Lotto/Bingo

My German 2 students have a vocabulary quiz coming up next class on the topic Verkehrsmittel (transportation), so to review yesterday, we played Lotto/Bingo, which is something we hadn't done in quite while, and all three of my classes had a great time.  It's a pretty easy, low-prep way to practice, so I thought I'd share it here.

When students first come in to class they pick up a Lotto card.  Their bell work is to write 24 of their current vocabulary words in German on the Deutsch side of the card and in English on the Englisch side of the card.  This gives each student a different card without my having to make 30 different versions, plus it gets students writing the words one more time in German, which helps with their spelling.  A completed card looks like this:

To play, students start with the English side up, and I call out the words in German.  Since I enter the vocabulary lists into Quizlet, it's easy to print out small cards with the words so that I can choose them randomly.  When a student gets 5 in a row, we clear the cards and play again.  

Once we've had about 3 winners on the English side, I have students flip to the German side.  I call out the words in English, and now they have to find the German.  This is harder, and I do let students use their vocabulary lists if they need them - my goal is for everyone to participate and to practice.

I normally don't like giving students candy as a prize (I should probably write a post about this some day), but I had some leftover Werther's Originals hard candies that one of the German exchange students brought when he did a presentation to one of my classes.  When those ran out, I gave out little prizes that I had leftover from my elementary ESL days - scented markers, erasers, and temporary tattoos.  The temporary tattoos were probably the most popular!  

If you'd like a copy of the blank Lotto template, it's available here, though it's very easy to make your own.