I love teaching vocabulary, and utilize at least some of Marzano's 6 Steps for Vocabulary Instruction everyday.  One of my favorite games (which is Marzano's sixth step) is vocabulary bingo.  Here's how it works:

I post word wall tiles (click here to see a the ones I use for ancient Greece) on my wall throughout the school year.  The result is that by the end of the year, students constantly see and remember all of our content vocabulary for the whole year.  I also have written each of the vocabulary words on an index card.  I carry the stack of cards around with me all the time to use a filler questions while slower workers are catching up or to quiz students in the hallway.  I use both for these activity.

STEPS

1. When students enter the room, ask them to make a 5x5 grid on a piece of notebook paper (this is done with 4 vertical and 4 horizontal lines).
2. Ask them to place a vocabulary word in each square (25 terms, or 24 if you want to give a FREE SPACE).
3. Shuffle your index cards of words, and when you select a word, tell them the DEFINITION, not the word - the purpose of this game is to learn definitions, not recognize the words.
4. To extend the game, I have multiple winners - 5 in a row, 4 corners and whole card.

HINT - If you want to do this at a point in the year where you don't have 25 or more words yet, you can do it with a 3x3 grid too, it just goes faster.

If you don't have content area word wall tiles, and would like some, or would like to see what mine are like click the link below.  Or, if you're looking for other great social studies resources, be sure to visit and follow my TpT store!

• Vocabulary Resources
• My Store

I try to infuse some aspect of vocabulary instruction into everything I do in my classroom.  Almost every day begins with an A-B partner vocabulary review of the current unit's vocabulary terms as a warm up.  Each interactive note presentation includes a "focus vocabulary" section at the beginning.  I quiz early finishers on vocab terms while slower workers catch up on note taking, and while papers are being passed out.  I even quiz students in the hallway using note cards between classes.

Today, though, I want to share a different, more static, vocabulary resource with you.  Today, I'm going to highlight my Ancient Greece Vocabulary Word Wall Tiles.  These 14 tiles display 14 vocabulary terms about ancient Greece, the definitions of those terms and a picture that are identical to those they practice with using my Ancient Greece Vocabulary Task Card resource.  These are great to build a word wall with throughout the school year using the tiles from other time periods too!

The words are included in this set are:

So, click the link below for my Ancient Greece Vocabulary Word Wall Tiles, and don't forget to visit and follow my store for more great Social Studies resources!

• Ancient Greece Vocabulary Word Wall Tiles
• My Store

Okay, I'll admit it.  I've become a little addicted to using Blooket as a review tool in my class.

So, I decided to try something new to change it up a little - BINGO!

We had completed our atlas pages for the unit we were working on and my students had about 12 locations to learn for an upcoming map quiz, so I came up with this easy, low-prep way to do it!

STEPS

1. I wrote the name of each location, and physical feature they needed to know on an index card.
2. When the students entered class, I gave them each a 1/4 sheet of blank notebook paper and directed them to draw a large pound sign on it.                                                                                                                                *Brief tangent - When I gave this direction, I found out my students had no idea what either a "pound sign" or "number sign" is.  The break through came when I called it a "hashtag" (BTW, I looked it up, and it's actually called an octothorpe.  Who knew?)​
3. I then directed the students to place one location, or physical feature we were studying randomly in each box.
4. Next, I projected a blank map of the area we were studying on the board.
5. I shuffled my index cards and put dots on the map saying, "This location" or "This city" or "This physical feature"

To prolong the game, we had multiple winners - 3 in a row, 4 corners, and whole board.

I also adapted this game to a full 5x5 BINGO version to practice vocabulary terms with using the same procedure listed above (except with no map).  My students really enjoy it, and it's a great change of pace from more flashy electronic games.