Create a Custom BINGO Review Game Easily

The BINGO Master template is probably my most tried-and-true, favorite review game for classroom use. I've used it since my first year of teaching, and it's always been successful, even with the most difficult classrooms. It's also painfully simple.

Steve Mashburn, Coordinator of Online Education for Forsyth County Schools in Georgia, created this spreadsheet in 2001. You type in 25 vocabulary words and definitions, and then click the "Print Bingo Cards" button. Within seconds, 30 different bingo cards and a call sheet are generated and ready to print.

Vocabulary, of course, is not the only way to use BINGO Master. I used it for end-of-quarter Algebra I & II review recently. Algebra I students solved one and two-step equations and found the answers on their bingo cards, with numerical answers appearing on their cards and the equations on the call sheet. I would write them out, doing an example here and there to guide them along. Algebra II students factored polynomials in their version of the game.

In previous years, we played basic operations bingo--operations on integers, evaluating expressions and order of operations problems. This would be ideal for the first week or two of Algebra I and for pre-algebra lessons in earlier grades.

Make sure your spreadsheet program has macros enabled in order for it to work. Otherwise, this is about as flexible and easy to use as anything in your teaching arsenal.

Original BINGO Master template
Solving Equations BINGO
Factoring Polynomials BINGO
Basic Operations BINGO

For more flexible, easy ideas, check out my book Ten Cheap Lessons: Easy, Engaging Ideas for Every Secondary Classroom.