Valentine's bingo cards for a class party

Running Valentine's bingo at a class party

The page opens with the class-party list on 4x4 cards, 25 of them, 4 to a page: one card per child for a class 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 new pupil, a lost card or the teaching assistant. 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 and each child holds a different mix. Every card is printed with Card k of 25 · set S along the bottom.

The class-party list is about what happens in the room rather than the holiday itself: being kind (Hold the door, Invite someone to play, Compliment a classmate), making and swapping cards (Cut out a paper heart, Class mailbox, Sign every card) and the party (Heart balloon, Party music). Edit it freely before you print: delete what your class is not doing, and if your school asks for no food at parties, delete the snacks. The edited list is kept in this browser for next time.

Calling the game

There are three ways to call. Caller sheet prints every word on the list in a shuffled order with a tick box, for a teacher reading aloud. Print calling cards prints one small card per word, 12 to a page with dashed cut lines: 52 words come to 5 sheets, and a child can pull the next one from a bag or a decorated card box. The on-screen caller shows each call large on the classroom screen; press its Valentine's 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. Read one call every 15 to 20 seconds, so children have time to find the square. Children can cover squares with cut-out paper hearts or counters, so a card can be played again in a second round.

Picture cards for children who cannot read yet

For a preschool, nursery or kindergarten class, choose Pictures for pre-readers at the top of the form. The word box fills with 36 pictures (heart, two hearts, love letter, mailbox, flower, present, helping hands, happy face, rainbow, teddy bear, 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 with no words at all. Go through the picture caller sheet with the children once before you play, because a few drawings need a name the first time: helping hands is a handshake with a heart, heart lock is a padlock with a heart on it, love letter is an envelope with a heart, mailbox is a box with a flag, and friends is two people side by side. The drawings print black on white, so a finished card can go home as a colouring sheet. Download PDF puts the drawings in the file too, and the calling cards show the picture as well as the word.

Winning, and prizes that are not sweets

For the youngest children, play to the first full line (a row, a column or a diagonal) and keep playing until several children have one, so nobody waits long. Older children can play to four corners, then a full card. Check a winner by reading their squares back against the caller sheet. Prizes can be a sticker, choosing the next song, being the caller for the next round, or delivering the cards to the class mailbox.

For a grown-ups' party

Use Start from above the word box to switch to the grown-ups' list: a dinner party, a couples' game night or friends' night in (the first-date story, a slow dance, two spoons for one dessert, someone blushes). Guests can mark squares as things happen through the evening instead of waiting for a caller, and the first full line wins the last chocolate. Choose 5x5 with Free space, and a Free space text box appears: type up to 24 characters, such as the hosts' names, and it prints in the centre square of every card. Print 2 per page so longer squares such as "Chocolate-dipped strawberry" stay readable.

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 winter class that does not mark the holiday, the winter bingo page has a classroom list with no holiday words at all, and for a spring class party the Easter bingo page has an egg hunt list and 36 more pictures.