Alphabet Bingo

About this resource

Alphabet Bingo is a letter and picture-sound bingo game for K–1: all 26 letters, 30 boards, letter cards and a call sheet, so you can print it tonight and play it tomorrow. Every square on a 4 by 4 board shows the big capital and lowercase letter, one picture that begins with it and the picture's word. A child who is still learning the letters can match the picture; a child who knows them can find the letter and say its first sound. It is a good fit for a literacy center, small groups, letter-of-the-week review, special education and intervention groups, and a whole-class game.

WHAT IS INCLUDED - 76 pages

• 26 letter cards plus a BINGO! card for the winner, 9 pieces to a page, edge to edge for straight cuts; each letter card shows the letter (Aa), its picture and its word
• 30 boards, 4 by 4 with 16 letters each, a picture and word in every square; no two boards alike, and any two boards share at most 12 of their 16 letters
• The same 30 boards and the same cards again in black and white (ink saver); Board 3 is Board 3 in both
• Call sheet with three shuffled orders (A, B, C) and a tick box for every letter
• Letter list with talk-about-it prompts
• A worked example page: an invented game on Board 5, seven calls, the top row fills on the seventh
• Student alphabet page: all 26 letters with their pictures, say the sound, color the box
• Blank markers page (20 plain square markers with no letters on them, cut on the dashed lines) with the five ways to win pictured
• Note home with 12 lines for the day's letters (type or write)
• Start Here page: set up, how to play, three ways to level it
• A What's Next page and a credits page

The Pictures

apple, banana, cat, dog, egg, frog, goat, hat, igloo, jet, kite, lion, moon, nest, octopus, pig, queen, rabbit, sun, turtle, umbrella, van, wagon, xylophone, yarn, zebra. One clear picture for every letter. X is the exception: very few common words start with the letter X, so the picture is a xylophone, and its word begins with the letter, not the letter's usual sound. The Start Here page says how to call that card.

How To Play

1. Give each player a board and markers (or counters, beans or dot markers).

2. The caller turns a card, shows the picture and says the letter and the word: "A. Apple." Players say it back.

3. Players cover the letter; the caller ticks it on the call sheet.

4. A row, a column, a diagonal or the four corners wins; the winner calls Bingo and reads the covered letters. Play for a full board when there is time.

Boards have no free space: every square is a letter to find. Three ways to level it: show the card and say the word, so players match the picture and name the letter with you (starting); say the letter name only, then check it with the picture (building); say the word with the card face down and have players say the first sound before they find the letter (ready for more).

What This Is, And What It Is Not

It is a print-and-play PDF: boards, cards, call sheet and blank markers print and cut. The note home page has type-in lines. It is NOT a digital/interactive file, Google Slides or PowerPoint. It is a game for practice, not an assessment or a program. No prices are printed inside the PDF.

Who This Is For

Kindergarten and first grade teachers for letter recognition and beginning-sound practice, special education and intervention teachers who want a whole-group or small-group letter game with big pictures, one instruction per page and a black-and-white set for the copier, speech-language teachers, and parents or tutors working on letters at home.