A winter game for every classroom
Not every school celebrates Christmas, and many teachers want a December party game that suits everyone. Winter bingo sticks to the season itself: snowflakes, sledding, polar bears, earmuffs, hot cocoa and snow angels. It also keeps working long after the holidays, through January indoor recess and the first snow day of February.
What's on the cards
The list has 30 winter words, and each 5 × 5 card uses 24 of them plus a snowflake free space in the middle. With 30 cards in the set, every card is different. The words mix easy ones (hat, ice, cold) with longer ones (hibernate, marshmallow), so early readers and confident readers can play the same game.
Indoor recess ideas
- Let a student be the caller and read from the caller sheet; it's good reading practice.
- Play "picture bingo" with Pre-K: call the word, then act it out (shiver, skate, throw a snowball) so non-readers can join in.
- Use it as a vocabulary review after reading a winter story, adding words from the book.
Print and reuse
Slip the cards into sheet protectors and use dry-wipe markers to play again and again. Four small cards per page is handy for a quick game at a small table, and one card per page gives Pre-K the biggest squares. The blue border looks good in colour and stays crisp in black and white.