Transportation bingo for kids: twenty-six picture cards to print, with car, taxi and bus and lorry 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.
Transportation bingo: printable cards and online game
Below is the transport bingo printable set: a 4 by 4 card with words, a 3 by 3 picture-only card, the calling cards and the online game.
How to play transportation 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: “Carries a family on the road” is the car, and “Spinning blades lift it straight up” is the helicopter. The first child to cover a full row, column or diagonal calls bingo and reads the covered pictures back to check.
Transport bingo printable: 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 26 pictures, so that game lasts until almost the whole pack has been called.
All 26 pictures in the transportation bingo pack
These are the 26 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🚗 | car | On the road | Carries a family on the road |
| 🚕 | taxi | On the road | You pay a driver to take you somewhere |
| 🚌 | bus | On the road | Carries many people along a set route |
| 🚓 | police car | Emergency | Has flashing lights and a siren |
| 🚑 | ambulance | Emergency | Takes sick or hurt people to hospital |
| 🚒 | fire engine | Emergency | Carries firefighters, hoses and ladders |
| 🚚 | truck | On the road | Carries heavy goods |
| 🚜 | tractor | Farm | Pulls farm machines through fields |
| 🚲 | bicycle | Two wheels | Moves by pedaling |
| 🛵 | scooter | Two wheels | A small motor scooter with a seat |
| 🏍️ | motorbike | Two wheels | Two wheels and an engine, so riders wear helmets |
| 🚂 | steam train | On rails | Burns coal or wood to make steam |
| 🚇 | metro | On rails | A fast city train, often underground |
| 🚁 | helicopter | In the air | Spinning blades lift it straight up |
| ✈️ | airplane | In the air | Wings lift it into the sky |
| 🚀 | rocket | In the air | Takes astronauts to space |
| 🛶 | canoe | On the water | Paddled with a single-blade paddle |
| ⛵ | sailboat | On the water | Wind pushes the sails |
| 🚢 | ship | On the water | A big boat for crossing the sea |
| 🚤 | speedboat | On the water | A fast boat with an engine |
| 🛺 | auto rickshaw | On the road | A three-wheeled taxi common in South Asia |
| 🚠 | cable car | On rails | Hangs from a cable and climbs mountains |
| 🛴 | kick scooter | Two wheels | You push it along with one foot |
| 🚐 | van | On the road | Carries people or packages |
| 🏎️ | racing car | On the road | Built for speed on a track |
| 🚛 | lorry | On the road | The British word for a big truck |
The 26 pictures fall into these groups:
| Group | Number | Which ones |
|---|---|---|
| On the road | 8 | car, taxi, bus, truck, auto rickshaw, van, racing car and lorry |
| Two wheels | 4 | bicycle, scooter, motorbike and kick scooter |
| On the water | 4 | canoe, sailboat, ship and speedboat |
| Emergency | 3 | police car, ambulance and fire engine |
| On rails | 3 | steam train, metro and cable car |
| In the air | 3 | helicopter, airplane and rocket |
| Farm | 1 | tractor |
Wikipedia’s transport article explains how people and goods move from place to place.
Travel bingo for kids: things that go bingo for car journeys
Things that go bingo makes a good travel game. Print the 3 by 3 card, and children cross out each vehicle they spot from the window: a bus, a taxi, a truck or a bicycle. It works on a bus, on a train or on a walk through town, and the first child with a full line wins a small prize. Car bingo like this keeps children busy and looking out of the window. At home, use the same cards for a classic bingo game with calling cards drawn from a bag. The 26 pictures include road, rail, air and water vehicles.
How many different transportation bingo cards are there?
Cards are built from this pack’s 26 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 | 62,990,928,000 | 1,562,275 |
| 4 × 4 | 16 | no free space | 111,136,315,345,735,680,000 | 5,311,735 |
| 5 × 5 | 24 | free star in the middle | 201,645,730,563,302,817,792,000,000 | 325 |
Play transportation 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.
Transportation bingo and vehicle bingo learning ideas
Transportation bingo is a classic for preschool transportation units, and it builds vocabulary for the things that go, from bus and tractor to helicopter and ship. Try these ways to turn the game into a lesson:
- Land, sea or air? sort the pictures into vehicles that go on the road, on rails, on water and in the air.
- Sound effects: make the sound of each vehicle: beep, choo-choo, whoosh.
- Community helpers: talk about the police car, ambulance and fire engine and the people who drive them.
- Car journey: print the 3 by 3 card and play on a long car or train trip.
- How many wheels? count the wheels on the bicycle, car and truck.
- Build a road: after the game, draw a town and add the vehicles from the winning line.
Transportation bingo: frequently asked questions
Which pictures are in the transportation bingo pack?
There are 26: car, taxi, bus, police car, ambulance, fire engine, truck, tractor, bicycle, scooter, motorbike, steam train, metro, helicopter, airplane, rocket, canoe, sailboat, ship, speedboat, auto rickshaw, cable car, kick scooter, van, racing car and lorry.
Which group has the most pictures in transportation bingo?
On the road is the biggest group with 8 of the 26 pictures: car, taxi, bus, truck, auto rickshaw, van, racing car, lorry. The next biggest is Two wheels, with 4.
Which pictures are easy to mix up?
Car, taxi, racing car and van, scooter and kick scooter, and truck and lorry are the pictures that look alike, and the last pair is the same vehicle with a UK and a US name. 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 transportation bingo pack support?
A 3 by 3 card uses 8 of the 26 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.