Situation Bingo (Find someone who...)

Not every activity has to be a brain-bending thinking skills challenge.  This is a simple, fun ice-breaker perhaps best used at the start of a year so learners can start to find out a bit more about each other.


Students are given a "bingo grid" of questions to ask their peers. Pictured is an example I have used in INSET sessions to give you an idea. Students are not allowed to ask consecutive questions to the same person - they must move on, so a lot of movement around the room is required.



You might also engineer a question or two so that a new member of your class (perhaps a recent arrival from Country X) is the only person who is likely to be able to answer (e.g. "Find someone who can name three cities in Country X").

Can also be used to activate prior knowledge at the start of a topic ("Find someone who can add 2/7 and 5/8", "Find someone who knows two dangers of smoking") or as a plenary activity at the end of a unit. Noisy but fun.

8 comments:

  1. Fiona16:44

    RE
    Tool used – Situation Bingo
    Time taken to prepare– 10min
    Class – year 2

    I actually adapted this activity as before I asked the children to find someone who? I first had them tell me positive things about themselves.

    This was a lesson to show the celebration of differences in R.E I had previously taken the pupils photographs and had placed them at the bottom of a flip chart. The flip chart had 8 boxes that ranged from what the children might be good at.

    I used this as a main lesson. The children worked in pairs to discussing what they thought they were good at and fed back to class. We then worked as a whole class adding children into areas were the other children felt they were good at. The children were engaged and loved the fact that their photos where on the White Board. They also liked discussing what they and others were good at. They were very surprised that they could be good at more than one thing and saw the similarities and differences in one another.

    Pupil engagement [ 3]
    Pupil enjoyment [ 4]
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    Suitability of technique for the content being delivered [4 ]
    How much YOU enjoyed using this technique [ 3]

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  2. PSHE
    Tool used – Situation Bingo
    Time taken to prepare (in minutes) – 15m
    Class – Y6

    I used this as a re-introduction tool after the summer holidays, asking children to find out new things about each other, as part of PSHE week

    Children and adults loved this activity and didn’t want to stop! It was used as a warm-up activity.

    Make sure children understand that they are expected to move and not just to wait until someone comes to them. Also that they should find the answers themselves, rather than copying names from each other!

    Pupil engagement [ 4]
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    Pupils meeting lesson objectives [ 4]
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    How much YOU enjoyed using this technique [4 ]

    (1) very negative (2) negative (3) positive (4) very positive

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  3. Bronwyn16:57

    Music
    Tool used - Situation Bingo
    Time taken to prepare (in minutes) - 25 mins
    Class - Reception

    Instead of "Find Someone Who...", my situation bingo was "Find Something That..."

    As the age of the children restricted the reading of any clues or questions, I gave each child a small piece of coloured paper eg 5 had green, 5 had red, etc. These corresponded with the coloured paper that I had the questions written on. As I read the green question all those with a green piece of paper got up to find an answer to that clue eg Find something that shakes.. Find something that scrapes etc

    I used this situation bingo as a main activity. The children were excited to be able to choose their own instrument while solving a clue! Initially it was pretty noisy as everyone wanted to solve every clue and at this age they want to help each other as well. It was easy to get the children to swap their pieces of coloured aper around and have another go as well.

    Tip: Laminate the small bits of coloured paper so they can be used over and over!

    Pupil engagement [3 ]
    Pupil enjoyment [4]
    Pupils meeting lesson objectives [4 ]
    Suitability of technique for the content being delivered [ 3]
    How much YOU enjoyed using this technique [3 ]

    (1) very negative (2) negative (3) positive (4) very positive

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  4. Adre16:59

    Maths variation
    Tool used – Situation Bingo
    Time taken to prepare (in minutes) – 10-15 min
    Class – Year 9 set 1

    I used this strategy as a plenary to a lesson on fractions, decimals and percentages. I gave the pupils different cards of decimals, fractions and percentages with either definitions, sums or answers on it. Each of the also had a grid like at a real life Bingo game. They were to move around the class to find their match and then they were to cross it off on the grid. Obviously, the pupil with the first completed row would shout out BINGO!

    I used the strategy as a plenary. The kids found it very interesting because it was something different to the norm.

    I shared the tool with the rest of the colleagues in my department as a demonstration and said that they could change it to which ever way they preferred. They came across to be very positive.

    Pupil engagement [ 3 ]
    Pupil enjoyment [ 3 ]
    Pupils meeting lesson objectives [ 3 ]
    Suitability of technique for the content being delivered [ 3 ]
    How much YOU enjoyed using this technique [3 ]

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  5. Barish17:00

    Success!
    Time taken to prepare (in minutes) – 20 minutes
    Class - Year 8 (1)

    I used this activity as a starter to a speaking and listening exercise in English.

    We have just started a media/non-fiction unit on Travel Writing and I wanted my students to loosen up and feel confident about talking to their group members and the class as a whole. This activity was brilliant in getting rid of any initial inhibitions; it was a chance for the class to have fun while at the same time doing some relevant fact-finding.

