Children love playing Bingo. It’s simple, fun, and requires only a few household items. It’s a fantastic way to keep kids occupied, whether on a rainy day or when you need a breather. It doesn’t require expensive equipment or elaborate preparations. You’ll just need a bingo card, some markers, and someone to call out the items. In this article, we will guide you to making bingo fun for kids at home.
Why Bingo?
Bingo for Kids: Bingo is a great game for kids because it is simple to learn. It also allows them to hone listening skills and attention to detail, and even learn new things. Children may learn about animals, shapes, colours, numbers, words etc. depending on the theme of the bingo game. It’s a game that helps them pay attention and can also please them.
Preparing the Bingo Game
While your is all prepared before you even starts. But fear not, it’s quite easy! You first have to make bingo cards.
Bingo Cards
Create your own bingo, or try a free website where you can print them. If you create your own, you can word process it or use a drawing app. Each card must have 5 rows and 5 columns. In the center, you should have a “Free Space,” which means that the child does not need to mark that square.
- Moving on, how to choose the theme for bingo? For example:
- Animal Bingo: Use animals like a lion, elephant, dog, cat, monkey.
- Colour Bingo: Each square can have different colours; for example, red, green, blue, yellow, etc.
- Shape Bingo: Use changing circles, squares, triangles, and stars.
- Create Number Bingo: Use numbers from 1 to 20 or 1 to 50.
- Seasonal Bingo: Incorporate seasonal themes, like pumpkins in the fall or snowflakes in the winter.
There should have been different pictures or words on each card so that no two cards are alike The cards formed a positive pattern with their close similarity. Adding bright colours or fun pictures of the items help in making sure the cards are fun.
Markers
Once you’ve got your cards, you’ll also need something to mark the squares with as the items are called out. They can be buttons, small coins, or even toys. If you don’t have anything along those lines, children can just use pencils or crayons to mark off squares.
Calling the Bingo
Now, what about calling out the items? If you want, you can use a small bag or box and place everything (animal pictures or shapes) inside it. If you’re playing with words, then you can write them on slips of paper and draw them out one at a time. Or keep it simple and just call the items out loud.
You can spice this up further involving sounds or actions. For example if you were calling out “dog” you could bark or pretend to walk like a dog. Children love when you come in like that! It makes the game more fun.”
How to Play
Bingo rules are really very simple. Each child gets a bingo card. The caller will then take one object out of the bag or box and call the object name. The child can cross off that item on their card if they have one. The objective is to get five hot squares in a row, vertically, horizontally or diagonally.
When a kid gets five squares in a row, they yell “Bingo!” You can then check their card to see if they correctly marked them. The child to call bingo first wins that round. Also, you can keep as many rounds as you need.
It’s also wise to play multiple rounds to maintain kids’ interest. You can even change the rules to make the game longer or shorter. In one round, for instance, the first person to fill a column is the winner. In one, the winner might be the person who fills the entire card.
Variations for Extra Fun
Wile a regular bingo is fun, there are some twists you can add to make it even more exciting. Here are some suggestions to make your home bingo game even more fun.
Speed Round
The caller does a speed round in which the kids only have a little bit of time to find and mark their squares, etc. It spices up the game a little bit and makes it go faster. If you want to keep the kids moving quickly, this is a good idea.
Bingo Relay
If you’ve got a lot of room you can even turn bingo into a physical game. You can have them run to a table, pick up a card, and take a big trip back to their seat instead of just marking squares, for example. This takes the game to a whole new level of dynamics and fun.
Story Bingo
You can also make the game interactive for younger children. What to Do: Call out one item and then share a short story featuring that item. If the item was a giraffe, for example, you might say, “Once upon a time, there was a giraffe who loved to eat leaves from tall trees.” This gives more fun to the game and helps the kids’ imagination to grow.
Charades Bingo
For this version of bingo, instead of saying the name of an animal or shape, you can pretend to be it. For instance, pretend you are a roaring lion or a jumping frog. If the kids can guess the animal, they can mark it on their cards. It creates more energy in the game and allows everybody a laugh at the goofy things that happen.
Prizes for Winning
For those who want even more of a challenge, you can offer small prizes for winners. You don’t have to spend a lot on prizes. Here are some ideas:
- Stickers
- A small toy
- Extra screen time
- A special treat
- A small certificate or badge
It doesn’t have to be fancy rewards, either. The most important thing is that the kids are proud of their victories. You can even scale the prizes so that everyone gets something at the end of the game, and nobody feels left out.
Making Bingo More Educational
Bingo is a fun game but it can be a great learning tool too. This means you can select themes to help children learn new things. School bingo — a few ideasThere are educational bingo ideas too.
- Alphabet Bingo: Use letters of the alphabet in this bingo game to teach young children their ABCs.
- Believe Bingo: Use numbers and assist kids by practicing counting.
- Word Bingo: Use easy words and read them out for the children.
- Geography Bingo: If your kids are older, you can help teach them about the world by using names of countries or landmarks.
If you have a theme in mind, say animals or colours, you can also discuss each item after it’s called out. And after yelling “elephant,” you can also say, “Did you know elephants have long trunks?” This allows kids to learn through play.
Scattergories Bingo: How to Play with Kids
Here are a few simple tips to ensure smooth sailing in your bingo game.
- Keep it short: Children might lose interest if a game goes on for too long. Try to keep each round quick.
- Assist younger children: Little ones may require some assistance. Look out for, offer to mark their cards or to help them identify the items.
- Be patient: There can be a bit of a wait for bingo so be patient and cheer the kids on during the game.
- Be adaptable: Don’t hesitate to adjust the rules if they aren’t aligned with what the children want to do or can focus on. You’re allowed to break the rules a little bit.
Conclusion
Why Bingo Is So Much Fun for Kids Bingo is a beautiful game and can be played for hours together keeping the children entertained. It’s easy to set up, fun to play and can be made educational in various ways. If wondering, bingo is an activity that you can play with basic numbers (and a fun old-school twist) or if your kids are more the creative type, you can create a story bingo experience! Grab your bingo cards, have your markers ready, and let the good times roll! They will love it each time you play it.
