Spring Bingo

Bingo is great for helping young kids learn their letters and numbers. Make a spring bingo game with your kindergartner to kick off the start of spring. Full of spring colors and images, this bingo game is just the thing to celebrate the season of April showers and May flowers. Building a bingo set is also a good way to sneak in some handwriting practice and build those fine motor skills, too!

What You Need:

• Notebook
• Pencil or pen
• Thick paper such as card stock or cardboard
• Ruler or straight edge
• Thin markers
• Construction paper
• Scissors
• 2 bags

What You Do:

1. Before making the game, start by talking about spring with your child. How is spring different than winter? What does nature look like in the spring? Take a walk outside to observe the spring weather and landscape. Bring along a notebook and pencil and make a list of all the things he sees, hears, and smells.
2. Now make the bingo board. Make at least two boards so that a sibling, friend, or even grandparent can play along with him. Set a sheet of card stock or cardboard in front of him.
3. Help him draw a 6 x 5 (six boxes across and 5 boxes down) grid on the board using a marker and ruler. If he finds this too difficult, draw the lines first in pencil and then have him trace over them with marker. The board should be six cells across and at least five cells down.
4. Help him write the word SPRING across the top row of the board, placing one letter in each box. As before, if he has trouble, write the letters in pencil then have him trace over them with his marker.
5. Write numbers 1-25 in the remaining boxes, placing them around the grid at random.
6. Repeat steps 3-5 to make another bingo card.
7. Now create the bingo markers. Cut out several small squares from the construction paper and ask him to draw a simple spring picture on each one. Some good ideas are a spring flower, rain drop, rainbow, or cloud.
8. The last thing to make are the letter and number cards. Help him cut out 30 3" squares from the construction paper.
9. On the first 6 squares, write the letters in "spring" in marker. On the remaining squares, have him write numbers 1-25.
10. Now you're ready to play bingo! Place the letter cards in one bag and the number cards in another. Start by choosing one letter and one number and calling them out: for example, you might say "S3". Have your child take one of the construction paper markers and place it over that space on the board. Play until someone fills a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Place the number and letter cards back in their bags after calling them out.

Try making more bingo cards and spring markers so the whole family can play!