Teacher Preparation: 

• Prepare 30-40 strips of paper, blank

• A hat or bin to hold the paper, once the drawing is created

• Copies of the blank bingo board, one per student, on white paper. Go here for your choice of:  

 Game Directions: 

In brief - 

• Teacher: Pick your topic

• Class Activity: Brainstorm 30 items that represent that topic on the white board

• Teacher: Hand out blank bingo cards, one to each student

• Individual Activity: Direct students to create their own bingo boards by choosing 24 of the list of items to include on their own board (they can write them in or draw them in) 

• Teacher: While the students are creating their boards, the teacher can write each item down on a scrap of paper. Put all scraps in a hat, and get ready to draw bingo items at random. 

• Class Activity: Play Bingo! 

A More Detailed Explanation of the Same Activity:  

1. Pick your topic: Use a specific topic such as the Greek Alphabet, or use a broader topic such as Ancient Greece for unit review. 

2. Review the background and explore the learning links for your topic: Ancient Greece for Kids, Ancient Rome for Kids, or Ancient Egypt for Kids

3. Brainstorm a list of items for inclusion, either as a group activity or as a class activity, items that can be individually added to the Bingo Board. You will need to generate at least 24 items on your list of options. 

EXAMPLE/Group Activity: To use Greek Bingo to review your Ancient Greece unit, select 5 topics such as Geography, Religion, Daily Life, Government/City-States, Inventions/Achievements. Break students into five groups. Assign each group one topic. 

Groups are to:  

First, generate a list of items by name - ie: peninsula (geography), Zeus (religion), tunic (daily life), Athens (city-state), columns (inventions). 

Second: 

• Option #1: Copy their list one item at a time, on a scrap of paper, and fold each scrap of paper in half, in preparation for the drawing. 

• Option #2: Write a clue for the item, such as King of the Greek Gods, instead of Zeus - the item name, on a scrap of paper; fold the paper in half. 

These folded papers will be collected the the teacher and placed in a hat or bin, in preparation for drawing, as students are working on their third task. 

Third: make a copy of their original list - one copy for each group.  

4. Individual Activity  

• Send students back to their desks. 

• Make sure everyone knows how to play bingo. A show of hands works fine. Pull students who are not familiar or wish a review of the rules together, and have them wait a minute.

• Distribute one blank board to each student. (Have some extra copies handy just in case.) 

• Direct students to create their own board, using 1 item from any list in each square. They can only use an item once per board, but there is no such thing as categories on the bingo board. They can choose to use all the religion items, all the government items, but only a couple of the daily life items. It's up to them. The drawing will be at random. The center square is the free square. If needed, help the students who have not played bingo create their board and run over the rules. 

5. Call the game by having the teacher draw at random from your hat or bin of folded papers. You can play five games on one board by directing students to mark the corner of each bingo square, rather than the whole square. 

We start with the upper left corner for one game, switch to the upper right corner for the next game, and then do the same for the bottom left and right corners. The fifth game is the concluding game - direct students to put a big x in each box when their item is called. That way, you can vary the game - L shaped bingo only, diagonal only, full board of course should be saved to the end as time permits.