Order of Operations Bingo
Introduction to Order of Operations Bingo Lesson (15 minutes)
It is always important to teach or review a concept before engaging in a creative activity or game. If you have already taught a lesson on the order of operations, you should still do a small refresher of the material before begining the activity. The time allotted for review should be about 10 to 15 minutes, depending on your students. Many of your kids may know the material well, but be aware that some students will need extra support. Reviewing the material is always a good idea. Here’s a great creative idea for teaching the basics or order of operations. There are also many great websites out there that you can recommend as resources for you students to help them learn the order of operations.
Activity - Fun Bingo Game for Order of Operations
In order to do this activity effectively, click here to download free printable order of operations bingo cards. Review the cards and make sure that they make sense to you. If the teacher doesn’t understand the activity, it is certainly going to be confusing to students. The game functions much like a regular game of bingo. Instead of the letters B-I-N-G-O you have the signs for the order of operations (parentheses,exponent, multiply, divide, add, subtract). You can be as creative as you want in playing the game. You may want to simply have students connect a full row, or you could take it a step further and have students come up to the board and have to solve their problem before they can achieve full “Bingo”
Directions for the activity:
materials: You will need bingo cards and your choice of bingo markers (cut up pieces of construction paper work well)
1. Refer to the nswer key on page 2 of the printable hand out. Cut out these squares and place them in a paper bag or box so that you can draw out each piece like you would in a regular game of bingo.
2. The bingo cards are set up so that students can fill in the blank columns with a number of their choosing. This helps mix up the results of the game. The spaces that are already filled in make it easier for students to complete the problem. Have students read the directions, fill in their blank boxes with numbers 0-9 and place markers on free spaces (the boxes in the exponent columns are all free spaces)
3. Explain the activity to your students. They are to place a marker on the appropriate space when a sign and number are called. The goal of the game is to get “Bingo” by having a full horizontal or diagonal row of marked spaces.
4. When a student calls out “Bingo” he or she must go to the board and solve the problem. This means that they must perform the operations in the order that they have bingo. This will encourage them to use the steps in order, as the problem will be set up that way. If two students call “Bingo” at the same time, you can have a race to finish their problem.
5. You can reward a “Bingo” any way that you would like. Some good ideas include giving out pencils or erasers, or you may choose to add extra credit points to an upcoming test.
This post is part of the series: Teaching Tools for the Order of Operations
Need help finding creative ways to engage students in learning the Order or Operations? This series of articles provides helpful ideas and techniques to help make learning the Order of Operations fun.
