Book Fair Bingo - Grades 3-6

Palo Alto Teacher Librarian Pat O treats students in grades 3-6 to Book Fair BINGO. It is a great strategy for introducing students to a large number of books, getting them to think about ones they'd like to read, and identifying the names of those books to show to parents before visiting the book fair. Here is Pat's description of how to conduct a Book Fair BINGO:

"I borrow books from the book fair. I try to use books that the library also owns. I use this site to make BINGO boards: teAchnology: The online Teacher Resource. There may be a better BINGO board maker site, but this one will do. I make 30 different boards and then make copies for each different class. I book talk the books and the students mark their board with a colored pencil and a symbol. Between each game they trade colored pencils with a neighbor this makes it easier to see which game is which with different colored pencil marks. The first game might be a dot, the second game might be a check and if we have time a third game might be an x. After I book talk the book, I place it on the whiteboard railing to know that we have done that book for this game. At the end of the lesson I ask them to circle the titles they want to check out or purchase from the book fair. If copying is a problem make one set of boards and use markers. Then at the end give them time to write down the titles they want to look for."

She uses Library Musical Chairs for students in grades 1-2.