The Haunted Mine

As a young mother and teacher, I am always looking for educational games to entertain my own children and the students in my classroom.  Bingo is a game that is very easy to learn, even for preschoolers.  The original game of Bingo teaches number and letter recognition, listening skills, small motor skills, and the characteristics of good sportsmanship. Even preschoolers can play the game with adult supervision or with help from older youngsters. There are many variations of Bingo that are based on the premise of the old standard.  During Halloween each year, I always host a bingo bonus tournament in my classroom.  We play different kinds of bingo and the kids love it!  Here are a few examples you can incorporate into your own children’s play time, whether it is Halloween or another time of the school year.

Picture bingo is a travel game which can be played in the car or even as an observation game while taking a walk.   The child is given a card with pictures of things you might see while traveling in a car. The cards can even be made by the children themselves ahead of time.  Depending on the length of the trip and the age of the children, the cards can have 3 rows of 3 pictures or 5 rows of 5 pictures.  The key is to make the cards light and easy to handle.  The object of the game, of course, is to match the pictures with the things you see out the window or while you are moving.  Kids can use crayons or washable markers to cross off their matches.  When you have matched a complete row of pictures, it’s “Bingo” time!   You can play Coverall with these cards just like in regular Bingo.  If you’re in a rush, pre-made Travel Bingo cards and games are also sold in the toy departments of many well-known variety stores.  You could also let your kids play bingo online by logging into one of the many educational sites that offer bingo for kids.

Number bingo can be played by preschoolers as a number recognition game and then altered to be a wonderful tool for learning addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of whole numbers, decimals and even fractions.  Some of my fellow middle school teachers have even played Algebra Bingo with their students as a study aid for tests.  The numbers you want to include can be randomly selected and placed on cards with spaces that form a series of squares in rows.  As long as the number of rows going across is the same as the number of rows going down, the players will be able to achieve “Bingo”.  Number Bingo is an excellent tool for learning the multiplication tables. Each row can be multiples of different numbers. (Example: Row B is multiples of 2, Row I could be multiples of 3, and so on.)   Calls can be as simple as naming the number or as complex as an equation with the answer on the card.

Buzzword Bingo has been played most recently by businesses and corporations during seminars and informational meetings.  But this game can be simplified for children and used for word recognition when your child is a beginning reader.  Even if your child is still just learning the beginning sounds of words, you can make a card with letters only, and read to them.  When they hear a word that starts with a letter on the card, they can try to match letters to make a Bingo row.  Buzzword Bingo can also be used to enhance your child’s listening skills.   You can read a story to them and they match the buzzword on their card when they hear you say the word as you read.  You can also play this version on free bingo sites online.

Good luck! Have fun, and don’t forget to yell, “BINGO!” even if you only play bingo online.  It just makes the game more fun!

Zach has one of the coolest jobs in town. By day he is a college student. He attends a university in his small town where he grew up. He sleeps in his uncle’s basement since his parents moved away a few years back. As a kid he knew the streets of this town like the back of his hand. He was especially familiar with the Hill House. Everyone knew it was haunted, and as a young boy he had spent many days hearing tales of it’s chilling inhabitants. One summer he even knocked on the front door in a dare. Back then, the house was deserted. When Zach was in high school the city took over the home and it now stands as a historical site.

While taking a psychology class his freshman of college he toured the house. Most students had no reservations about touring the home, but Zach remembered the stories of his childhood and was hesitant to enter the haunted house. Once inside though, Zach appreciated the beauty of the home and enjoyed the tour. He even peaked interest when their tour guide mentioned they were hiring. This place was obviously was not like those stories he had heard as a child and he stopped back by later that same day to apply for the job.

During his evenings in college Zach would play no deposit bingo to wind down after a long day at school. The Hill House was busy with tours since the Historic Site had been added to the National Registry. There was quite a but of paper work to be done for the registry to stay in effect. Zach’s boss had asked him if he would mind helping out with it. The only time that Zach had available was in the late evenings when the home was no longer open for tours. He’d close the doors to the public and then take out the record books and begin his research. He would take breaks from time to time and eat a snack while playing wow bingo or landmarkbingo.

As Zach dove further into the history of the home some chilling revelations were discovered. He found journals of the owner with reports of ghosts, sounds, and unnerving occurrences. Zach would begin to feel uncomfortable and close down shop for the night. Unnerved by what he had read, he would go back to his uncle’s basement and play his favorite sites like wow bingo, fluffy favorites, and landmarkbingo. He had fun playing no deposit bingo and forgetting what he had learned earlier in the evening. The knowledge kept him up late into the night.

The following day while doing research, Zach read of a little girl who would appear in her night gown. She would appear to have tears streaming down her face. The journal, written in an elegant hand, indicated that the girl never made a sound and always disappeared as quickly as she had appeared. As Zach walked through the house that night turning off lights and checking doors, he caught a glimpse of something moving down the stairs. As he approach a form of a girl appeared before him. He gasped. As his mind begin to race his body became paralyzed with fear. He could not move. As quickly as she came, she was gone. Zach quickly headed home and buried himself in a night of playing his favorite online bingo sites. That was one night he would certainly never forget!