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Going Places Bingo

Students form groups and play a bingo game involving sentences which have time, transport and place words. Each group has one winner who has crossed out all the words on his/her cards first.

Preparation

  1. Using Dice Sheet (A), make sets of three dice, each set comprising (1) means of transport dice, (2) destinations dice (3) time expressions dice. (The activity has been planned for past time expressions, but future time expressions are also given as a variation.)
  2. Cut out sets of bingo cards from Bingo Sheet (B).

Procedure

Students form groups of 4, and each member is given a different bingo sheet. Each group is given a set of three dice: (1) means of transport, (2) destinations, (3) past time expressions. Group members take turns in playing. (This can be decided by じゃんけん – stone, scissors, paper)
The first player throws three dice at once, and from the pictures and words that come up makes a sentence, which he/she says out loud.
The other members of the group listen to the sentence and cross out the words on their bingo card if they appeared.
The teacher sets a time limit, and the winner in each group is the one who has crossed out the greatest number of items in the given time.

Variations

  1. The verb (いきました) on the bingo cards is in the past tense to correspond to the past time expressions dice. The bingo cards would need to be changed to accommodate future time expressions.
  2. Filled in bingo cards have been supplied. However, students could fill in their own bingo cards with appropriate words from the three categories: time expressions, means of transport, destination.
  3. Rules can be changed as teachers or students like. For example, all group members including the player can cross out the words on their bingo card, or only the player can cross out.
  4. Depending on what patterns students are learning, the number of dice i.e. the number of items can be reduced, and simpler patterns can be practiced eg. やまへいきました。
  5. Time expressions, means of transport and destination are not the only possible categories.For example, patterns with time expressions, activities and places like きのうこうえんでピクニックをしました。could be practiced. You will of course need to change the items on the dice and on the bingo card.
  6. If students are learning kanji, words in kanji can also be used for items on the dice.

Resource created by Eiko Nakamura and Michie Akahane-Suparman (August 1994).

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