ABSTRACT
There are many commercial bingo games for use in the classroom. We enjoy using a lot of them and practising our four rules of number (+, -, x, ÷. This bingo game is one I made up some years ago when I first started working with dyslexic children. We were doing a lot of work using 100 squares and I was interested in how difficult some of these children found it to understand the layout and then to remember the place of numbers on the square. This game is intended to get the children to really think about the square and the place of numbers on it (and why the numbers are where they are). Activity
Take a blank 100 square (Photocopiable Sheet K) and fill in a certain quantity of the numbers in the position they would be found on a 100 square. I chose to put 18 numbers on each card, but you can use more or fewer than these. Laminate the cards. (Alternatively laminate copies of Photocopiable Sheets L to N.) Cut up a completed 100 square into its 100 squares and put these in a box.
Give each child a card with numbers on it, but a different one from that of his or her neighbour. Each child also needs a marker pen.
You take a square out of the box one at a time and call out the number on the square. If a child has this number he or she colours it in (or puts a dot or cross on it). The first child to correctly complete his or her card is the winner.
If you have another adult handy he or she could be marking off the numbers you call on another 100 square, so that checking is easy Alternatively, dispense with the cut-up square and shut your eyes and stab numbers on a 100 square to call numbers. This way you have the record yourself.
Children soon begin to become more efficient at finding the numbers on their cards. You can discuss this with them.
