Geology Review Game Idea: mineral ID bingo

Are you teaching rocks & minerals in your science classroom? If you’ve taught your students the basics of mineral ID, but need a fun review game to end your unit, look no further than mineral ID bingo. In this post, I’ll go over how to play mineral ID bingo in your classroom and the materials you will need to play!

Before we dive in: If you’re an educator planning to try this game with your students, you can save yourself the time of making your own bingo cards and calling cards. My printable mineral ID bingo card set is available on TpT and Etsy. The set includes 25 unique bingo cards with illustrations of each mineral, plus calling cards with a list of each mineral’s properties (plus you’ll support this blog with your purchase! ❤️)

Prior Knowledge Required

To do this activity, your students must know the difference between rocks and minerals. They should have already practiced some mineral ID and be familiar with common minerals such as:

Biotite
Calcite
Feldspar
Galena
Halite
Muscovite
Pyrite
Quartz

Furthermore, your class should be familiar with the physical properties of minerals, including:

Cleavage and fracture
Mohs hardness scale
Streak
Luster
Acid reaction
Magnetism

You can brush up on mineral ID and mineral physical properties by reading my post about mineral physical properties. You could also try a mineral ID lab with your class, by following these directions or reading my list of fun rock & mineral activity ideas for the classroom.

Finally, you can get my most comprehensive rock and mineral teaching materials in the Rocks and Minerals Unit. It’s my complete set of printable materials for teaching rocks and minerals – with worksheets, activity directions, diagrams, and much more. I know you will love it!

Materials

To play mineral ID bingo, you will need the following materials

25 unique bingo cards featuring different minerals (download & print mine here, featuring common minerals, or create your own with your minerals of choice)
Calling cards – a list of each mineral’s physical properties (hints) on small pieces of paper or index cards (also included in my printable bingo set!)
A hat or bucket
Bingo chips or small items (pennies, candies) to place over the squares on the bingo cards

How to Play

Follow these steps to play mineral ID bingo with your students:

Each student gets one unique bingo card.
Cut apart the calling cards with each mineral’s physical properties. Place your calling cards into a hat or bucket.
Pull one calling card at a time and read it out loud to the class, sharing the physical properties of the mineral without revealing the name of the mineral.
Students should find the corresponding mineral on their bingo cards and mark or cover it.
The first student to get four minerals in a row gets “bingo” (across, diagonal, or vertical).
Check the student’s card to ensure all minerals were identified correctly.

Helpful Hints

When reading out clues for a mineral, start with the more obscure hints, and then progress to the more obvious clues.

Products Mentioned in this Post:

There’s no need to scramble to put together the perfect printable materials for this activity – I’ve already created it for you! This bingo set includes all the printable materials you need for playing mineral ID bingo.

For more rocks and minerals learning fun, try my Rocks & Minerals Unit – a complete set of printable classroom materials for teaching this subject: