Veterans Day and Remembrance Day bingo for class

How to run Veterans Day bingo in class

The page opens with the US list on 4x4 cards, 25 cards, 4 to a page: seven sheets of Letter or A4, the last one holding a single card, then the caller sheet. There is no free space, so each card shows 16 of the 58 squares and two cards almost never share a row. Every card is printed with Card 7 of 25 · set 4821 (with your own numbers), so a winning card can be checked against the caller sheet in a few seconds. For a Remembrance Day assembly or lesson, choose Start from above the word box to load the second list, and change the card title to REMEMBRANCE DAY before you press Generate.

What to call. Read one line of the caller sheet at a time and, for younger classes, add one plain sentence about it: “Salute: a hand raised to the brow as a sign of respect”, “Care package: a box of letters and treats posted to someone far from home”. Some squares are things the class can do when they come up. When Hand on heart is called, everybody does it; when A moment of silence or Two minutes' silence is called, the room stays quiet for ten seconds before the next call. Those pauses are what make the game feel like part of the day rather than a break from it.

How to win. Four in a row across, down or corner to corner. With no free space a line needs at least four calls, so nobody wins on the third call by luck. A good order for one lesson: two rounds for a line, one round for the four corners, and the whole card once at the end if there is time. The winner reads the line back, you find each word on your sheet, and the prize is a small job, not a thing: pinning the class poppy on the board, ringing the bell for the next round, or reading the next call.

With a visiting veteran

If a veteran is coming to class, let them be the caller. Show them the list beforehand and take out anything they would rather not talk about; then, on a few calls, stop and ask a question that belongs to the square (“What did you pack in your duffel bag?”, “Who wrote you letters?”). Cards made from the US list work well for writing thank-you notes afterwards: each child writes about one square they marked.

The Remembrance Day list

The second list uses British spelling and the words of a school Remembrance Day: the poppy, the wreath, the cenotaph, the bugle call, the silence at the eleventh hour, and the lines Lest we forget and We will remember them. Play it before or after the school's own two minutes' silence, never across it, and if the class makes paper poppies the same day, Making a paper poppy and Paper poppy chain are squares they will mark with some pride.

Pictures for children who cannot read yet

Choose Pictures for pre-readers at the top of the form. The box fills with 37 drawings (a flag, a poppy, a wreath, a medal, a bugle, a drum, a clock at eleven, a memorial, a letter, a thank-you card and more), the cards switch to 3x3, and each square shows a black line drawing with its word underneath; untick Show the word under each picture for pictures only. The drawings print black on white, so a finished card can be coloured in afterwards, the poppy red and the flag in its colours.

Keeping it respectful

Neither list names a battle, a year or a weapon, and neither asks children to know history: every square is something they can see, hear or do on the day. Some children will have a parent or grandparent who serves now, and some families have lost someone; read the lists before you print and remove anything that is not right for your class. Add your own school's details as new lines, for example the name of the local memorial or the veteran who is visiting.

Printing

Four cards to a page suits 4x4 squares; the longest entry, Thank you for your service, wraps onto two or three lines and stays readable. For a class with weaker readers, set Per page to 2 for bigger squares. Press Print cards with margins at Default and scale at 100%, or Download PDF to print from a phone. Everything is made in your browser: nothing you type is uploaded, and there is no sign-up or watermark. Print the week before 11 November so the cards are ready on the day.