Starter Activity - Thinking Skills Bingo

This is a really good starter activity that is equally at home as a plenary….

I usually play Bingo by putting a list of around 15 key words on the board, getting the students to choose 9 and putting each word in the square of a Bingo grid (I have pre-printed Bingo cards which I just hand out). I then read out the definitions and the students cross off the relevant key word when they hear it described.

However, a more challenging and interactive way to play Bingo is by asking the students to come up with what they believe will be the most popular key words associated with a topic. So, I give all the students a blank Bingo sheet. I then say that I want them to come up with what they think are the most popular 9 words associated with a topic, for example, recruitment and selection. I then read out what I think are the most popular words and off we go.

It’s really good to see the students thinking really hard about what words to choose and even better when they get them right. Obviously, this is better carried out at the end of a topic, when there are enough key words to choose from.