The reading classroom is a great place to use a fun game of bingo with everything from vocabulary development to spelling and grammar practice, or even reading comprehension. Check out our teacher-created ways to reimagine the timeless game of bingo to help motivate your ELA students.
Vocabulary Word Bingo
Have a weekly vocabulary list? Need an easy learning center? Or even a homework idea? Create vocabulary bingo by adding your words to a basic blank Bingo card template or using a custom bingo card generator like Bingo Card Creator to create unique cards in 3 easy steps.
- Vocabulary Clues Bingo Need a good review? Then give a clue! Read the definition or an example of the vocabulary word. Students then have to find the corresponding word on their bingo card.
- What’s the Word? Bingo For an easy homework assignment, create custom bingo cards with vocabulary word clues in the spaces. Then, send home a vocabulary word list along with a bingo card. Kids have to match the words from the list to the clues on their bingo card using each word only once. When they get a bingo, their homework is complete.
- Vocabulary Bingo Learning Center Create an easy vocabulary practice learning center. Provide vocabulary bingo cards, chips, a bag with words. If using BingoCardCreator.com, a cut-apart call list will automatically be generated with the set of bingo cards you create. One student calls the word, the other students find the word on their card but can only cover it when they give an example, part of speech, or use the word in a sentence.
- Vocabulary Parts of Speech Bingo For a faster paced game, call a part of speech- noun, verb, adjective. Students cover all the words that can be classified as that part of speech on their custom vocabulary bingo card.
Print a blank Bingo card template or add your own content.
Spelling Word Bingo
Get deep practice with spelling words and have fun to boot. Here are a few of our favorites.
- Spelling Word Sort Bingo Create bingo cards with each spelling word. Then, call out a spelling pattern like double consonants or vowel-consonant-silent e. Students cover one word on their bingo card with that pattern. For a faster paced game, have students cover as many words on their bingo card as they can find with the spelling pattern.
- Clue Words Bingo For an easy way to practice at home, create a list of clues- one for each spelling word. Then generate a set of bingo cards with the spelling words. Parents or guardians give a clue. The student must find the word that fits the clue on their bingo card, spell it (no peeking!), and if spelled correctly, cover it. This is a great way for teachers and even parents to personalize the spelling homework by establishing what constitutes a bingo such as a traditional line or for a longer game, covering the whole card.
- First Letter Bingo Create bingo cards with each spelling word. To play, call just the first letter of a word. Students must find one word on their card that starts with that letter and spell it without looking. Once they get a bingo, they must spell each word in the bingo to win.
Grammar Bingo
There are so many great ways to use bingo when teaching grammar. Elements of grammar like parts of speech, punctuation, and sentence structure can all be incorporated into a fun game of bingo. Here are some games you can play whole group, small group, or even as homework.
- Parts of Speech Bingo Place 25 to 30 words into a bag split evenly among the various parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Create bingo cards with the parts of speech categories repeating as many times as necessary to fill the card. When a word is pulled out of the bag, students must find the part of speech it belongs to on their card and write the word in that space. For example, if the word pulled out of the bag is duck, students must choose a space on their card that has Noun and then write the word duck in that space. To go BINGO, they must read the part of speech and the word they wrote in the box for verification.
- Plurals and Possessives Bingo Create bingo cards with plurals, singular possessive, and plural possessive nouns. To play, the teacher calls a word and uses it in a sentence. The students must then find the correct spelling of the word on their bingo card. For example, the word is girl’s: A girl’s blonde hair was covered in mud. Players must then distinguish between girls, girl’s, or girls’ on their bingo card and cover the correct spelling.
- U-Pick ‘Em Sentence Punctuation Bingo For a fun way to practice at home, create bingo cards with different punctuation marks. Students must choose a row, column, or diagonal first. They then must write or say sentences using each punctuation mark in the bingo line they picked.
Reading Comprehension Bingo
From providing practice going back into the text, to retelling key elements of a story, these comprehension-based bingo games of are sure to help provide focus and fun to your reading instruction.
- Story Discussions Bingo Get kids talking about what they read by creating this fun reading game. First, create bingo cards with reading discussion questions. Check out this great list of questions to get you started or print our premade story discussions bingo cards. Partner kids up with a discussion buddy and give them each a card. To play, they have to take turns picking discussion questions in a row, column, or diagonal. Once they each get a bingo, they are both reading winners.
- Story Elements Bingo Create bingo cards with story key elements like main character, setting, problem, and solution. Place the details that correspond with these story elements in a bag. When one of the details is pulled from the bag, the students must match it to the story element on their bingo card. For an added challenge, they must tell more about it before covering the space. This is great for small group instruction, a learning center, or even homework.
- Main Idea and Details Bingo Create bingo cards with important details from a nonfiction text. Place the key main ideas from the story in a bag. When a main idea is pulled, players must find a detail on their card to support it and write the main idea it corresponds to in the bingo square. Once they get a bingo, they must verify the detail and main idea they wrote in each space.
- Reading Detective Bingo Have students practice going back into the text to search for answers to questions. First, create bingo cards with a list of questions pertaining to a story you are reading in class. Students must find the answers to the questions on their bingo card by going back into the text and writing the page number in each square.
- Read Something Different Bingo Here’s a motivating way to get students out of their comfort zones and to try reading something different. To start, create bingo cards using various genres of text like mystery and realistic fiction as well as non-fiction categories like history, geography, and biography, or even poetry. Students write the title of the book they read that fits the genre in the bingo card square. Have prizes ready for when they present a winning card.
