How to play bingo

What you need

• One card per player, all different. With words, 3×3 suits ages 4–6, 4×4 ages 6–9 and 5×5 everyone else.
• Something to mark with: a pen, crayons, counters, dried beans or small sweets.
• A caller sheet, or the same words cut into slips and drawn from a bowl, so every call is random.

How a round goes

1. Say which pattern wins this round before you start, for example any line.
2. The caller picks a word at random, reads it out clearly and ticks it off the caller sheet.
3. Players who have it mark that square. The free space in the middle of a 3×3 or 5×5 card counts as marked from the start.
4. The first player to complete the pattern calls "Bingo!".
5. The caller checks their marked squares against the caller sheet. If they match, that player wins; if one was a mistake, play carries on.
6. Clear the cards (or hand out new ones) and play the next round.

Winning patterns

Use a short pattern for a quick round and a big one for the last round of the night. The dark squares need to be marked.

• One lineAny row, column or diagonal. The usual first round.
• ColumnAny one column, top to bottom.
• DiagonalCorner to corner, through the free space.
• Four cornersJust the four corner squares. Short and good for young players.
• Postage stampA 2×2 block in any corner.
• Letter XBoth diagonals.
• Plus signThe middle row and middle column.
• Picture frameEvery square around the edge.
• BlackoutEvery square on the card, also called coverall or full house. The longest round.

Variants

• Ladder: keep the same cards and play one line, then two lines, then blackout, with a small prize each time.
• Definitions: read a clue ("the opposite of hot") instead of the word, and players mark the answer. Turns bingo into a quiz.
• Number bingo: classic 75-ball bingo has B 1–15, I 16–30, N 31–45, G 46–60 and O 61–75, and a free middle square. The caller says the letter with the number: "G 52".
• Music bingo: cards show song titles and the caller plays a short clip of each song instead of reading. See the music bingo guide.

• How to host music bingo

If two people call bingo at once

Both win, if both cards check out. Split the prize, give both a prize, or play a quick tie-break: the caller reads one more word and the first of the two to have it wins.