Blank bingo cards to fill in

What blank bingo cards are good for

A blank card is the right tool when the players should choose the squares, not you. If you already have the words, the generator on the front page will shuffle them into different cards for every player instead; blank cards are all identical until someone writes on them.

Classroom vocabulary review

Write 30 to 40 words from the unit on the board: spelling words, science terms, verbs in a new language, capital cities. Each student copies 24 of them into a 5x5 card in any order they like, which is itself a round of handwriting and spelling practice. Then you read out a definition, a translation or a sentence with a gap, and students mark the word that fits. Because every child chose and placed their own words, the cards come out different without any shuffling. For younger classes use a 3x3 card with the free space: eight squares, eight words, and big boxes for big handwriting. Allow about ten minutes for filling in a 5x5 card and three for a 3x3.

A fill-in game at a party

Hand out cards and ask guests to fill every square with something they predict will happen: gifts someone will open, songs the band will play, things the speaker will say, moves in a board game. Players mark squares as they actually happen, so there is no caller and nothing to prepare except the cards and some pens. Gift bingo at a baby shower works this way; the baby shower page adds a printable tally sheet for the gifts.

Spares, and your own drawings

Print a few blank cards with every set of word cards, for the guest who arrives late or the card that ends up in the punch. Children can draw a picture in each square instead of writing a word; at 1 per page the squares of a 5x5 card are almost 4 cm wide, enough for a small drawing.

Why there is no caller sheet

A caller sheet lists what is on the cards in a shuffled order. On a blank card nothing is printed: you fill the squares yourself, so only you know what to call. Keep your own list of the words you wrote on the board and tick them off as you read them, or for a prediction game, let the evening do the calling.

Sizes, free space and printing

A 5x5 card with a free centre holds 24 words, 4x4 holds 16 (an even grid has no centre square, so no free space), and 3x3 holds 9, or 8 with the free space. The B-I-N-G-O header row only fits a 5x5 card, one letter per column; turn it off if you want the columns to mean nothing. At 4 per page on Letter paper each 5x5 square is about 1.9 cm wide, which suits neat handwriting in pen; choose 2 per page for 2.5 cm squares if your players are young or the words are long. Eight cards at 4 per page is two sheets. Press Print cards with margins at Default and scale at 100%, or Download PDF to print the same file again next term. The cards are made in your browser, and nothing you choose here is sent anywhere.