How do I prepare and use Birthday picture bingo cards?
Quick answer: Choose the 3×3 board for ages 3–4 or the 5×5 board for ages 5 and up. Print one board per player or pair, plus two spares, and check a test copy first. Then cut out the matching caller cards and give each player or pair a small cup of markers. To call, show each picture and say its name twice. Children match pictures, so they don't need to read. A full line wins: three in a row on the small board, five on the large board.
Bingo caller cards
The pack contains 24 pictures from the full board and five optional replacements. Use matching calls for your boards; set the replacements aside unless you have changed the boards too.
How to play
- Print or prepare a picture board for each player or pair, plus two spares, and prepare the matching caller cards.
- Give players their boards and markers. Cover the free center on 5×5 boards before starting.
- Draw a matching call card, show its picture and say its name twice. Leave called cards face up so they are not drawn again.
- Check three in a row on a 3×3 board or five in a row on a 5×5 board against the called cards. Share the win if players finish together.
- Clear the markers and reshuffle the matching deck. If using replacement calls, change the corresponding pictures on every board first.
Draw one when the room is ready
🎂 Birthday cake — hold the card high and say it twice
Caller deck: party things
Thirteen core calls and two optional replacements.
- 🎂 Birthday cake — hold the card high and say it twice
- 🎈 Balloon — pretend to tie one while you say it
- 🥳 Party hat — point to your head
- 🎁 Gift box — mime tying a bow
- 🧁 Cupcake — pretend to lick the frosting
- 🍦 Ice cream cone — shiver like a brain freeze
- 🧃 Juice box — poke an imaginary straw
- 🍕 Pizza slice — mime a giant bite
- 🖍️ Crayon — color one stroke in the air
- 🥁 Drum — tap the table twice
- 🌟 Smiley star — draw a star with your finger
- 🤖 Robot — say it in a robot voice
- 🚂 Train — chug your arms twice
- 🕯️ Candle flame (replacement) — pretend to blow out a candle
- 🌙 Moon (replacement) — cup your hands into a crescent
Caller deck: animals and outside things
Eleven core calls and three optional replacements.
- 🐶 Puppy — one bark and point
- 🐱 Kitten — meow softly
- 🦆 Duck — waddle once in place
- 🧸 Teddy bear — hug yourself
- 🦋 Butterfly — flap your hands
- 🐟 Fish — puff your cheeks
- ☀️ Sun — draw a big circle with your arms
- 🌸 Flower — sniff like a bee
- ⚽ Soccer ball — one pretend kick
- 🍎 Apple — mime a loud crunch
- 🚀 Rocket — whisper three, two, one
- ☂️ Umbrella (replacement) — pretend to open it overhead
- 🐸 Frog (replacement) — one hop in place
- ⛄ Snowman (replacement) — hug yourself and shiver
What the birthday bingo set includes
The set has two picture boards. The 3×3 board is meant for ages 3 and 4. It has nine pictures and no free space, and three in a row, column or diagonal wins. The 5×5 board is meant for ages 5 and up. It has 24 pictures and a free center, and five in a row, column or diagonal wins. The free center counts when it falls on that line.
The caller pack has the 24 pictures from the full board plus five optional replacement pictures, so it has 29 entries in all. The boards show pictures only, apart from the free center. Each caller card gives the picture and its name.
The 5×5 rows, from top to bottom, are: cake, balloon, party hat, gift box and cupcake; teddy bear, ice cream cone, drum, crayon and smiley star; puppy, kitten, free center, duck and rocket; juice box, pizza slice, flower, soccer ball and train; butterfly, fish, sun, apple and robot. The 3×3 board uses balloon, puppy, cake, duck, party hat, teddy bear, ice cream cone, fish and drum. On these boards, the party-face emoji stands for the party hat and the glowing-star emoji stands for the smiley star, so show the children those two pictures before you start.
This set is specific to the birthday boards. The Christmas, Easter, Halloween and other bingo sets on the site have their own pictures and layouts, so don't expect them to match this one.
| Board | Suggested ages | Pictures | Free space | How to win |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3×3 | 3 and 4 | 9 | No | 3 in a row, column or diagonal |
| 5×5 | 5 and up | 24 | Yes, center | 5 in a row, column or diagonal |
How to print the bingo boards
The boards use emoji pictures, and emoji can look different from one device or printer to another. Before you print the whole set, open print preview and check that every picture appears. Turn off browser headers and footers if you can, make sure the grid fits on the page, and keep the grid lines visible. Print one test board and one caller card, then make your copies. Use card stock if you have it.
