Better Than BingoActivity slides
Better Than Bingo · Classroom Edition
The Emergency Page
Five no-prep activities for the drill, outage, transition, sub day, or unexpected ten minutes.
5–20 min5–40 peopleWhole group
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Teacher prep · Do not project yet
Set the room up for success.
Materials
- None
Before you begin
- None
- For sub plans, circle one recommended game and write the available time
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Teacher language · Do not project yet
What to say
“We have a few unexpected minutes, so we are choosing one fast challenge. You may pass on a speaking turn, and nobody is eliminated for getting stuck.”
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Teacher notes · Do not project yet
Keep it comfortable and useful.
Make room for everyone
- Offer passing, written contribution, partner response, AAC, and extra processing time.
- Keep students in the game after a repeat, pause, or incorrect guess.
- Read and display categories and choices when possible.
- Avoid prompts that rely on expensive experiences, family information, food access, or niche cultural knowledge.
Watch out for
- Do not use elimination, public scoring, or pressure reluctant students to become the expert.
- For substitutes, specify one recommended option instead of leaving five unranked choices.
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For students
Here’s what to do.
- 1
Twenty Questions: think of an object or place; the class gets up to twenty yes-or-no questions to identify it.
- 2
Category Chain: choose a safe category and build the longest no-repeat chain the room can; students may pass and rejoin on the next round.
- 3
Fortunately/Unfortunately: build one story by alternating those two opening words; model four turns for younger students.
- 4
One-Minute Expert: volunteers explain a low-stakes topic they know well for up to sixty seconds, followed by three respectful questions.
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For students
Keep going.
- 5
Impossible Vote: present ten harmless either-or choices with simultaneous hand signals, then invite optional reasoning on the closest vote.
- 6
Run one activity for five to ten minutes or combine two when more time remains.
- 7
End cleanly when the next scheduled part of the day is ready.
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Prompt 01
Category Chain: things that are cold, words with double letters, things found in a kitchen, or one-word movie titles
Take a moment to think. Passing or writing instead is always okay.
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Prompt 02
One-Minute Expert: a hobby, game, routine, object, animal, or harmless topic you know unusually well
Take a moment to think. Passing or writing instead is always okay.
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Prompt 03
Impossible Vote: permanent marker or permanent pencil? indoor recess or silent lunch? one giant backpack or one hundred tiny backpacks?
Take a moment to think. Passing or writing instead is always okay.
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Prompt 04
Twenty Questions: announce a broad category for younger students
Take a moment to think. Passing or writing instead is always okay.
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Wrap it up
One last thought.
- No debrief is required; thank the group and move to the next planned task.