七転び八起き

I started reading this amazing blog a few months ago and it took my breath away. The blogger is 15 and joyful. She shares her insight and all things beautiful in her blog.

Which brings me to the title. The title comes from this particular blog. This is a Japanese proverb that literally means: fall down seven times and stand up eight. How beautiful this phrase is. Fall down seven times, stand up eight! It means when life knocks you down, you stand back up. You just keep trying.

Today, I rediscovered something that works in my classroom (I tested it out in all almost all of my classrooms since last year and it works wonderfully every single time!) and this activity I am taking about is the common and humble:

BINGO!

This is a super effective activity in my classes.

You can use BINGO game for practically every subject and every topic.

Some examples:

When I am teaching Grammar, I use BINGO for guided practice. For example, simple future tense using the format of "I will ... next weekend.".

1. Get the students to list down plans for the weekend on the board first. 
2. Then fill in the BINGO worksheet with the plans. 
3. Students take turn to read something from their worksheet but they need to state in full "I will (go swimming) next weekend". Only if they can state the sentence correctly they would be allowed to cross out the item on their BINGO sheet.
4. Once they cross out five item across or down their worksheet they win the game!

When I am teaching vocabulary, I use BINGO for revision.

1. Just list down the words on the board. 
2. Get students to put them into the BINGO worksheet. 
3. For my class, I will state the Malay meaning of the words, and they need to cross off the English equivalent. 
4. The first person to get BINGO is the winner! (Idea stolen from Shannon)

You can use this for synonyms, antonyms, sentence structure, question words, SVA, literature component, reading, speaking etc. etc.


BINGO is a super game in my classes after the Flyswatter Game (NOTHING beats the Flyswatter Game, of course). And it works for almost any subject there is (History, Mathematics, Geography, Science etc.)! The kids are always super excited if you narrate the game in an upbeat tone and even better if it is organized in groups because it would add in some competitiveness amongst groups!

I am glad that we enjoyed ourselves today, and ended it with good old Friday Song (:

It's time to wrap up March! Enjoy the holidays!