Human Bingo: I Know What You Did During The Holiday

It's not always easy going back to class after a nice relaxing summer or winter vacation but "Human Bingo: I Know What You Did During The Holiday", is a great way to ease back into the classroom for both teachers and students. Personally I have trouble getting Chinese students to act excited about anything they may have done during their holidays. Even for the lucky ones that have gone overseas, I'm still faced with blank looks and replies of..."I did nothing except homework".

Why?
This could be because they don't want to brag in front of their friends, or that nothing really is that appreciated or exciting for them or there's a good chance that they don't think they have the vocabulary to pull off such a conversation.

What We Can Do

Human Bingo that includes vocabulary to remind the students of the words and things they may or may not have done throughout their holiday, is a very effective and relaxing class to start the new semester with and this is what it looks like.

Human Bingo “I know what you did during the holiday”.

Find someone in your class who has done these things during their summer holiday. Write their NAME on the square. When you get a line of 5 people, shout BINGO! You can only use a person's name once (one time).

You spent some of the summer holiday in Beijing or Shanghai	You played     Badminton but didn’t play basketball	You read a book in English. (Not your textbook)	You used an iPhone or iPad	You ate at     McDonald’s
You traveled abroad	You spent a lot of time with your school friend/friends	You missed school and have been waiting to return to your classes	You gave someone a hug	You visited your family that live in a different province
You ate grapes	You watched an English movie at the cinema.	You DIDN’T read a single book during the holiday (Not your textbooks)	You drank some coffee	You visited one of these places -The Oriental Pearl Tower, The Great Wall, Niagara Falls or The Eiffel Tower
You DIDN'T play a computer game	You spoke English with a foreigner	You swam in the sea, ocean, river or a lake.	You cooked a meal (not instant noodles	You woke up later     than 11am
You DIDN’T miss school at all	You patted a dog	You were bitten by mosquitoes	You bought some new shoes	You got sunburnt

Useful words: ,mosquitoes - 蚊子, abroad – 国外,grapes - 葡萄,sunburnt – 晒伤 Oriental Pearl Tower - 东方明珠电视塔, hug – 拥抱 province – 省

Google Docs link here.
Human Bingo Activity Sheet

NOTE - Another one of my lessons that I'm offering for free (from my TpT store Clever Fox Lesson Box) that is very similar to this but includes an interactive PPT game, 16 different bingo card printables and two worksheet printables can be downloaded here. Or if you want to read about it first and see some pictures here. YES it really is totally free for all that. Reviews appreciated but not compulsory :-)

Class  Lesson Plan

• I usually fill a 45 minute class by beginning with a short PPT showing photos from my summer vacation.


• Short discussion about what they think I did during the vacation, based on what they saw from my photos.


• Tell them that to find out what everyone else in the class did for the holiday, we will play human bingo and explain how to play. I begin by seeing which student can get one complete line of 5 squares (with different students names....definitely cant stand and talk to one person putting their names in all the squares) and then just let them try to fill the whole grid.


• Obviously they must spend the class walking around and mingling to find the information they need.


• With the last 10 minutes of the class I like to get the students to sit back down and we will call out some of the activities and call out the names of students who DID those particular things.

Hints: Depending on the size of your classes and the amount of students you teach, you may wish to use the bingo sheet in different ways. If printing is not an option as you've too many students, you could write the grid on the board or project it on a smart board....then get the students to copy the grid on their own paper. Another option is if you can get enough bingo boards printed and laminated for one class, use whiteboard markers and re-use them for all of your classes.

Good luck, welcome back and most of all....have fun!

Photo Credit: Robert Couse-Baker via Compfight cc