Early Childhood Craft and Play Activity
Contents
Holiday bingo is a great activity to add to a preschool classroom party!
Preschool children can celebrate Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, or even birthdays by playing this fun homemade bingo game. This activity plan includes how-to steps for preschoolers to create a special holiday-themed gamed.
Lesson Objectives for Preschool Holiday Bingo
- Explore art materials and processes.
- Increase color recognition skills.
- Develop fine motor abilities.
- Follow steps in a sequence.
- Learn about shapes (geometric and organic).
- Increase vocabulary.
- Follow rules/directions (this includes demonstrate self-regulation behaviors and show pr-social skills).
- Develop number and/or letter recognition skills.
Age/ Grade Level
This game can be created and played with children ages four and up.
Materials Needed to Create Holiday Bingo Cards
- Cardstock or other thick paper
- Markers
- Scissors
- Ruler
- Construction paper
- Stickers or stampers with holiday shapes (such as hearts, shamrocks, Easter eggs or Christmas trees)
Steps to Create Holiday Bingo Cards
Preparing
Teachers can prepare the actual bingo boards for the children. Older or more advanced students can help with these steps.
- Cut cardstock into squares or rectangles. These will be the bingo boards. Larger boards may be easier for smaller hands.
- Use a ruler to draw a grid. Try to avoid making too many squares. A five by five square grid or less will work well for preschoolers.
Process Steps
- After the grid has been prepared, the children can add numbers or letters into the squares. Adult assistance may be required. Ask the children to print the letters or numbers with markers, or try having them trace with stencils. Instruct the children to put the numbers or letters in random order. This will help when it comes to playing the game and is necessary to avoid the entire class winning at once.
- Help the children cut out small square shapes from the construction paper. These will be the bingo markers.
- The children can apply holiday shaped stamps or stickers to each bingo marker.
Playing Holiday Bingo With Children
Each child should have his or her own bingo card placed on a table. The teacher can write the letters or numbers being used on pieces of paper and place them into a bag or hat. Call numbers or letters by pulling them one at a time out of the bag or hat.
Ask the children to look for that number or letter. When the number or letter is found the children can place a bingo marker over it. When all squares in a vertical or horizontal row have been filled the child can call out “bingo”.
Holiday Themed Game Enrichment Activities
Tie this fun game into one of many other activities or content areas. These include:
- Holiday Party: Play this game as part of a classroom celebration.
- Alphabet: Create letter bingo cards and use this game to learn about the alphabet.
- Math: Children can learn about counting, shapes, and patterns while playing bingo.
- Animals: Use animal stickers or stamps for a different way to play.
Holiday bingo is a great way to educate and entertain preschoolers who are learning about a new holiday. Make new cards as holidays such as Valentine’s Day or Easter arrive or save the cards and create new bingo markers for different special days.