B-I-N-G-O

“There was a farmer who had a dog and Bingo was his name-o.”  As a child I hated singing that song because I could never remember which letters to say or when to clap or how many times to clap.  It was never a fun song for me, instead it caused me stress!  I have learned/developed four “tricks” that has made this song fun to sing with preschool children!

1. Think beyond just Bingo the dog!  What other words have five letters you can sing about?  I have sung about teddy, donuts, hippo, daddy, heart, green, and rainy using the tune to Bingo.  Some of the songs I found online and others I made up myself.

2.  Display the letters of the word.  This is a perfect time to discuss the importance of letter recognition with the parents and caregivers!  I like to put the letter on one side of a card—you can write it out, print it out, or use die cut letters.  Point to each letter as you sing.  I also review the letters before we sing the next verse.

3.  On the other side of the letter card glue a picture of hands clapping.  When we “take away” a letter and replace it with a clap we just turn the card over.  Now the children can visually see the letters to sing and the number of times to clap.  You can use magnets or strings to hang the letter/clap cards.

4. Sing the song “backwards”.  I saw this on a storytime blog and decided to try it—and it has worked extremely well.  Take the letters away from the back first.  Having the claps come at the end instead of the beginning helps the children sing the letters and then clap the correct number of times.  So the second verse of R-A-I-N-Y  goes like this:

There is a day when I get wet
And rainy is the weather
R-A-I-N-(clap)
R-A-I-N-(clap)
R-A-I-N-(clap)
And rainy is the weather!

Link to Teddy

Link to Heart