Kids love games! - Part 2: Bingo is B-I-N-G-O

A reader asked me about a game that she/he can play in their English class with 4th and 5th grade students, and I immediately thought of a game called BINGO...

Who doesn't like playing BINGO? I think it's one of those games that never gets old and boring because of that one moment when someone calls out, "BINGO!" and everybody cheers! :) It's a game that can be played across age groups with as little as 2 people, and incorporate any topics.

I usually play BINGO at the end of a unit to review materials, although sometimes I do it at the beginning to assess my students' prior knowledge and to start a discussion about the connection between the words. You can play BINGO using any kinds of topics, and it's very easy to prepare.

How you can play BINGO in class (click to see samples): 

1. English : review topic-specific vocabulary e.g. occupations, body parts, kitchen items; grammar-related vocabulary e.g. homonyms, prepositions
2. Math: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, shapes, and many more... Your students won't realize that they're learning their times table! 

Teaching prop - Part 1: Things I must carry to class

I can never understand how a teacher can ONLY bring a textbook and a marker to their classroom, because that will never be me! Ask anybody who has seen me in action, they'll say that I should have a trolley to replace my enormous tote bags full of papers, markers, magnets, pens, and many more...

When I go to class, here are the things that I must carry:

• My one and only folder where I keep my lesson plans, notes where I scribble down ideas, my teaching schedule that I personalize, and class lists,
• A copy of whatever textbooks my class is using,
• Color-coded folders designated for each class I teach. In each of these folders, I keep all worksheets and other students' work. Every time I make copies of worksheets, I immediately separate them into the-many-number-of-classes-I-have and put them in their respective folder. And since they're color-coded, I won't have any trouble identifying which folder to bring to class! 

Reviewing materials for exams - Part 1: Soccer match in class!

My students always ask that we play games in class to review materials prior to exam week. Basically, they'd like to do something fun, involves little writing, yet helps them review the materials. Thanks to the creative and generous teachers out there, I have made some review games using Microsoft Power Point. However, I often became one of those unlucky one teachers and didn't get an LCD projector so there goes my plan on playing games I spent hours making...

Using the same review questions, my students and I had a fun "Soccer Match" in the class, and here's what to do:

You need:

• a dice (preferably the fuzzy dice so won't rolled away easily when thrown around in the class)
• a picture of a soccer field drawn on the board (see example-1)
• a magnet (I like to paste a picture of a soccer ball onto the magnet so it feels like a "real" soccer match)
• small pieces of papers with numbers (as many as the number of students in one team x 3 sets)
• a list of review questions. I usually make questions that elicit short answers (definitions, examples, list of reasons/characteristics, etc.)

Kids love games - Part 1: Conversation Cards

How many times have you played Human Bingo on the first day of class? I think Human Bingo is a quick and simple way to get the ball rolling as it allows students to get to know each other and lets them move around to get rid of some of the nervousness.

Since Human Bingo is only designed to be a starter, I was looking for an activity where students can have extended conversations and learn about their classmates in greater depth. I wanted to do something fun, yet well-structured at the same time while giving plenty opportunity for the students to talk and listen to each other.

I thought of typing a list of questions, print them on small index cards, and randomly assigned the cards to the students, but I have done that too often by now. So using the same idea, I decided to use a deck of cards as a tool!

I call it: Conversation cards

• Depending on the grade level of the students and time allotment, make a list of questions consisting of min. of 13 questions (# of cards in a suit) for your students to ask each other.
• Assign each question to the cards in the deck (see example of questions). You could make as little as 13 questions and as many as 52 questions. 

Lesson Plan - Part 1: Essential? Important? Burden? Waste of time?

Lesson Plan, or known as LP in my previous school, is something that every teacher is familiar with. No day of teaching can pass by without mentioning the word "Lesson Plan."

I was introduced to this when I did a semester of student teaching in a New York City Public School. Back then, it meant sitting down with an academic calendar in front of you, scribbling down some notes here and there in your planner, and flipping through some textbooks hoping to find appropriate activities for your class. Knowing what you'll be doing with the kids is very important.

The next time I encountered the concept of Lesson Planning was during a teacher training program in New York. Then I learned that there are a gazillion ways of creating a lesson plan. Basically choose a template that you're comfortable with and use it to guide you through the day or week, so long as you have the same components: objectives of the lesson, materials/tools, procedures, means of assessment and reflection. Be prepared!