Easter bingo cards for an egg hunt or class party

Running Easter bingo at an egg hunt or class party

The page opens with the egg hunt list on 4x4 cards, 25 of them, 4 to a page: one card per child for a group of up to 25, on 7 sheets of Letter or A4 paper. The seventh sheet holds only one card, so set Cards to 28 to fill it and keep three spares for a cousin who turns up late or a card that ends up in a puddle. A 4x4 card has 16 squares and no centre, so there is no free space; the list has 52 entries, so no two of the 25 cards are the same. Every card is printed with Card k of 25 · set S along the bottom.

For a smaller family hunt, type the number of children in Cards and choose 2 per page, so each card is half a sheet and easier to hold on a clipboard outside.

Two ways to play at an egg hunt

Spot it during the hunt. Give each child a card and a crayon before the hunt starts. There is no caller: children cross off a square when it happens to them, such as Find a pink egg, Puddle splash, Help a little one look or Hop like a bunny. The hiding-place squares (Egg in a flowerpot, Egg under a bench, Egg in the sandpit) only work if an adult hides eggs in those places, so read the list before you hide anything, and delete the places your garden or classroom does not have before you print. If your eggs are all one colour, delete the colour squares too.

Use the eggs as the caller. Press Print calling cards: it prints one small card per word, 12 to a page with dashed cut lines, so the 52-entry list comes to 5 sheets. Cut them out and fold one into each plastic egg before you hide them. After the hunt, sit the children down with their bingo cards and let them open their eggs one at a time and read out (or show) what is inside; everyone marks that square. Keep the printed Caller sheet in your pocket, because some eggs are always found a week later, and you can call the missing words from the sheet.

Picture cards for children who cannot read yet

For toddlers, a preschool, nursery or pre-K class, choose Pictures for pre-readers at the top of the form. The word box fills with 36 pictures (egg, cracked egg, nest, egg basket, chick, rabbit, lamb, duck, flower, seedling, butterfly, rain, spade, wheelbarrow, picnic table, cupcake and more), the cards switch to 3x3 without a free space, and every square becomes a black line drawing with its word underneath. Untick Show the word under each picture for bigger drawings and no words at all. Picture calling cards print the drawing too, so they fold into eggs the same way. Go through the caller sheet with the children once before you play, because a few drawings need a name the first time: lamb is the same drawing as the sheep, two eggs are two eggs leaning together, rain is a cloud with rain falling, spade is a garden spade on a slant, and egg basket is a basket with handles. The drawings print black on white, so children can colour in their card after the game.

Calling and winning

In a classroom, read one call every 15 to 20 seconds from the caller sheet, or show each call large on the board with the on-screen caller: press its Easter picture-set button and every call is a drawing with its word underneath. Given the same list and the same set number, the on-screen caller calls in the same order as the printed caller sheet. For the youngest players, play to the first full line (a row, a column or a diagonal) and carry on until several children have one, so nobody waits long. Older children can go on to four corners, then a full card. Check a winner by reading their squares back against the caller sheet. Prizes do not need to be sweets: a sticker, choosing the next game, or being the one who hides the eggs next time.

The family list

Use Start from above the word box to switch to the spring family list: things on the table (hot cross buns, glazed ham, deviled eggs, a vase of daffodils), things you do with the eggs (dye eggs in a mug, onion-skin dyed eggs, egg rolling) and things in the garden and outdoors (garden chairs out, lambs in a field, bluebells, a sudden spring shower). Hand cards out at breakfast and let everyone mark squares as the day goes, with no caller; the first full line chooses the board game after lunch. Choose 5x5 with Free space and a Free space text box appears: type up to 24 characters, such as the family's name, and it prints in the centre of every card. Some squares are British (wellies, garden centre, Simnel cake) and some are American (deviled eggs); edit the list before you print, and the edited list is kept in this browser for next time.

Printing

Press Print cards, set margins to Default and scale to 100%, or Download PDF to print from a phone or at a print shop. Everything is made in your browser: nothing you type is uploaded, and there is no sign-up or watermark. For a spring class party with no holiday at all, use the picture set and delete the eggs, or make your own list on the front page. For a classroom party a few weeks earlier, St Patrick's Day bingo has a list of shamrocks, rainbows and green snacks.