Materials: BINGO sheets (one per student, recommend 4 or 5 rounds of BINGO to fill the class time), Pencils or pens, Mini prizes for winners
Instructions:
1. Introduce the activity for the day, Find Someone Who… BINGO! and that the objective of the activity is to get to know their classmates and mentors. Ask students if they have played BINGO before. If a student has not, go over the
rules of BINGO very quickly as a group.
- – Make sure to fill in blanks on each BINGO sheet with things specifically about people on your mentoring team BEFOREHAND! This will ensure your team is ready for your visit and that students will need to talk with you all in order to win at BINGO.
- – I.e. “Find someone who studied at Miami University,” “Find someone who has 2 children,” “Find someone whose favorite band is Pearl Jam,” “Find someone who coaches soccer,” etc.
- – During the time going over the rules of BINGO, have a mentor pass out the first round of BINGO to each student and have students take out a pencil or pen.
2. After everyone has been given their first BINGO sheet, explain to them that they can only use the same name three times and cannot use their own name on their BINGO sheet. Explain that the first person to call out BINGO will need to read out each square and name to verify that it is a
BINGO.
- – If giving prizes to BINGO winners, pass out the prize after verifying it is a BINGO.
3. Repeat this with a new BINGO sheet as many times as time will allow, we recommend 3 to 5 times. Note each BINGO
sheet included as a different prompt to win… i.e. 5 in a row, make a letter “I”, make a letter “E”, make a cross, etc.
- – Draw the shape on the board to help students understand what the correct BINGO ask is each round so there is no confusion. If you can tell a student is struggling to understand, pair off with them to help them.
4. After all BINGO games have wrapped up and if there is still time, have students return to their seats and ask them to share something interesting about themselves, share something interesting about yourself, ask them if there is something they’d like to know about you, etc.
Tips:When downloading this activity, write in the blank BINGO squares specifically about people on your mentor team. This will encourage students to ask questions about the mentors on your team and not just other students.
