A non traditional bingo game
A bingo game does not just have to be the typical game of random letters and numbers being called out to complete your card game that we normally associate with when we hear the words bingo game. There are different variations of the bingo game and one that I have used or played many times while teaching a conference or facilitating a class is one that I call the ice breaker bingo game. In this take off of the traditional bingo game I make up a grid much like the bingo card that one typically uses in a bingo game. In each square is written an object one must find or a task that one has to complete to fill out there bingo card.
Everything written in each square on the cards involves having to ask other people in the room questions so that the bingo card can be completed. A few examples of things I have used are to “find a person in the room who can speak two languages” or “find a person in the room who collects something odd”. Each task in the squares is one that forces a person to introduce themselves and to ask questions of the other people in the room to break the ice and make people a bit more comfortable with each other. By the time someone “wins” the game, people are much more relaxed about being stuck with a bunch of strangers for the day.
