Most of us tend to think of bingo as a game played primarily by older people, but variants of the game can also be found in many schools and even kindergartens today. The difference is that while the version of bingo played by older adults is mainly enjoyed as a leisure activity, the version played in schools and kindergartens is played as a learning game and is especially used to teach the alphabet, phonemes and reading in general.

There are several different versions of bingo that can be played in introductory reading classes, including:

1. Letter Bingo: The most basic version of the game, in which students will progress quickly, is to play bingo using bingo cards printed with letters. The teacher acts as the bingo caller and calls out the letter name or letter sound, and the students must find the matching square on their bingo cards.

2. Sight Word Bingo – This is perhaps the main version of bingo suitable for younger children. In this case, the bingo cards are printed with words, most often sight words (these are common words that children need to learn to recognize as they cannot be pronounced easily – teachers have lists of these , such as Dolch’s list of sight words) . In sight word bingo, the teacher reads a word, the students then look up that word on their bingo card.

3. Phonemic Awareness Bingo: This version of bingo may be too difficult for younger children, but it’s the next logical step after sight word bingo. In this case, we are again using letter bingo cards, but the teacher reads words and the student’s task is to recognize the first letter sound and find the corresponding letter square on their bingo cards.

Of course, all of these versions of bingo can be both fun and educational. however, in order to play them, you will need to have a set of bingo cards that contain the particular items you want for the lesson. It is possible to purchase pre-printed educational bingo cards, but this can be expensive if done regularly, and in any case, the cards may not contain the exact items the teacher wants for a particular lesson. The other way to get a proper set of bingo cards is to simply print them out using a PC and some bingo card making software; This is not only cheap, but can be surprisingly quick and easy.