Math bingo

How to play math bingo with your cards

Math bingo flips regular bingo: the cards show answers, and you call the problems. These steps run a math bingo game with a printed set.

1. Describe the skill in the box above so the list holds answers: products, sums, fractions. Edit any item before you print.
2. Print the 30 unique cards and the call sheet. Words-only cards work well for numbers.
3. Before class, jot one problem for each answer, or make them up as you go.
4. Call a problem, then cross its answer off the call sheet. Students mark the answer if it's on their card.
5. When someone calls bingo, check each marked square against the answers you crossed off.

Multiplication bingo

In multiplication bingo, products go on the cards and you call the facts. A card shows 56, and you call 7 × 8.

Some facts share a product. 3 × 8 and 4 × 6 both give 24, and 2 × 6 and 3 × 4 both give 12. Each answer appears only once on your list. So call whichever fact you like, and cross off the same answer.

For a whole class, we suggest mixing several times tables. A single table gives too few different products to fill 30 unique 5×5 cards. Your list needs a few more items than squares on one card; if the list is too short, the generator says how many unique cards it can make. Facts from 2 × 2 to 9 × 9 give 31 different products.

Division bingo is the reverse. The card shows 7, and you call 56 ÷ 8. Basic facts only give about 10 different quotients. So we suggest mixing division with multiplication products to get more answers. Some numbers fit both, like 6 or 8: keep each one once.

Common Core grade 3 asks students to "fluently multiply and divide within 100" (3.OA.C.7). By the end of grade 3, they should know all products of two one-digit numbers from memory.

Fraction bingo

Fraction bingo works best with fractions written as text, like 3/4 or 5/8. Call them in words ("three fourths") or as a question.

For equivalent fractions, put simple fractions on the cards and call a match. The card shows 1/2, and you call 2/4 or 3/6. Then cross off 1/2 on the call sheet. Keep only one form of each value on the list, so two squares never mean the same thing.

Simplifying works the same way. Call "6/8 in simplest form," and students mark 3/4.

The Common Core grade 3 fractions standards are limited to denominators 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8. They ask students to "recognize and generate simple equivalent fractions, e.g., 1/2 = 2/4" (3.NF.A.3b). That gives you a natural range for a grade 3 list.

That range is short, though. Fractions between 0 and 1 with those denominators give only 11 different values. That's fewer than the 16 squares on one 4×4 card. So add values of 1 or more, like 1, 2, 5/4, 3/2 and 7/4. Or mix in another skill.