Activity Center: Advent Bingo

In the Advent Bingo center, participants will be able to recall their liturgical experiences of Advent and deepen their understanding of the Church’s celebration of this season. The focus of this center is Advent practices and symbols found in Catholic liturgy.

Download Overview / Instructions / Resource Guide
To print: 1 copy for leader
Document: 8 pages

Download Advent Bingo Cards
To print: 1 - 2 cards per attendee
Document: 15 pgs/30 cards.

The first download contains three leader guides. The first is a general overview to guide the facilitator. The second is a list of questions and answers and instructions on how to call the game. Finally, there is a resource guide with material to help the facilitator draw out and deepen conversation. The second download is a set of Bingo cards. There are 30 different cards, printed 2 to a page. After printing out the card pages, cut them in half to separate the cards.

The facilitator should have:

• Printout of Bingo Overview
• Printout of Bingo Facilitator’s Instructions and Q&A
• Printout of Bingo Facilitator’s Resource Guide
• A variety of small prizes for Bingo winners
  Note: It is better to have too many prizes than too few! If you’re looking for prize ideas, the following Web sites offer a variety of fun and inexpensive novelty items: Autom Inspirational Gifts and Oriental Trading Company.

Each player should have:

• A unique Bingo card
• Markers for card—either writing implement for marking directly on the card or buttons, dried beans , or other tokens to cover the squares of a reusable card.

Playing the Game
A facilitator will ask a series of Advent-related questions. Each square of the Bingo cards contains an answer to one of the questions. As the questions are asked and answered, players will mark the answers on their cards. When a player has five marked squares in a line, he or she will call “Bingo!” and win a small prize. Play will then continue using the same cards.

As each question is asked and answered, players should take time to discuss the subject of the question. The facilitator will have a handy resource sheet that he or she can use to find information to spark and enrich the discussion.

Because there is no limit on how many players can win, the game can last as long as it takes for every player to win, or it can end at a specified time. You can also vary the length of the game by increasing or decreasing the length of the discussions surrounding each question and answer.

Decide in advance how many players you would like to have per session and whether you want to have players mark directly on the cards or not. We have provided 30 unique cards, and you may print out or photocopy them as many times as you need.

Choose a facilitator to call the questions and lead discussions of the answers. You may also want some older children (junior high to high school) available to help beginning readers play the game.