Blank bingo cards
Empty grids to print and fill in by hand — the version where every player writes their own squares from a list on the board.
The cards
Blank card 1 B I N G O FREE Blank card 2 B I N G O FREE
When a blank card is the right one
Two situations. In a classroom, writing the words is the exercise: a child who has written "because" into a square has read it, spelled it and looked at it for longer than a pre-printed card would ever have made them. The game afterwards is almost a bonus.
At a party, filling in your own card is the ten minutes at the start where everybody talks. Baby shower gift bingo is nearly always played this way — guests write down what they think will be unwrapped, which is a guessing game before it is a bingo game.
For everything else, pre-printed cards are better: they start immediately and nobody can accidentally write the same square twice.
What prints
A grid with a header row and squares large enough to write in with a normal pen. Nothing else — no header, no navigation, no advertisement, no URL across the top of the page.
The free centre square is marked FREE where the grid has a centre. On an even grid there is no centre square, so the option is dropped rather than the square being put somewhere arbitrary.
Print a few more than you need. A blank card that has been filled in wrongly is a card that has to be thrown away, and that happens more often than you would expect.
Common questions
How do I print blank bingo cards?
Choose a grid size and how many you want, then print. The print stylesheet removes everything except the grids themselves, so nothing is wasted on page furniture.
What size are blank bingo cards?
Five by five is standard. Three by three and four by four are here as well, and both are better for younger children — a smaller grid finishes faster, which matters when the game has to fit a lesson.
Should blank cards have a free space?
Keep it for a called game, where it gives everybody the same start. Drop it for a spotting game played over a whole day or journey, where marks accumulate anyway and a free square makes a line too easy.