Halloween Bingo: A Game for Early Readers

As school Halloween parties begin to be planned, games often are one of the hardest parts of a party. Halloween Bingo is an idea that worked for countless early elementary parties for my kids and other classes as well. You will be making your own Halloween Bingo for kids who are either pre-readers or early readers, so this is a nice game they can play with confidence even if they aren't the best of readers.

Materials needed:

Poster board...several sheets

scissors

markers

stickers or make your own

blank stickers for the computer

prizes (for winners and losers alike)

imagination....

kids to help! :-)

First:, cut posterboard or cardstock to the size BINGO cards you wish to use with the proper lines already marked by an adult. Make about 30-35 of these so each kid has a choice in cards...that way there are no tears when someone is left with the LAST card in the stack and it also gives leeway in case some are lost in the future. (placing the extra stickers in an envelope to put with the game is also nice in case additional cards need to be added sometime in the future.)

Instead of numbers, you will be using stickers that are Halloween themed... you can find many stickers at Hallmark, Walgreens, or even Hobby Lobby. Or you can even get crafty and print your own if you are so inspired. We found it was cheaper to buy sticker printer sheets and make our own...that way we had enough variety and actually it was faster to use clip art on the stickers than to try to find all the combinations...plus, you can also "tweak" the colors here too...and add basic shapes such as square, circle, triangle and such to finish out the stickers needed.

Any stickers or small pictures can be used on these cards....the sky is the limit as to "spooky fun!"

I used:

black bats

orange pumpkins

green spooky faces (like

Frankenstein)

yellow moons

blue witches hats

(so 2 black items didn't confuse

the kids)

purple candy "BOO" letters

hot pink candy pieces

pale green stars (glow in the dark

if you can find it is coo!)

grey cats

white ghosts

skeletons or skulls

Haunted houses

(there are some great stickers out from Monster House in stores now)

a clock with hands pointing to midnight