To enlarge a board or put one board on each page, copy the grid into a document. For the 3×3 board, the original guide suggests pictures at least 4 centimeters tall. The webpage itself doesn't set a fixed printed size, so enlarge the document until your pictures reach that size. Use the same emoji on the boards and the caller cards so children are matching exactly what they see.
How many birthday picture bingo cards should I print?
Quick answer: Print one board per player or pair, plus two spares.
Decide first whether children will play alone or in pairs, then count boards. Include the birthday child and any siblings who will play. Staying adults only need boards if they are playing rather than helping. Illustrative example: 10 children playing in 5 pairs need 5 boards plus 2 spares, which makes 7. If the same 10 children each play alone, they need 10 plus 2, which makes 12.
Next to your attendance list, mark who will play and who will pair up. Count boards and spares from that, not from how many invitations you sent. The party guest-list planner can hold those notes.
You also need one deck of caller cards: 24 matching cards for the full board, or the 9 matching cards for the small board.
How to make different boards for each guest
On the 5×5 board, keep the center row (the puppy row with the free center) where it is. Then change the order of the other four rows. As a note to yourself, call the cake row A, the teddy-bear row B, the juice-box row C and the butterfly row D. Children don't need to see these letters. Any of the four outer rows can go first, any of the remaining three second, then either of the last two, and the last row fills the final spot. That gives 4 × 3 × 2 × 1 = 24 arrangements.
Swapping rows doesn't stop two children from winning at the same moment, because each row keeps the same pictures. For more variety, you can also move individual pictures around. Keep all 24 pictures once each and leave the free center in place. Turning a board a quarter turn changes how it looks but keeps the same winning lines.
For the 3×3 board, rearrange the nine pictures without adding or removing any. If you print identical copies, expect several children to finish together. You can treat that round as a shared matching game instead of looking for one winner.
When bingo is played with individual winning conditions, several children finishing on the same call means several separate winners. Simultaneous finishes alone don't create a group goal, though you can still choose to treat the round as shared matching. A truly cooperative game sets one outcome for everyone from the start, so the group succeeds or falls short together. For rounds built that way, see cooperative party games with one shared goal.
| Example board | Top row | Second row | Center row | Fourth row | Bottom row |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | B | Puppy row | C | D |
| 2 | A | C | Puppy row | B | D |
| 3 | A | D | Puppy row | B | C |
| 4 | B | A | Puppy row | C | D |
How to set up the bingo table
Put the boards where every child can see the caller, and put the 3×3 boards where younger players can see the pictures clearly. Place the caller cards face down in a mixing bowl, with space beside it for cards you have already drawn. Keep the five replacement cards separate. If you are giving prizes, such as stickers, put them in a paper bag.
If bingo is one of several table games, make enough table room for pieces and keep food on a separate table. Also put out a game for arriving guests. See how to host a board-game party.
If someone is helping you, write down the number of players or pairs, how many boards of each size you need, the markers, who is calling, and any prizes. Keep that note with the caller.
What can I use as bingo markers?
Quick answer: This page doesn't recommend specific marker items. Choose markers with the youngest players at your party in mind, including the 3–4 age group on the small board.
Whatever you use, the markers should leave enough of each picture showing for children to recognize it. If you are unsure whether an item suits a young child, ask the child's family before the party. Give each player or pair a small cup of markers.
How to call the pictures and check a bingo
If you are playing on the 5×5 board, have every player cover the free center with a marker before you make the first call. The 3×3 board has no free space, so nothing is covered in advance.
Draw a card from the bowl, show the picture, and say its name twice. Then pause while the children look. Give younger players time to find the picture before you draw the next one. Put each drawn card face up beside the bowl. You can add actions if you like: point to your head for party hat, tap twice for drum, or use a robot voice for robot.
When a child calls bingo, ask them to point along their row, column or diagonal. Check each picture against the cards you have already drawn. If the line crosses the free center on the 5×5 board, that space counts without a caller card.
The digital Draw another call button can repeat a picture, and it draws from all 29 entries, including the replacements. If you use it, skip repeated pictures and any picture that isn't on your boards, and write down the pictures you have called. For a round without repeats, use the printed deck and keep drawn cards out of the bowl.
Can children who cannot read play?
Quick answer: Yes. They match the picture on the caller card to a picture on their board.
For the rest of the party, choose games pre-readers can join too. Older siblings can play or take a caller role if they want to. See party games with no reading required.
Show each picture while you say its name twice. For a shorter round with fewer pictures to search, use the 3×3 board. Only the free center on the large board has text.
Showing each picture also helps guests who speak different languages, which is a separate need from not reading yet. Show one turn before you start. There are more party games for guests who speak different languages.
