Bingo Flippity
Liese Hittson
If you are interested in the Google Drawing template, feel free to make a copy of it and adapt to your own content. Each word in the word bank is an individual text box. Click on the text box and edit the text. Within five minutes, you can have your own version!
Those of you who know me know that I am a big fan of Flippity. The creator has very seamlessly created back end scripts for the average user of Google Sheets to help make their life that much easier. Just last week, I noticed that Flippity has a bingo option! How cool is that? The steps are very easy:
Educational games can be a fun way to engage students while also teaching or reviewing subject area content. These can include activities such as word searches, crossword puzzles, bingo games, flashcards, Jeopardy games, and more.
There are lots of tools online that can be used to create such activities. One creative option is to use Google Sheets templates from Flippity. This is a free website that provides a wide range of templates that you can download, fill in with your own content, and then play online through the Flippity site.
As an educator you can make these activities for your own use or for review games for your class. However, students can also use Flippity to make their own activities, which could be a fun alternative project for those interested. For example, a student could create a set of digital flashcards for the content being covered in a particular unit.
See below for how to access the templates and then use them to make your own interactive projects.
Once there you will see a grid of thumbnails showing the wide variety of interactive games and activities you can create with Flippity. New ones are added from time to time, but as of this writing, the following templates are available:
If you would like to try out an activity or game to see how it works, simply click the "Demo" link below the thumbnail. This will open the activity, loaded with demo content to test out.
If you would like to learn even more about an activity, click the "Instructions" link to get a page with detailed information about that activity.
Once you have your content entered into the template, there is still another step needed before you can play the game or run the activity. At the moment, your Sheet is private just to you, so Flippity is not able to access your content. You need to publish the Sheet for Flippity to be able to use it.
Tip - If you plan to use a certain Flippity activity frequently, such as the Random Name Picker to group students in your class, you can simply bookmark the Flippity link from your spreadsheet (from the "Get the Link Here" tab). Now anytime you need to run the activity, you can just click the bookmarked link to launch it.
Eric Curts is an education trainer and consultant with over 20 years' experience throughout the U.S. He is an authorized Google Education Trainer and a Google Certified Innovator. Read his blog at www.controlaltachieve.com and follow him on Google+ and @ericcurts on Twitter.
Seeing my daughters have fun playing outdoor Bingo with the store-bought cards made me think that I could make my own version. Flippity.net has a Google Sheets template that makes it easy to create your own Bingo boards. I modified the template a little bit by inserting images instead of just using words. Watch this short video to see how to make an Outdoor bingo board that includes images.
IPA Bingo for general North American English (modelled after Lynn Santelmann's original from Cascadilla Press): bingo sheets and calling cards (double border for calling out natural classes for a faster game, single border for calling out individual phones for a slower game)
Since her last post, Roslyn has been investigating different ways to embed eLearning options on her blogs. She has tried out a number of free websites that allow the development of interactive activities for students (online worksheets, games, and so on).
The six activity options that I have introduced below are relatively easy for teachers to develop, yet engaging and absorbing for students to use. Furthermore, they can all be embedded or linked in your blog posts in order to vary classroom work, consolidate student learning and facilitate differentiation where necessary.
With its support, you can make flashcards, provide matching games, generate bingo cards, print crosswords and try many other options. All you will need to get started is a Gmail account and access to Google Docs.
There is a host of other options, but my favourite one is the bingo card generator which allows you to print a set of randomised cards OR give your students a link that brings up a bingo screen on their own devices.
The games can also be set up with or without a time limit. Questions may be viewed as a presentation or as flashcards before the quiz is attempted, which provides an extra step to learning and mastery for weaker students.
Students can also join up and create their own sets of flashcards. Consequently, Tinycards can be useful as an introductory task (you make a set for the students), as a challenge (the students create a set themselves) or as a revision strategy for older, more independent students.
Great post. This sort of use of technology is, in my opinion, the best use for learning as the technology chosen can be used to achieve the desired objectives and outcomes rather than trying to think of lessons that will make use of a particular piece of technology.
In most games, Flippity uses Google sheets, so it goes without saying you have to have a Google account. Then, easy, you choose the game and follow the instructions to turn a Google sheet into flipcard, a quiz show, a randomizer, a board game or a bingo to name just a few of the resources it can create.
Educators start a Flipgrid by creating topic grids, setting sharing and access guidelines, and lastly, opening up grids for student participation. Students can create short video responses to grids that last anywhere from a short 15 seconds to five minutes in length. This online review tool also provides an accessible forum for students who are less talkative in a traditional classroom setting. With Flipgrid, all students can share at their own pace. To turn your grids into a game, have students post responses to practice quiz questions. In summary, Flipgrid is an easy-to-use conversation starter for students who are middle school age or older, including high school and college students.
Flippity enables educators to turn their very own Google Sheets spreadsheets into different online reviews games including flashcards, crosswords, trivia games, and board games. Flippity is free to use, though some additional features are ad-supported. Flippity works on most browsers but does require Javascript to function. Each student can have his or her own version of the Flippity review game and teachers can have student results emailed to them for quick classroom progress tracking. A web connection is needed for each page to load, but no special application is needed to get the program.
Teacher Tip: Once your game is ready to play, increase the fun levels in class by calling on your students individually, asking them to pick a numbered card and answer the question that appears. Click and show the correct answer after each individual student has participated to review answers and reinforce group learning.
No online classroom review games list would be complete without Bookwidgets. With more than 40 exercise templates to choose from, Bookwidgets empowers teachers and curriculum developers to evaluate, grade, and give valuable feedback to students.11 Bookwidgets can interface with Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, Canvas, Schoology, and Moodle. Games you can create with Bookwidgets include flashcards, quizzes, bingo, crosswords, and math exercises. Customize your tests for a variety of devices including tablets, PCs, and Chromebooks. Create your very first widget and follow the series of prompts to get started. Though free for students, Bookwidget does have a cost for teachers. Pricing plans start at $49 for a year-long subscription for individual educators. Discounts apply for group purchases. For those who want to try Bookwidgets before committing to a full purchase, a 30-day trial version is available.
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