Key takeaways
No reading needed: Every square is a picture, so preschoolers play beside grandparents.
Every card different: Two identical cards would win on the same call.
Game length: About 3 to 5 calls on 3 × 3, 7 to 9 on 4 × 4, 8 to 10 on 5 × 5.
One long game: Play for a full card on 3 × 3, about 17 to 20 calls.
Printing: One card per page at 100 %, calling cards cut apart into a bowl.
Seven free sets: Christmas, Hanukkah, Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve, Valentine's, winter and baby shower.
On this page
Picture bingo is the bingo of the youngest players: the squares carry pictures instead of numbers, so a three-year-old and a grandparent can play the same game. It needs a card for every player, a set of calling cards and something to cover the squares with.
How do you play picture bingo with kids?
- Give every child a card and a handful of markers.
- Mix the calling cards in a bowl or a hat.
- Draw one card, hold it up and say its name. Every child who has that picture covers it.
- The first child with a full row, column or diagonal calls BINGO. Check their card against the calling cards drawn so far.
- Take the markers off and play again; a round on small cards takes only a few minutes.
With the youngest children, say the picture’s name twice and show the card around the table. The names printed under the pictures help children who are learning to read; for the youngest, print the cards with pictures only.
How many calls does a game take?
How soon someone calls BINGO depends mostly on the size of the card. We dealt cards the way the bingo makers here deal them, from a set of 24 pictures, and played 4,000 games for each card size and number of players. The table gives the median number of calls until the first BINGO, and in brackets the range of the middle 80 % of games.
| Card | 6 players | 12 players | 24 players | 30 players |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 × 3, free middle | 5 (3–8) | 4 (2–6) | 3 (2–4) | 3 (2–4) |
| 4 × 4 | 9 (7–12) | 8 (6–10) | 7 (5–9) | 7 (5–9) |
| 5 × 5, free middle | 10 (7–13) | 9 (7–11) | 8 (6–10) | 8 (6–10) |
At a call every 20 seconds, a 4 × 4 game with a class of 24 takes between two and three minutes. Plan four or five rounds for a party, or play for a full card.
Playing for a full card (every square covered) makes one long game. On 3 × 3 cards the first full card comes after a median of 17 to 20 calls, usually with one winner. On 4 × 4 cards it takes about 22 calls and two players often finish on the same call. On 5 × 5 cards it does not work: every card shows all 24 pictures, so every card fills on the very last call.
Which card size for which group?
- 3 × 3 with a free middle: eight pictures to look for, games of three to five calls. Good for preschoolers and for full-card games.
- 4 × 4: sixteen pictures, games of seven to nine calls. The usual size for a class party.
- 5 × 5 with a free middle: the classic card with all 24 pictures, a little longer than 4 × 4. Good for older children and mixed family tables; play it for lines, not for a full card.
How do you make picture bingo cards?
By hand, draw a grid on each card and give every card its own mix of pictures, then make one calling card for each picture. Check that no two cards are the same: identical cards win on the same call.
The free bingo makers here do that part: every card is shuffled from the same set of pictures, checked against the others, and printed one to a page with the player’s name on it, up to 40 cards, with the calling cards on the last page. Each set has its own pictures:
| Occasion | Some of the pictures | Make the cards |
|---|---|---|
| Christmas | tree, bell, candy cane, snowman, stocking | Christmas picture bingo |
| Hanukkah | menorah, dreidel, latkes, gelt (16 pictures, 3 × 3 or 4 × 4) | Hanukkah bingo |
| Thanksgiving | turkey, pumpkin, pie, corn, pilgrim hat | Thanksgiving bingo |
| New Year’s Eve | party hat, clock at midnight, fireworks, confetti | New Year’s Eve bingo |
| Winter | igloo, polar bear, sled, mitten, snowball | Winter bingo |
| Valentine’s Day | heart, rose, ladybug, love letter | Valentine’s bingo |
| Baby shower | bottle, rattle, onesie, rubber duck | Baby shower bingo |
The Hanukkah set has 16 pictures, so a 4 × 4 Hanukkah card shows all of them and the cards differ only in their order; the table above was computed for the sets of 24.
Questions
How do you play picture bingo with kids?
Give every child a card and a handful of markers. Draw one calling card at a time from a bowl, hold it up and say its name; every child who has that picture covers it. The first child with a full row, column or diagonal calls BINGO and you check their card against the calls. On cards with a free middle, the middle counts as covered from the start.
How long does a game of picture bingo take?
It depends on the card size more than on the number of players. In our simulation of 4,000 games for each case, the first BINGO came after a median of 4 calls on 3 × 3 cards with 12 players, 8 calls on 4 × 4 cards and 9 calls on 5 × 5 cards. With 24 players each case is one call shorter. At a call every 20 seconds, a 4 × 4 game takes about three minutes, so plan several rounds.
How do I make bingo cards with pictures for free?
By hand, draw a grid on paper and glue or draw a different mix of pictures on every card, then make one calling card for each picture. Or use a free generator: the bingo makers on this site shuffle every card, check that no two are alike, put each child's name on their card and print the calling cards on the last page.
Why must every bingo card be different?
Two identical cards win on exactly the same call, so the game ends with two winners and an argument. Shuffling the order is enough to make cards different on a 5 × 5 card that shows all the pictures; on smaller cards each card also gets its own selection of pictures.
What can kids use to mark the squares?
Anything small: candy hearts or candy corn for the season, buttons, dried beans, coins or paper scraps. Print the cards on card stock and they can be played again; with a pencil cross they are one game each.