Free Printable Animal Bingo Cards for Kids

Few things get a room of five-year-olds as excited as a teacher doing a terrible elephant impression. Animal bingo leans into that. Every call can be a name, a sound, a clue or a pretend walk across the room, which makes it one of the most flexible classroom games for preschool and the early grades. The 50 animals on these cards come from the farm, the zoo, the ocean and the backyard.

How do you play animal bingo?

The caller names or hints at an animal, and players cover it on their cards.

1. Print one card per child using the generator at the top of this page.
2. Use the animal list at the bottom of this page as your calling list. Cut it into slips if you want kids to draw.
3. Call an animal in one of three ways:
   • Name it: “Giraffe!”
   • Make its sound: “Moo!” (cow)
   • Give a clue: “I’m the biggest animal in the ocean.” (whale)
4. Kids cover the animal with a counter, a crayon mark or an animal cracker.
5. The first child with a full row, column or diagonal shouts “Bingo!” (or roars) and wins.

The center square is free.

How many animal bingo cards do I need?

One per child plus a few spares. A preschool class of 16 needs about 18; a birthday party of 10 needs about 12. Each card from the generator has a different arrangement, so kids sitting together won’t all win at once.

Print on cardstock and laminate if you plan to play often. Kids are tough on paper.

Fun ways to play

• Sound-only round. The caller makes only animal noises. Great for pre-readers.
• Clue round. For kids aged 6 to 8, use riddles: “I carry my home on my back” (turtle), “I sleep all day and hoot at night” (owl).
• Habitat round. Call animals by where they live, and kids name the habitat before covering. Ocean, farm, jungle, forest and polar are easy categories.
• Move like the animal. When a square is covered, the whole class waddles, hops or slithers for five seconds. This is a lifesaver on indoor-recess days.
• Field trip bingo. Take cards on a zoo or farm visit and let kids mark animals as they see them.

Tips for teachers and parents

• Read and show. Hold up each slip or a picture of the animal so kids can match words to the card.
• Animal crackers as markers. Kids love them, but check for allergies and decide in advance whether markers can be eaten.
• Let a child be the caller. Taking turns calling builds confidence and reading skills.
• Keep it short. Two or three quick rounds of 5 to 10 minutes each fit a preschool attention span.

Our guide to bingo for kids in the classroom covers group management, fair prize rules and adapting games for different ages.

Animal bingo prize ideas

Animal stickers, small plastic animals, animal-shaped erasers, a coloring sheet, stamp sets or a little stuffed animal. At school, “line leader” or “class pet helper” privileges make great no-cost prizes. More ideas are in our bingo prize ideas guide.

Keep learning with bingo

Animal bingo pairs nicely with our colors and shapes bingo for preschool and sight word bingo for kindergarten readers. To make a set with your own animals (dinosaurs, anyone?), type them into the custom bingo card generator.