    The “find someone who” was basically made up of questions concerning students’ holidays, examples being: “find someone who has swum with dolphins”, “…has seen the Statue of Liberty in person” and “has used ever lost anything at the beach”. This task was a fantastic starter for lesson where the main activity consisted of speaking in groups about previous holidays, describing memorable food and locations etc.

    My students absolutely loved this game, they were incredibly enthusiastic about finding out the fun information and it really worked in getting them to become relaxed and confident with one another.

    My advice to anyone trying this would be to set some ground rules beforehand as it can be a rowdy game; I actually got the class to think about these and tell me – this way they take responsibility for their actions.

    Pupil engagement [4]
    Pupil enjoyment [4]
    Pupils meeting lesson objectives [4]
    Suitability of technique for the content being delivered [4]
    How much YOU enjoyed using this technique [4]

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  6. James17:02

    Subject and topic - PSHE, introductory tool
    Time taken to prepare (in minutes) - 25
    Year group - 3

    I used this as an activity in the first week of the Autumn Term, having just started teaching this year 3 class, as a general speaking and listening exercise.

    The activity elicited a great response from the children. It was a perfect activity for the first week of term, as it gave the children a chance to move around and question each other with few guidelines. As I was new to the class, it also gave the children a chance to talk to and question me, and generally get to know me better. Used almost as an initial assessment, it was also great in giving me an insight in the children's own speaking and reading skills, clearly showing up those with greater confidence and ability, both generally but also specifically in reading.

    The items included on the bingo grid ranged from personal details such as "people with more then 3 siblings ", to more general knowledge "can you name all three members of girls aloud". Also included were topical questions, "name the British PM" (worrying how many thought it was Gordon Ramsey), and as we're at a Catholic School, questions of faith, "who is doing their first holy communion this year?"

    The activity was carried out in the school hall to give the children room to move around without any obstacles. There were 4 adults in the room at the time, so any of the questions that possibly the majority of children wouldn't know (what does RBKC stand for?) could be answered by one of them. The number of adults also meant that the children could all be observed at some stage to make sure that all were participating, and not just talking to their mates about unrelated matters - a possible concern if not supervised well.

    The advice I would give to other teachers using it is to be very clear on the rules - particularly that you can only use 1 child for each answer on your board. some children had asked the same person 3 or 4 questions and put their name for all of them. In doing this, the child clearly was not making the most of all the people in the room. The activity also took a lot longer than I had imagined. After about 10 minutes most of the kids had only found 2 or 3 answers on their board of 16 - this will obviously be decided by the type and difficulty of the questions you choose to include.

    Pupil engagement [4]
    Pupil enjoyment [4]
    Pupils meeting lesson objectives [4]
    Suitability of technique for the content being delivered N/A
    How much YOU enjoyed using this technique [4]

    (1) very negative (2) negative (3) positive (4) very positive

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  7. Teegan17:03

    Tool used – Situation Bingo
    Time taken to prepare (in minutes) – 30 minutes
    Class - Year 10

    I used this tool to recap the facts about the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. Students were given Bingo cards which were different to each other. They were then asked questions randomly and had to answer it correctly. They crossed out the correct answers and once somebody had a line, they called out BINGO!! The answers were checked and if they were correct the student won.

    Students enjoyed it as it was something different from normal and I think the fact there was a winner helped.

    I used answers that were similar to each other, including dates, so students still had to think about their answers. The Bingo cards also need to be different, otherwise several students will get BINGO at the same time (assuming they get the right answers). However, I have quite a small class, so this was possible.

    How would you rate (using the scale below) the success of the strategy you used in terms of:-
    Pupil engagement 4
    Pupil enjoyment 3 - slight frustration in getting the right answer, but still engaged!!
    Pupils meeting lesson objectives 3
    Suitability of technique for the content being delivered 4
    How much YOU enjoyed using this technique 4

    (1) very negative (2) negative (3) positive (4) very positive

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  8. Sophia17:04

    Class - year one
    Tool used - situation bingo
    Time taken to prepare - 20 minutes

    I prepared a bingo board (with pictures) for my year ones, as a 'get to know you' activity in the first week of the year. I got them into groups and asked them to find someone who... had a big sister, had brown eyes etc. Once they found someone with that attribute they placed a block on that square. The first one to get all the squares won. I used pictures as well as words to make sure all my year ones could access it, even if they couldn't read.

    If I were to do this again I think I would be braver and get the whole class to do it with each other! In the groups it was a little restrictive, however getting to know a new class I stuck with sitting in groups. It would be better if they moved around and got to know everyone.

    Pupil engagement - 3
    Pupil enjoyment - 3
    Pupils meeting lesson objectives - 3
    Suitability of technique for content being delivered - 3
    How much YOU enjoyed using this technique - 4 - it was a good way of learning the family history and background of the kids!

    ReplyDelete

(Please post when you have tried this particular tool - thanks!)
How did you adapt this tool for your classroom?
What was the response from your learners?
What advice would you give other teachers about this tool?