Back to School Bingo (Free Printables)
Kick off the school year with our version of Classmate Bingo, designed to help students get to know each other through a simple and fun game. This ice breaker Bingo activity encourages students to interact with one another, discover new things about their classmates, and even find interests they have in common. It’s an easy way to help kids feel more comfortable and connected during the first week of school! As an added bonus, they’re also a fun way to practice reading and conversation skills.
Simply print out the cards and have students walk around looking for people who fit the comment in each box. When that happens, they’ll write that person’s name in the box they match with. The first person to fill in a row of boxes wins!
4×4 Back to School Bingo
These 4×4 Classmate Bingo cards are ideal for younger children or when you need to fit this ice breaker activity into a shorter timeframe.
5×5 Back to School Bingo
Designed for older children or when you have more time for get-to-know-you activities at school, these 5×5 Bingo cards are great for first graders and up.
Get more great ideas and tips for your Classmate Bingo cards below. You can also pair these free printable Bingo cards with our free Back-to-School coloring pages.
Tips for Your Ice Breaker Bingo Activity
⭐ Wear Name Tags
If students aren’t already wearing name tags to help learn each other’s names, have them put some on so they can write the correct name into each Bingo square as they find students who match with each item on their Bingo card.
⭐ Make Them Reusable
Laminate the Bingo cards so you can reuse them year after year. Have kids use dry erase markers to fill in them in.
⭐ Need More Bingo Cards?
If you want more unique Bingo cards than the number provided above, simply print out an extra sheet, cut out the Bingo squares, and glue them down in varying orders onto the other printable Bingo sheets, creating new series of Bingo cards. You can also turn a different square on each Bingo card into a free space that students can automatically claim. Remember each Bingo card needs to be different in order to only get only a few winners during each round.
⭐ Add Prizes with a Back-to-School Twist
Make the game even more fun by offering a reward or prize at the end. You can hand out new pencils or markers to the winning students or let them earn points that they can put towards a class incentive later in the year.
