Shape bingo

The form above makes your cards. This page helps you run the game: how to call shapes, which grid fits each age and how long your shape list should be. Looking for winning patterns like an X or four corners? See bingo patterns; this page is about naming shapes.

How do you play shape bingo?

You call a shape, and kids find it and cover it on their card.

1. Hand out one card per child and some counters, like buttons, cubes or cereal.
2. Call a shape from the call sheet, the last page of the PDF.
3. Kids find the shape and cover it.
4. The first child with a full row, column or diagonal calls "Bingo."
5. Check that card against the call sheet.

For a longer round, play until someone covers the whole card.

Every card is different, but two kids can still win on the same call with different lines. In our simulation (10,000 decks per setup, 100 games each, a 40-item list, 30 players), that happened in about 17 to 18% of games. Have a tie rule ready: two winners, or one more call.

Call shapes three ways

Start with the name. Move up a level when the class names shapes fast.

The second and third levels build attribute talk. In kindergarten, kids compare shapes by their parts, like how many sides and corners they have (K.G.B.4). In 1st grade, they tell defining attributes, like three sides, from ones like color (1.G.A.1).

The call sheet lists every item on your list, with its picture if you print the illustrated cards. The clues are yours to say out loud: the tool doesn't write them.

Flat shapes, solid shapes and everyday objects

Shape bingo is a geometry bingo game for flat shapes and solid shapes. Mix them, or keep them apart to match the lesson.

In kindergarten, kids learn to name shapes "regardless of their orientations or overall size" (K.G.A.2). They also identify them as "two-dimensional" or "three-dimensional" (K.G.A.3). The grade K introduction names "squares, triangles, circles, rectangles, and hexagons" and "cubes, cones, cylinders, and spheres." In 2nd grade, the standard reads "Identify triangles, quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, and cubes" ().