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Ideas for Pre-K & Preschool Teachers

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Friend Bingo

By Karen Cox | Affiliate Disclosure

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Friend Bingo is an idea I got from a workshop I attended once and it’s a great activity for the beginning of the year. It helps children learn the names of their new friends and teachers. It also serves as a kind of observational assessment because it helps me see which children have not learned any or very few names. Maybe that child needs some guidance making friends.

Friend Bingo

Most importantly, children love to play Friend Bingo!

How to make the game:
Create a table with 2 rows, 4 columns in a Word document. Adjust the table cells to the size you want. A little tip: Highlight your entire table, click Layout, Auto Fit, & Fixed Column Width (Word version 2007)– that will keep the images you insert the size you want them. Then insert photos of your students into the cells, print the bingo cards on cardstock, and laminate. Also make a set of “calling cards” — photo cards that the “caller” (you or the children) can use to call out names during the game. We used Unifix cubes as our bingo markers.

To save yourself some work, you can use this template if it is compatible with your computer. This is a Word Doc file:

Download: Friend Bingo Template DOC

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18 Comments

About Karen Cox

Karen is the founder of PreKinders.com. She also works as a full-time Pre-K teacher in Georgia. Read more...

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. prairie daze says

    September 1, 2009 at 2:16 pm

    yes! i love this.

    i just made pictoral directories which would work perfectly.

    thanks.

    Reply
  2. Laura says

    September 1, 2009 at 10:56 pm

    This is a great idea! Your site always has very innovative activities. Thanks so much for sharing them!

    Reply
  3. Karen says

    September 2, 2009 at 9:46 pm

    Thanks!

    Reply
  4. Monica Spillman says

    April 13, 2012 at 10:30 pm

    I also teach Georgia pre-k. In order to foster a sense of community, we had the students say something kind about the person that was drawn before they could mark it. When a challenging student had to say something nice about himself it was a special moment for him and the teacher.

    Reply
    • Karen says

      April 16, 2012 at 7:42 pm

      Thanks, Monica!

      Reply
  5. Melody says

    August 29, 2012 at 6:44 pm

    Love this!! We are definitely going to do this!

    Reply
  6. Dottie says

    September 8, 2012 at 9:09 am

    Love your friend bingo but I need 5 columns and 3 rows. I also want to add a text box for the child’s name, but my rows won’t stay fixed. The columns remain fixed but not the rows. Can anyone help please. Thanks, Dottie

    Reply
    • Theresa says

      September 2, 2013 at 2:06 pm

      Use Microsft Publisher ,much easier and ad a table. If you have trouble make the table in word and transfer it to Microsft publisher

      Reply
  7. Tshari says

    June 24, 2013 at 6:48 pm

    I want to become a teacher and I think that this would be great

    Reply
    • Karen Cox says

      June 25, 2013 at 3:02 pm

      Welcome, Tshari! Good luck on your journey!

      Reply
  8. Ellen Emery says

    July 23, 2013 at 4:26 pm

    I was so excited when I found this website! I am teaching pre-k this year after teaching kindergarten for 14 years. I love the info. I found and can’t wait to incorporate them into my classroom! Thank you so much! Your website has me excited again!

    Reply
    • Karen Cox says

      July 23, 2013 at 6:49 pm

      Thanks Ellen! Have a great year!

      Reply
  9. elsa says

    August 10, 2013 at 9:39 pm

    Hello!! I have found your website so helpful!! This is the first year I am teaching prek, I have always worked with Kindergartners, and I was a little bit afraid because they are very different levels. Your website and ideas are life saving!! thank you very much!!! Any tip for a new prek teacher??

    And, if there is someway to repay your help, I would gladly do so, thank you!! 🙂

    Reply
  10. Elsa says

    August 10, 2013 at 9:42 pm

    thank you very much!! Your website is a beacon of hope! I will be teaching this year prek after working with Kindergartners for almost 4 years… got any extra tips?? 🙂 If there is anyway to repay for your help, please tell me so that I can do it.

    Thank you so much!!

    Reply
  11. Joy says

    June 23, 2015 at 8:45 am

    Hi! Thanks for sharing! How do you play this game?

    Reply
    • Karen Cox says

      June 29, 2015 at 11:12 pm

      This game is played like all bingo games. You give each child a game card, in this case, there are 8 pictures on the game card. You need something the kids can cover the pictures on their game card (I used Unifix cubes, but you can use any small pieces that can cover the pictures). You’ll need a set of Calling Cards. You will draw a calling card from the stack and say the child’s name. The children will look on their game card to see if they have that child’s picture. Continue playing. When a child covers all 8 pictures, they have won the game. I keep playing until everyone wins. Hope this helps!

      Reply
  12. Mary says

    July 15, 2016 at 12:01 am

    This is a wonderful idea to help kids make friends! Thanks so much!

    Reply
  13. Christina Derksen says

    July 6, 2020 at 4:55 pm

    I LOVE this! I did open up the template, and it was super easy to drop photos in! I did NOT have to resize pictures! I used these for families as well and changed friend bingo to family bingo. Had parents send me pictures of family members and created boards to play at home! THANK YOU!

    Reply

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Glad you're here! You'll find hands-on learning activities, themes, and printables for Pre-K, Preschool, and Kindergarten kids. I'm Karen Cox, a Pre-K teacher in Georgia. I have taught 4-5 year olds for 20+ years! Read More…

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Would you like to join my FREE weekly update newsletter? Join 85,000+ subscribers!
We collect, use, and process your data according to our Privacy Policy.
Don't worry - we never sell or share email addresses!