Animal bingo for kids: thirty picture cards to print, with dog, cat and mouse and parrot on bright cards for preschool, kindergarten and parties. Print up to 200 different cards with calling cards to cut out, or play online, where each picture is read aloud. Free, with no sign-up.
Animal bingo: printable cards and online game
Below are a 4 by 4 card with words, a 3 by 3 picture-only card, the calling cards and the online game.
How to play animal bingo
Give each child a card, draw a calling card and say the word, and children cover that picture if it is on their card. For a harder game, give the clue instead and let them work out the word: “Barks and wags its tail” is the dog, and “A bird that swims, not flies” is the penguin. The first child to cover a full row, column or diagonal calls bingo and reads the covered pictures back to check.
Animal bingo win patterns to try
One line, four corners, two lines and blackout all work with this pack, and the picture bingo for kids page has the table of patterns. A blackout on a 5 by 5 card covers 24 of this pack’s 30 pictures, so that game lasts until almost the whole pack has been called.
All 30 pictures in the animal picture bingo pack
These are the 30 pictures that can appear on a card. The word column is what the game says aloud and prints under each picture, and the last column gives a clue to talk about.
| Picture | Word | Group | Clue to talk about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐶 | dog | Mammal | Barks and wags its tail |
| 🐱 | cat | Mammal | Purrs and meows |
| 🐭 | mouse | Mammal | Squeaks and nibbles cheese |
| 🐰 | rabbit | Mammal | Hops and has long ears |
| 🦊 | fox | Mammal | Has a bushy tail and a pointed nose |
| 🐻 | bear | Mammal | Big, furry and loves honey |
| 🐼 | panda | Mammal | Black and white and eats bamboo |
| 🐨 | koala | Mammal | Sleeps in eucalyptus trees |
| 🐯 | tiger | Mammal | Orange with black stripes |
| 🦁 | lion | Mammal | The “king of the jungle” with a mane |
| 🐮 | cow | Mammal | Says moo and gives milk |
| 🐷 | pig | Mammal | Says oink and rolls in mud |
| 🐸 | frog | Amphibian | Hops and says ribbit |
| 🐵 | monkey | Mammal | Swings from trees and likes bananas |
| 🐔 | chicken | Bird | Clucks and lays eggs |
| 🐧 | penguin | Bird | A bird that swims, not flies |
| 🦆 | duck | Bird | Quacks and paddles |
| 🦉 | owl | Bird | Hoots at night |
| 🐴 | horse | Mammal | Gallops and neighs |
| 🦄 | unicorn | Make-believe | A magical horse with a horn |
| 🐝 | bee | Insect | Buzzes and makes honey |
| 🐢 | turtle | Reptile | Carries its shell home |
| 🐍 | snake | Reptile | Slithers and hisses |
| 🦒 | giraffe | Mammal | The tallest animal |
| 🐘 | elephant | Mammal | Has a trunk and big ears |
| 🦓 | zebra | Mammal | Black and white stripes |
| 🦘 | kangaroo | Mammal | Hops and has a pouch |
| 🐪 | camel | Mammal | Has humps and lives in the desert |
| 🦋 | butterfly | Insect | Starts as a caterpillar |
| 🦜 | parrot | Bird | Colorful and can talk |
The 30 pictures fall into these groups:
| Group | Number | Which ones |
|---|---|---|
| Mammal | 19 | dog, cat, mouse, rabbit, fox, bear, panda, koala, tiger, lion, cow, pig, monkey, horse, giraffe, elephant, zebra, kangaroo and camel |
| Bird | 5 | chicken, penguin, duck, owl and parrot |
| Insect | 2 | bee and butterfly |
| Reptile | 2 | turtle and snake |
| Amphibian | 1 | frog |
| Make-believe | 1 | unicorn |
Wikipedia’s animal article explains how scientists group living things that eat food and move.
Zoo animal bingo: ideas for a class trip
Zoo animal bingo is the same game with a day-out twist: print the cards before a visit to the zoo or a wildlife park, and cover each picture when you spot the real animal. Children look more carefully when they have a goal, and they learn the names of the animals they see.
How many different animal bingo cards are there?
Cards are built from this pack’s 30 pictures in random order. The table shows how many different cards that makes:
| Card size | Pictures | Free space | Different layouts | Different sets of pictures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 × 3 | 8 | free star in the middle | 235,989,936,000 | 5,852,925 |
| 4 × 4 | 16 | no free space | 3,042,648,073,975,910,400,000 | 145,422,675 |
| 5 × 5 | 24 | free star in the middle | 368,406,749,739,154,248,105,984,000,000 | 593,775 |
Play animal bingo online
Press Create game on a tablet or phone and share the link: each picture is read aloud and children tap it on their own card. The guide to playing bingo online with friends covers hosting.
Animal bingo for kids: learning ideas
Animal bingo builds vocabulary, listening and turn-taking. For the youngest children it also practices matching a picture to a spoken word. Try these ways to turn the game into a lesson:
- Animal sounds: make the sound of the animal instead of saying its name, and let the children guess.
- Where does it live? after each call, ask for the habitat: farm, jungle, ocean or home.
- What does it eat? sort the calls into plant eaters and meat eaters when the game ends.
- Animal charades: the caller acts out the animal, and children cover the picture on their cards.
- Zoo trip: play before a visit to the zoo and tick off the animals you see.
- Baby names: ask for the baby of each animal: puppy, kitten, calf, cub, joey.
Animal bingo: frequently asked questions
Which pictures are in the animal bingo pack?
There are 30: dog, cat, mouse, rabbit, fox, bear, panda, koala, tiger, lion, cow, pig, frog, monkey, chicken, penguin, duck, owl, horse, unicorn, bee, turtle, snake, giraffe, elephant, zebra, kangaroo, camel, butterfly and parrot.
Which group has the most pictures in animal bingo?
Mammal is the biggest group with 19 of the 30 pictures: dog, cat, mouse, rabbit, fox, bear, panda, koala, tiger, lion, cow, pig, monkey, horse, giraffe, elephant, zebra, kangaroo, camel. The next biggest is Bird, with 5.
Which pictures are easy to mix up?
Tiger and lion, bear and panda, rabbit and mouse, and horse and zebra are the pairs young children confuse most, and duck, chicken, penguin and parrot are all birds with different shapes. Talk through the differences before the first game, then use the clue column to check that everyone has the right word.
Which card sizes does the animal bingo pack support?
A 3 by 3 card uses 8 of the 30 pictures, a 4 by 4 card uses 16 and a 5 by 5 card uses 24, so every card is a different mix.
Pictures: Twemoji by X Corp, licensed CC BY 4.0.