Bingo Review Game

This week, I had 2 students in my room that needed to review for a Living Environment Evolution test.  I got a list of questions (with answers) from their teacher, and was told they were using them in a review game for the class.  Well, since I just had the 2 of them, I modified my review.  I told them to each make bingo boards with the answers of the questions.  There were 24 questions, and we made 5 by 5 squares with a free space in the middle.  They spent time writing in the answers anywhere on their board.  When they were done, I read off the question and they had to mark the answer on their board.  Now, since this was review, I had them tell me what they thought the answer was, so that they weren’t studying the wrong one.  I corrected them immediately (if needed) and continued with the next question.  They were allowed to switch their marker to the correct answer, but if I do this again next time, I may penalize them in some way so that they cannot just mark the right answer after getting it wrong.  Possibly, by marking incorrect answers with another color chip so that the space is dead and they need to make bingo in another way.  This will encourage students to make more educated guesses on their bingo answers.  I think this could work very well in any content area, and with any size group of people.

Good Hygene

It’s a hot topic right now, what with the H1N1 virus out there, making pigs and people sick alike.  One of the steps I’m personally taking to insure I keep those germs from staying with me is showering everyday as soon as I get home from school, and changing my clothes.  A teacher in the Buffalo City School district put me on to this once, and I’m trying my best to get in the habit.  Do you know how many germs must be in your hair alone after a full day of school?  I don’t like thinking about it.  So even before my husband can hug me good-afternoon, I run to the shower and de-germify myself.  Especially working with the younger kids.