What if two children call bingo together?
Quick answer: Check both lines against the called pictures and let them share the win.
Say before the game starts that tied players will share the win, so nobody is surprised later. See how to keep party games from getting too competitive.
If you are giving prizes, let both children choose one. If the group wants to keep playing, carry on calling until everyone has covered their whole board. This is called blackout. On the 5×5 board, the free center is already covered, so it doesn't need a call.
Prizes are optional. If you're giving them, have enough for shared wins, and say before play how they'll be handed out. There's more on planning party game prizes.
How much time to allow for preparation and play
The listed preparation time is about 20 minutes. Treat that as a starting estimate, because rearranging boards and enlarging pictures can take longer. A week before the party, check the print preview, print a test board, decide how many boards you need, and check your markers and prizes. The day before, finish the board arrangements, print the copies and cut out the caller cards, putting the replacements in an envelope. An hour before, set out the boards, marker cups and caller bowl.
How long should I allow for a round?
Quick answer: Plan on about five minutes for a 3×3 round or ten minutes for a 5×5 round. These are planning estimates, not fixed times.
If a round ends early and you want another calm table activity, have one ready. Children can choose to join or not. See our quiet party games for ideas.
Allow extra time to show the children a turn, check wins and reset the boards. Illustrative 15-minute plan for two 3×3 rounds: 2 minutes to demonstrate, 5 minutes for round one, 2 minutes to check wins and reset, 5 minutes for round two, and 1 minute to collect the pieces. That adds up to 15 minutes. Adjust it to your group, because a round may run shorter or longer.
Schedule the whole bingo block, including the demonstration, resets and cleanup, rather than just the rounds. Then add the minutes and check the total against your invitation times. See the party-day timeline.
How to adapt bingo for mixed ages and play more rounds
Give the small board to a child who would find nine pictures easier to scan, and the full board to an older child who wants a longer round. Before you start, agree that the small board needs three in a line and the full board needs five. If you call for both sizes at once, use the 24 core cards and explain that some pictures won't be on the small board. If that frustrates the younger children, play a nine-picture round together first and offer the full board afterward.
With more than ten guests, children can share boards. The younger child finds the picture and the older child checks the line, and they can swap jobs if both want a turn.
Before the round, agree who will find pictures and who will check lines, and say the children can swap if both want a turn. That way the older child helps without taking over. See how children of different ages can play party games together.
For another round, clear the markers, cover the free center again on any 5×5 boards, and reshuffle the cards. You don't need new pictures. If you want to use the replacement pictures, change the pictures on every board before you change the caller deck. For example, swap cake for candle flame, balloon for moon, party hat for umbrella, teddy bear for frog, and drum for snowman. Take those five cards out of the deck and add the five replacements. All five original pictures appear on both board sizes, so this swap works for either version. Write the swaps down for your helper.
Picture bingo checklist
Clear away the boards and markers before you use the table for food or another game.
Before clearing up, tell children what's next. If someone wants another turn, let them finish this one, then put the game away. See party transitions between activities.
- Choose the board size: 3×3 for ages 3–4, 5×5 for ages 5 and up
- Check the print preview and print one test board and one caller card
- Print one board per player or pair, plus two spares
- Rearrange the 5×5 rows if you want different boards
- Cut out the matching caller cards and keep the replacements separate
- Choose markers with your youngest guests in mind and fill one cup per player or pair
- Set out the caller bowl with space for drawn cards, plus prizes if you are giving them
- Show the party-hat and smiley-star pictures before the first call
- On 5×5 boards, have players cover the free center before the first call
| 🎂 | 🎈 | 🥳 | 🎁 | 🧁 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🧸 | 🍦 | 🥁 | 🖍️ | 🌟 |
| 🐶 | 🐱 | FREE | 🦆 | 🚀 |
| 🧃 | 🍕 | 🌸 | ⚽ | 🚂 |
| 🦋 | 🐟 | ☀️ | 🍎 | 🤖 |
| 🎈 | 🐶 | 🎂 |
|---|---|---|
| 🦆 | 🥳 | 🧸 |
| 🍦 | 🐟 | 🥁 |
| Preparation note | Your answer |
|---|---|
| Players or pairs | ____________________ |
| 3×3 boards needed | ____________________ |
| 5×5 boards needed | ____________________ |
| Markers | ____________________ |
| Caller | ____________________ |
| Prizes, if any | ____________________ |
| Original picture | Replacement picture |
|---|---|
| ____________________ | ____________________ |
| ____________________ | ____________________ |
| ____________________ | ____________________ |
| ____________________ | ____________________ |
| ____________________ | ____________________ |