make, but I also have these for FREE on my TpT store. I encourage you to give blank bingo boards a try in your classroom, I promise they won't let you down!
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