Winter Bingo Cards

Use it on a cold-day indoor recess or at a winter party. Give each child a card, then read the words from your call sheet in order and tick each one off. A 5 x 5 round takes about fifteen minutes, and a 3 x 3 round closer to five. Cotton balls, mini marshmallows or paper snowflakes make good markers. Print more pages with the 5 versions switch to run several rounds and give hot chocolate as the prize.

Short words like ICE, HAT and COLD give new readers early wins. The list also holds many SNOW compounds: SNOWBALL, SNOWSTORM, SNOWPLOW, SNOWFLAKE, SNOWSUIT and SNOWDRIFT. Spotting that shared first part helps children split a long word into pieces. Pairs like SHIVER and SHIVERING, FREEZING and FROZEN show base words and endings. Watch for children confusing COOL and COLD, or GLOVES and MITT. Calling a word twice, once alone and once in a sentence, helps children who read slowly keep up with the round.

For younger kids, 3 x 3 with one card per page keeps the squares large. For grades 3 and up, 5 x 5 using the whole list makes the SNOW compounds stand out. Skip the free center when you want a longer game. Paste your own words, such as names of winter sports or your local weather terms, if you want to narrow the topic.

Is winter bingo tied to any holiday?

No. The words cover cold weather and clothing, such as SCARF, BOOT and FIREPLACE. They fit any school, so you can use the cards from December through February.

How can winter bingo teach compound words?

Many words start with SNOW. After a round, have students list those words and circle the second part. They see how SNOW plus BALL, FLAKE or PLOW makes a new word.

Which winter words are the longest to read?

THERMOMETER, SNOWFLAKE, SNOWSTORM and FIREPLACE are the longest on the list. Clap out the syllables together as a group, or paste a shorter custom list for beginners who need quick wins.