Practice that feels like a game
Bingo makes children read every word on their card again and again while they listen for the next one. It works for a whole class, a small group or a family game night.More word games
Try the word search maker, the crossword maker and sight word worksheets.CAPS links
- Grade RBegins to “read” high-frequency words seen in the classroom and at school, like door and cupboard.
- Grade 2Plays reading games, with bingo and track games named as examples, to reinforce reading and vocabulary.
- Mental mathsRapid recall of addition and subtraction facts, to 10 in Grade 1 and to 20 in Grade 2.
Bingo is one of the few games CAPS names outright: the Grade 2 Home Language programme lists it among the reading games that build reading and vocabulary. Use your own list for words from this week’s Shared Reading text or your class word wall. The ready-made sight word lists here follow American graded lists, so check them against the words your class is learning.
In a First Additional Language class, bingo lets children hear a word and find it on their card before they are asked to write it, which matches the listen-first approach CAPS takes in Grade 1.
Summarised in our own words from the DBE’s CAPS for English Home Language and Mathematics, Foundation Phase, and Afrikaans Eerste Addisionele Taal (2011).
