Bingo! (s)
Minefields

Level Aims Grammar Time Materials
elementary school to junior high school grammar review any 20 mins Bingo work sheets

Tick-Tock Bingo! Pass out the sheets to the students, and then randomly ask nine different students alternately, "What time is it?" and "What's the time?". Each student must respond with a different time, and as they do the rest of the class must draw that time on the clock face of their choice. Don't let them write the time numerically or the activity will loose a good deal of its efficacy as a teaching tool. When all nine of the spaces are filled the Bingo! game can begin.

First, the entire class must stand up and ask either, "What time is it?" or "What's the time?" in unison. Then the AET simply responds with one of the times previously given by the students. When a student gets Bingo! they must say "TICK-TOCK" and sit down. The remaining students (still standing) must ask again. Have the students alternate the two questions between turns. This continues until all students are sitting. Since there are only nine clocks the game goes quite quickly.

International Bingo! While this is a good introduction to the English names of some of the world's countries, it is also a good activity for practicing some key grammar points. First, pass out the sheets to the students, and have them write the names of the countries into the blank boxes of their choice as you read them out (10 seconds per country). Slow learners can use Katakana, as can the whole class if the time frame for this activity is short.

When all is ready, ask a student, "Where do you want to go?" or "Where do you live?" or "What country did you visit last year/week/...?", or "Have you ever been to ...?". The student replies with, "I want to go to ____", or "I live in ____", or "I visited ____" etc.. After they have answered, the student must choose another student (have boys ask girls and vise versa) and ask them the question. The next student answers and then asks someone else. Students circle each answer as it is given and yell Bingo! at the appropriate time. If a student has 4 in a row ('reech') and is asked the next question, s/he can give the answer which gives them Bingo!. This game can be done in teams also. Everything is the same except that when a student gets Bingo!, that earns that student's team a point.

Profession Bingo! Played in exactly the same way as International Bingo.

Complete-the-sentence Bingo! Give the students a blank Bingo! sheet and a list of words. The students put the words into the blanks at random. Then you read a sentence leaving out a word which they must fill in for themselves and mark off from the Bingo! card. E.g.: "I'm so thirsty! I want to drink a glass of _____. (water)"; "Jane likes cats, but I think ____ are better pets." (dogs) ; "Mt. Fuji is the most _____ mountain in Japan" (beautiful). Sentences can be easy or difficult, but ensure the words in your list have a clear relationship to the sentences you read, and that word/sentence pairs are different enough so any word matches only one sentence.

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