I’m revisiting an oldie but goodie, Barnyard Bingo. I’ve had mine for many, many years and a quick online searched showed that, gasp, it’s no longer manufactured! It’s a shame, but since it is still readily available (prices on eBay look better than Amazon currently), I’m summarizing how I use it in therapy myself. Keep your eyes peeled at yard sales this summer!
Barnyard Bingo is a simple matching game. The barn has a slot for the twelve (12) tokens, three for each color with each token having one of the following animals: sheep, chicken, pig or cow. Each player has a board (strip) with three animals. On your turn, you open the door (satisfying “boing” sound accompanies this) and a token will slide out. If it matches the color of your board, place it on top on the correct animal. If it doesn’t, simply put in back in the top of the barn. Now, it’s the next player’s turn.
The game targets matching of both colors and animals on each turn. It covers early vocabulary (in addition to the animal names, you can easily elicit “in the barn”, “open”, “same”, appropriate animal sounds, basic yes/no questions (“Is it blue?” or “Same?”), “my/your turn.” And, of course, it addresses turn taking skills.
If you want more of a matching challenge or a non-competitive approach, you can have one child play all four boards. In this case, I would have the child identify or match the color needed when the token came out, and then pull over only that color board for animal matching. When they place the token on the animal, we make the animal noise and then I ask, “Who’s turn?”
I had high hopes for reorganizing my speech closet this summer, but it hasn’t happened…..yet. But when it does, I’m looking to add a couple other farm themed, preschool games: Old MacDonald Had a Farm (Hasbro) and Uno Moo Preschool Game (Mattel). If you have any input on either of these, I’m all ears!
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I love this game. I ordered a second set of discs from FP when I first got it so I can use my own pictures with it.
What a great idea! I’m going to keep this in mind for my future purchases. How great it would be to have a set of discs with different pictures of the same animals for matching to the original boards, or to have the option to create completely different targets! Kim
I also have this game and love it! I found it at a garage sale about five years ago and it remains a favorite from my therapy closet. I use it much like you do, but also like to incorporate description objectives as well. We have taken turns describing (while keeping token hidden from the other players) and matching the animal that pops out of the barn. i.e. “I’m holding in my hand an animal that has feathers, two legs and a beak. (pause… ) It belongs on a red board”
Brilliant! This is one of the best parts of blogging–you share something you love and use frequently only to have on-line minds expand on the possibilities! Thanks so much, Kim
I love this! This would be such a great game to play with my preschoolers. Thanks for the fabulous idea!
Such a cute game!
Do What You Love, Love What You Do
Worth getting a hold of if you decide to pursue pediatrics after school! Nice to start out with some activities in your closet! Kim
I use this for pronouns. I have a picture of a girl and a boy and put two colors under each picture. The child can say “This is her red cow,” “She has a red cow” or “The red cow belongs to him” depending on which pronouns you want to target.
Kacy, Thanks so much for the adaptation! Great idea! Kim
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