This is a great game to start using only English. You can demonstrate everything and the language is very intuitive. You can already use this game after teaching them a few colours. It also allows for a lot of extra language.

Key language forms:

  • Can I have blue, please?
  • I have / I don’t have
  • What colour is it?

Additional language forms:

  • Who wants to be the teacher? / Who is next? / Whose turn is it?
  • How many do you have?
  • How many do you need?

Possible variations:

numbers, objects with certain colours (yellow sun, green grass, purple plum).

Higher levels:

For higher levels this game becomes a critical thinking, spelling and peer learning exercise.

First, students will make their own 3-by-3 Bingo card following your instructions (critical thinking).

Next, each student creates his own bingo card by writing 9 vocabulary words in the 9 squares, e.g 9 body parts, 9 action verbs or 9 jobs (vocab review & spelling exercise).

And finally, before starting the game, students check each others bingo cards for spelling mistakes (peer learning). They will do this, because the whole class will win a prize, if, and only if, the first student who has ‘BINGO!’ will have no mistakes on his/her bingo card.

Instructions for making a 3 x 3 bingo card:

Give the students an A4 paper and tell them to:

  1. fold once to make a square and cut off the part you don’t need
  2. fold 2 times to make 3 rectangles the same size
  3. again, fold 2 times to make 9 squares the same size