A Fun Game for Kids. Bingo

Bingo is a great game to play with children. It builds vocabulary, improves listening skills and it's fun. Students need a piece of paper and a pencil. First choose the vocabulary list that you want to teach to the students, such as buildings, jobs, fruit or animals (see below for a list of jobs). Ask the students to tell you the vocabulary that they know. Write the words on the board. Once the students have given you all the words that they know, you can add more words to the list. Choose words that are most relevant for your students, such as common animals in that country or the jobs of your students' parents. Be ready to help the students understand what each of the words are in their language - flashcards are a great way to do this.

Then ask the students to randomly choose six words from the board (or any number you want) and write them on their pieces of paper. Once every student has done this, slowly call out words from the list. Say each word twice, so that all the students can hear. As you call out the words, write down or check off all the words on a piece of paper. Don't check them off on the board as this is a listening activity. Tell the students that the first person to cross off all of their words should shout BINGO! Then ask the student to read out their words, so you can check that you did indeed say those words. That child is then the winning. A small gift to the winner motivates the children and makes the game even more fun.

One way to make the game more difficult and to keep it fresh and challenging is to ask questions instead of calling out the vocabulary words, for example: Who flies a plane? or Who works in a library?

Here is a list of jobs which you can use. Add other jobs that you think are relevant to your students.

teacher
police officer
fire fighter
doctor
chef
pilot
nurse
waiter
dentist
librarian
bus driver
baker
farmer
mail carrier
mechanic
professor
accountant
civil servant
veterinarian
salesclerk
photographer
fisherman
flight attendant
hair dresser
butcher
soldier