Halloween Bingo for Kids (Free Easy Printable Cards)

The word list

Thirty-six words a four year old can picture, and not one ghost, witch or skeleton among them. About a third are plain fall and dress-up words, so a child who does not celebrate Halloween has plenty of squares to hunt for.

Playing Halloween bingo with young children

Halloween bingo with preschoolers and kindergartners is less a contest and more an excuse to shout words together. The cards here are built for that: sixteen big squares on a full page, 36 words a four year old already uses, and nothing that would give anyone a bad dream.

1. Hand out one card per child and a cup of markers that will not roll off the table. Candy corn is tempting but tiny, so use milk jug caps, torn orange paper or a pumpkin stamp instead.
2. Pick a word from the caller sheet and say it slowly. Hold up a quick drawing or the real thing when you can: a plastic pumpkin, a leaf from the yard, a toy bat.
3. The children hunt for the word on their card and cover it. Let them help each other; pointing at a neighbor's card is allowed and a good sign.
4. Four squares in a line wins. On a 4 by 4 card that takes roughly eight calls, which is about the attention span of the room.
5. Cheer the winner, swap cards and go again; three or four quick games fill twenty minutes.

Not every word you call will be on every card, since each one uses 16 of the 36, so teach the children to say "not me" and keep listening.

Ways to make it easier or sillier

• Picture bingo. Before the party, draw a tiny doodle in each square: a moon, a hat, a cat. Pre-readers match the picture while the word sinks in.
• Nine squares only. Switch the grid to 3 by 3 for three year olds and keep the shortest words: bat, cat, owl, hat, moon, star, boo. A game lasts a few calls.
• Costume call. Instead of reading the word, act it out. Flap for bat, hop for frog, sweep for broom. Children guess, then cover.
• Sound bingo. Say only the first sound of the word ("p... p...") and let the children finish it. Kindergarten teachers get a phonics lesson out of a party.

Tips for parents and teachers

Plan for everyone to win something. A sticker for each line, and a tiny treat for the whole table at the end, saves tears when one card never fills.

Some families skip Halloween. The list leans on fall and dress-up words (leaf, corn, apple, hay, scarecrow, crown, robot) so a child who does not celebrate still has plenty to find. Delete anything that does not suit your group and press Generate again.

Printing big friendly cards

Large print is already on, so each card fills a whole page with the biggest letters that fit. Eight cards and a caller sheet print by default; change Cards to your class size before you press Print.

Plain paper is fine. Ink saver mode keeps a class set cheap, and orange paper from the craft drawer makes the cards feel like a party without using any extra ink. Laminate a set and use dry-erase markers if you want to play every October.