Finger Number Bingo
The little plastic hands on my game above are buttons from the sewing department at Walmart. I bought them thinking that I could use them for something. One of my students was so intrigued when he saw them sitting on my desk. He kept asking me when was I going to make a game to go with them, but I couldn’t think of one.  About the same time, a reader asked me if I could make a finger number bingo game, and “bingo”, I had my game! I also got to use my alphabet animals in the heading to help the students select their card.
Unfortunately, the game was not as easy to design as I thought. First of all, I can’t tell my left from my right easily. Â I kept getting the hands mixed up! That should have given me a hint that this game was going to be harder for my students than I thought.
Well, when I tested it, all of my younger students, and slightly dyslexic me, had a lot of trouble deciding which hand was which. Â I went right back to my computer and colored all the right hand finger numbers red and the left hand blue. That did help a lot! So when you print out the game, that’s the way it will look, not like the picture above.
I played the game differently with each age when I tested it. One fun way was to close our eyes and take turns calling out a hand, such as “left hand, 2nd finger.” Then we would both look at our board and see if we had it. I had to give my  preschool children a lot of guided help, and that was fine with them. The game is very quick, so we could play it over and over in just a few minutes. It is more fun for younger students if they beat the teacher. I have not tested this game in a group, but if any of you do, please leave a comment here to let me know how it goes!
I know this post is from 2013 but I love this game. I have a group of 6 , any way to add additional cards? Fingers crossed 🙂
Hi Diane,
I wish I had time to help you out right now, but this is a really busy time of the year!
Hi, Susan,
Like others I’m grateful for the work you do and share with others! I’ve used many of your games over the last year!
Question for this one: did you say this could be modified for older students and if so, how would you do that?
What a good game! I’m going to try it 🙂
On the pre reading Bless Us O Lord…..love it but it won’t spool to my printer….have you had any trouble like that? These pieces look perfect
for my young dyslexic student,, love the color coding for LH RH
It’s working just fine on my end. Be sure you have the latest version of Adobe Reader downloaded. That is usually the problem when teachers print the older PDF’s. If I had time I would remake them, but I’m kind of busy. This one is really old!
ok..I will check into that…have been down loading quite a bit today…..
really concerned about this one child…
thanks!!
Game day went great today and they loved their color ful blinders! I did the older one -the squares… also calendar worked out GREAT!!
I really love this idea and am thankful to have these resources for our beginning students! Thanks Susan! 🙂
You’re welcome, Jennifer!
On Sat, Aug 31, 2013 at 1:08 PM, Susan Paradis' Piano Teacher
To help distinguish between the right and left hands I show the student that the space between the thumb and first finger on the left hand looks like an L – you will find further details of this at http://dyslexiavictoria.wordpress.com/2008/10/04/a-trick-to-help-a-dyslexic-know-right-from-left/
Susan,
Thank you very much for another great game. Love the headings on each card. I used the Fireman Finger game with a new student last week and am sure he will enjoy this one too.
Susan,
You have made another beautiful and easy game for our young students. I printed out an extra set of cards and cut the hands apart. They will be our draw pile. Can’t wait to use it next week.
Thank you so much.
Thanks, Joanne. Great idea for the draw cards!
Another great idea for our teaching . . . thank you thank you. Would it be difficult to make 2 other versions of the cards so that in a group e.g. 4 students, there would be a variety of 4 versions? Alice
P.S. If I were as brilliant as you, I could maybe figure out how to do this!!
Hi Alice, glad you like them. I’m not sure what you mean about a variety of versions. Each card is different, if that is what you mean.
Oh got it. I thought there were only 2 cards but I now see 4.. duh!
Thanks!
P.S. can you remove my last name from my comment , or can I?
Yes, I am able to remove names from comments!
Thank you…..and again, thank you for your wonderful work!
You’re welcome. It’s great to share and to hear how other teachers use my material. And I actually learn a lot from my readers, too!
I started the cutest and tiniest little 5 year old girl last night. Bless her heart, she had lots of trouble with finger numbers. Am printing this right now for us to use next week. I know she will love it! Now to head to Walmart hoping to find those precious hand buttons!!
Susan, you are brilliant. Love this one!
Anna, you are making me blush! But I’m glad you like it!
You have come through for me again! Read this today, will use it today!
Glad I could help, Robbin.