Going to ESL Bingo Activity

One common grammar structure in English is using going to to discuss future plans.  It’s something learners will hear and need to use in their daily lives. I created this going to bingo activity to get my adult ESL students a chance to practice the grammar while at the same time giving them a moment to get up out of their chairs and stretch. They really seemed to enjoy it, and it gave them ample opportunity to practice the target grammar as well as learn more activities and plans vocabulary. If you’re planning on covering this topic in class, check out this activity.  This activity comes great as an extension activity after introducing and practicing going to for future plans. Below you’ll find the handouts and how to do the activity.

Download Links

• Activities Cards
• Going to BINGO cards

Activity Description

1. Introduce and practice the use of going to for future plans.
2. Print enough bingo cards for every student. (There are only two versions, but this is okay since people will be walking around and talking to different people).
3. Print a set of activity cards. (There are 27 total cards. If you have a class larger than 13, you will need to print two sets to have enough cards for the activity).
4. Give everyone two activity cards. Tell them that these are their future plans. They will use them to answer their classmates’ questions.
5. Give everyone a bingo card. Tell them that their goal is to find people who can answer yes to a question. If someone answer yes, then they can write the person’s name in the square that corresponds to the activity.
6. Below are the two different ways they can play bingo.

Are you going to _______________? (Longer Game) 

1. Write the question on the board. Ask students to walk around and ask their classmates questions about activities on the bingo card. Make sure they understand not to ask questions about the activities on the smaller vocabulary cards as these are their activities. If you only printed one set, then no one else will answer yes about those activities. You could instruct them to put their names on those squares for their free spaces.
2. Tell them not to show their activity cards to their classmates.
3. Tell them that when someone asks them a questions, if they have the activity card, then they can answer with “Yes, I am.” If they don’t have the activity card, then they must answer “No, I’m not.”
4. Play until someone gets a bingo.
5. To make the game last even longer, you can add the rule that they can only ask each person two questions on the bingo card before they have to move on to someone else. They can return to that person later, but this will prevent someone from asking one person all of the questions before moving on to someone else.

What are you going to do? (Shorter Game) 

1. For this variation, you will instruct students to ask the question above instead.
2. Students will need to respond with the correct form of going to. For example, “I’m going to go to the movies and cook dinner.”
3. After a student responds, the person who asked the question will write the name of the person in the squares that correspond to the person’s plans.
4. Since this game will go faster, you could see who can fill in all of the squares first instead of just getting a bingo.

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