Insects and Bugs Bingo Cards (free printable, 30 cards)
Thirty-six insect and bug words on unique printable cards: ants, bees and beetles, plus spiders and worms that are not insects, with the body parts and life-cycle words.
36 items · a 5 × 5 card with a free space needs 24 or more. More items make the cards differ.For review bingo, type answer | clue (“56 | 7 × 8”): the card shows the answer, the caller reads the clue. Two columns pasted from a spreadsheet work too. Start a line with an emoji (“🐶 dog”) for a picture square.
Showing 4 of 31 pages. (Print always prints every page.)
To save a PDF, choose Print, then “Save as PDF” as the printer. Only the sheets print.
30 different cards. No two are the same. The card number and set number on every card let the caller check a winner (press C while calling).
About this set
Children use “bug” for anything small that crawls, and a good insect unit teaches them to be more exact. A true insect has six legs, three body parts (head, thorax and abdomen), a pair of antennae and, usually, wings. This list gives students both kinds of squares on purpose: the insects (ant, bee, butterfly, beetle, grasshopper, dragonfly, ladybug, firefly, cicada, termite and more) and some small creatures that are not insects (spider, centipede, millipede, snail, worm, roly-poly), so the game becomes a sorting question. It also holds the body-part words and the life-cycle words (cocoon, chrysalis, metamorphosis) that a second or third grade unit needs.
Grades: Pre-K to 5th grade. Best in: April, May, September.
Insect or not: for each call, students hold up six fingers if it is an insect and a fist if it is not, then cover the square, and the class checks the answer by counting legs.
Body parts: when head, thorax, abdomen or antennae is called, students point to the part on a diagram on the board before covering the square.
Bug hunt: take the cards outside and let students cover each creature they can find on the playground, with a magnifier.
Life cycle: when chrysalis, cocoon or metamorphosis is called, ask a student to explain the stages (egg, larva, pupa, adult) in order.
Kindergarten version: make 3 × 3 cards from the nine easiest words (ant, bee, fly, ladybug, butterfly, caterpillar, spider, worm, wings) and show a picture for each call.
No. A spider has eight legs and two body parts, which makes it an arachnid. Centipedes and millipedes, snails and worms are not insects either. They are on the cards so that students can practice sorting.
What is the difference between a cocoon and a chrysalis?
A moth caterpillar spins a silk cocoon around itself, while a butterfly caterpillar forms a hard shell called a chrysalis. Both stages are called the pupa, and both are on the cards.
Can I change the words?
Yes. The 36 words are in the box above the cards. Delete, add or edit any line and the cards are rebuilt at once. Nothing is saved on our servers.
How do I call the game?
Press “Call the game”. Each press of the space bar tumbles the ball cage and pops out the next item in very large type, with the list of items already called beside it. Press C and type a card number to check a winner, P to change the win pattern, V to have each call read aloud, and F to fill the projector.
How do I save the cards as a PDF?
Press Print and choose “Save as PDF” as the printer. Each page can also be saved as a PNG picture from under its preview.
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