Hurricane Bingo

Hurricane Bingo is a great game for grades 6 and up. Students will learn hurricane terms in a fun, fast atmosphere. The game can be played independently or in groups.

These directions are also available in the following formats:

Adobe PDF Open Document Word Document

By: Margaret Olsen, COSEE SE Education Specialist and Katie Greganti, SEACOOS Education and Outreach Specialist

Standards  Purpose  Materials  Procedure  Variations

National Standards:

Grade Level 5-12

 

• Science Content Standards 5-8:
  • Physical Science: Content Standard B; Motion and forces, Transfer of energy
  • Earth and Space Science: Content Standard D: Structure of the Earth System, Earth in the Solar System
  • Science in Personal and Social Perspectives: Content Standard F; Natural Hazards
• Science Content Standards 9-12:
  • Science as Inquiry: Content Standard A; Understandings about scientific inquiry
  • Earth and Space Science: Content Standard D; Energy in the earth system
  • Science in Personal and Social Perspectives: Content Standard F: Natural and human hazards, Science and technology in local and global challenges
  • History and Nature of Science: Content Standard G: Science as a human endeavor, Nature of scientific knowledge

Purpose:

To reinforce student knowledge of hurricane vocabulary.

Materials:

• Hurricane Bingo Cards
  • Color cards:
    • Adobe PDF
    • Open Presentation
    • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Grayscale cards (for black and white printers):
    • Adobe PDF
    • Open Presentation
    • Microsoft PowerPoint
• Hurricane Bingo Tokens (25 per card/student group)
  • Color tokens:
    • Adobe PDF
    • Open Document
    • Microsoft Word
  • Grayscale tokens (for black and white printers):
    • Adobe PDF
    • Open Document
    • Microsoft Word
• Hurricane Terms
• Index Cards
• Glue or tape

Procedure:

To prepare the game:

 

1. Run off copies of the Hurricane Bingo Cards. There are 16 of these already prepared. The students can work in pairs or you may make more cards using the Hurricane Terms. Note: There are two versions of the cards: one is in color and the other is in grayscale (for those who do not have a color printer).
2. Run off copies of the token sheet for each card. Print either the color set or the grayscale set (if you prefer black and white). Cut the tokens out. 
3. Cut out each Hurricane term and glue or tape each to an index card. Note: Laminating the cards, tokens and term cards will make them last longer.
4. Place each hurricane card and 25 tokens in a large baggie (for dispersal and storage).

Printing Hint: If you have trouble printing in grayscale, follow the directions below:

• Go to print preview
• Click on options
• Click on color/grayscale
• Click on print in color (even if the printer you have is black and white). If the default is set on print in grayscale or black and white the slide background will not show up as the file is formatted.

To play the game: Prior to beginning the game, students should have previewed the Hurricane Terms.

1. Shuffle the cards before beginning the game.
2. Tell the students that they will be playing a variation of the bingo game. Explain that, like in a true bingo game, as the caller reads each definition they are to cover the term on their Hurricane Bingo Card (with a hurricane token) that matches the definition read. The first student (or group) succeeding in covering a straight or diagonal line with tokens calls out Hurricane. Remind the students that all cards are different. Each card has 25 terms and there are 53 total terms used in the game.
3. Break students into groups, if necessary, depending on the number of cards you have and the number of students.
4. Give each student or group of students a Hurricane Bingo Card and 25 hurricane tokens.
5. Model the activity with one term by the teacher (caller) reading the definition from one card and having a student read aloud the term it represents from their card. Allow time for questions and answers. Place this card back in the deck.
6. At the start of play, the teacher (or caller) should read a definition from one of the index cards. Read only the description, not the term.
7. As you read the definition of the terms, place each card aside. The teacher (caller) will use these cards to double check that the winner of the game covered the appropriate term.
8. The students should place a hurricane token on top of the appropriate term. Cards do not have every term.
9. Play continues in this way with the teacher (caller) reading the next card.
10. The first student (or group) succeeding in covering a straight or diagonal line with hurricane tokens calls out "Hurricane." This student is the winner provided all terms are correct.
11. The teacher should use the discarded cards to check to make sure that all the terms are correct.

Variations:

Play the game again with the winner being the first person to cover the terms in the four corners. Another variation could be playing the game where the winner has all squares on the card covered. Remember to shuffle the cards before starting a new game!!!