Backwards Bingo
Contents
Time
20 min
Materials
Chalk in at least two different colors and pre-made bingo cards
Directions
This is an activity for upper level Elementary school student. I have used this game for grades 4-6 and it works well for all three. I usually precede this game with a review of the letters, singing of the ABC song and with a game of Karuta. This game is the last game of my lesson. The bingo sheets I've created have three parts. Part one A place for the students to write their names Part two tracing practice. To the right of the bingo squares itself there should be a section where letters are written with dashes that the students can trace over. Like so... A (regular) A (dashes) B (reg) B (dashes) etc. Students complete this, if time permits, before starting to fill in the bingo squares. Part three A bingo sheet with 16 squares. Tell the students to write in their favorite letters.
After all the students have filled in their cards explain the idea of Backwards bingo. Basically in this game, the last student not to get Bingo wins. Explain with gestures like "Bingo is bad" thumbs down or "if you get bingo you are out!!" baseball gestures and "No Bingo means you are safe" more baseball gestures.
The way that the letters are chosen for the Bingo game is by going down each row and asking each students, one by one to choose a letter not on their Bingo sheet. This creates a comptetive atmosphere and really gets the kids excited. Ask periodically who has Bingo and who has no Bingo. Continue till one or two are left.
