Bingo Card Maker

What you get

A PDF with one card to a page at any of the three sizes, so a 5 × 5, a 4 × 4 and a 3 × 3 all fill the sheet. The first page of a called set is a call list of every word in play, with a box to check as each is called, and in a set of more than one the cards are numbered, card 1 of 12 and so on.

The 5 × 5 cards have the traditional free square in the middle, which is why they need 24 words rather than 25. The 4 × 4 and the 3 × 3 have no free square and need sixteen and nine.

Each card has a heavier outer edge than its inner lines, and every word on a card prints at one size, chosen so that the longest word fits its square. A card holding one long word therefore prints all its words a little smaller rather than mixing sizes.

How many words you need

If you give exactly the minimum, 24 words for a 5 × 5, sixteen for a 4 × 4 or nine for a 3 × 3, every card holds the same words in a different arrangement. The game still works, but every call marks a square on every card, so two players often finish on the same call, and the tool shows a warning saying so whenever you ask for more than one card.

Extra words change which words each card holds, not only where they sit. With 30 words on a 5 × 5, any two cards share about 80 percent of their squares rather than all of them, so lines take longer to come up and ties become less likely, though they do not disappear.

For a class of thirty on 5 × 5 cards, use every word of a ready-made theme, 40 for most and up to 95 for the Dolch nouns, because 30 words across thirty cards brings up a warning that a tie is likely.

Ways to use it

Sight-word bingo is the classic classroom use and it works because calling a word forces every child to read it rather than recognize its shape. The theme list has all six Dolch lists, pre-primer to third grade and the nouns, or build the set from the words you are actually teaching that week.

Vocabulary review works the same way in any subject, call the definition and have children find the term. That turns a listening game into a comprehension one without changing the cards at all.

For a baby shower or a party, a set built from your own list is a much better ice-breaker than a bought one, because the words mean something to the people in the room. Guest names work well.

The 3 × 3 size is worth knowing about for very young children. Nine squares is short enough to finish before attention runs out, and a full card feels like an achievement rather than a slog.

For a game where the players write their own cards, the blank card templates have a 5 × 5 with or without a free space, a 4 × 4 and a 3 × 3, each with a blank call list. The bingo patterns chart has eighteen shapes to call once a single line is too quick, from four corners to a blackout.

Find someone who, the game with no caller

Choose Find someone who at the top of the maker and the squares hold short prompts instead of words: "has a pet fish", "can whistle a tune". Nobody calls. Players walk the room looking for a person each prompt is true of, who writes their name on the line under it, which is why the game is also called human bingo and get to know you bingo.

There are four ready-made prompt sets, for a class going back to school, a team day at work, a family reunion or party, and English learners, or you can write your own, one to a line and up to 40 characters each. Every prompt wraps onto at most three lines of its square, the sheet has a line at the top for the player’s name, and there is no call list. On a 5 × 5 you choose whether the middle stays free or holds one more prompt.

The names you type stay with you

Bingo lists are more personal than they look. A baby shower set carries guest names, a classroom set carries the names of children. None of it is uploaded or logged: the cards are dealt by code running in your own browser, and no server here ever sees the list. It is kept between visits only if you check Remember my lists on this device and save it, and then only in your own browser, where Forget everything clears it.

This is how the page is built rather than something we ask you to take on trust. Load it, disconnect from the internet, and make a set of thirty cards anyway. Nothing had to leave the room.

Printing notes

Print at 100 percent rather than Fit to Page, because scaling the sheet down shrinks every square and every word with it, which matters most on a card whose words already print small.

Card stock is worth it if you plan to reuse a set, but ordinary paper is fine for a one-off party.

If you are printing thirty cards, print two or three first and check the word size before committing the rest.