Collectors Bingo

Here's another 'why didn't I think of that' moment - a stunning place-value and calculation activity (well, we think it's fairly stunning). I had nearly forgotten about it until we started looking through some old work files in the garage.

We've spent some time updating it and giving it that 'mathsticks' touch. It's a game which encourages children to practise addition as well as think carefully about place value.

The fun maths game can be played by a group or even by the whole class.

You need a set of cards (download the attached file and cut them up - if you laminate them and let the children use 'wipe-off' pens the cards can be used hundreds of times). Shuffle the cards and give each child three. They place them in front of them in a row; this becomes their maths Bingo board.

Now, you also need a blank dice with the numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, 10 and 20 - the numbering is important. Roll the dice to select a number at random and all of the children write this number on any of their Bingo cards. The aim of the game is to write down a collection of numbers on each individual card which add up to the number in the corner of that card.

Here's Eddie's set of cards after 11 numbers have been 'called'.

Eddie has managed to complete Card 25 and Card 28, and is waiting for a combination of numbers to give him a 3 in order to complete Card 36.

The first person to complete all three cards is the winner. Naturally, it is useful to discuss the strategies and the calculations that the children used to play the game. If the children work in pairs to complete a row of cards between them, then they can discuss where they are going to place each number whenever it is called. Children can always ignore a number (missing a go) if they don't think it will be useful. However, once a number is written on a card it cannot me 'moved' to a different card.

It may also be useful for the teacher to stop the game after a while and ask different children which numbers they are 'waiting' for, and/or if there are other combinations of numbers they could use at any point to complete their cards.

Instead of a dice you could use the digit cards (included in the pdf file) and turn these up randomly.

Once the children are familiar with the game you could change the numbers on the dice (or the digit cards. For example, using 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10 would make children focus carefully on addition. while numbers such as 1, 2, 3, 10, 20, 30 would focus more on place value.

Children could also be invited to write the numbers freely, anywhere or on the card; or encouraged to organise the numbers with care - either horizontally, or vertically.

The 6-page pdf download includes instructions, 27 numbered bingo cards and two pages of digit cards. Here's a thumbnail image of four of the pages:

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