ESL School Supplies Bingo Card Generator
This ESL School Supplies bingo list has 39 entries, including Construction paper, Headphones and Highlighter. A 5x5 card with a free center shows 24 of them, and up to 30 unique cards print free; with 30 players the first line usually comes after about 12 calls, roughly 2 minutes at 10 seconds a call.
| B | I | N | G | O |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Highlighter | Paintbrush | Workbook | Whiteboard | Crayon |
Pen | Colored pencils | Pencil | Water bottle | Calculator |
Protractor | Stapler | FREE | Planner | Chalk |
Lunch box | Lined paper | Pencil sharpener | Backpack | Tape |
Folder | Sticky notes | Index cards | Compass | Dictionary |
Free: up to 30 different cards per set. Pro: up to 1,000.
Free sets stop at 30 different cards. Your 30 cards are ready to print or download now.
Pro ($19 one-time) opens soon: up to 1,000 different cards per set and 2 or 4 cards on a PDF page. No payment is taken now.
Edit words (39)
Cards update as you type. Long entries shrink to fit their square; a very long single word is split over two lines with a hyphen (up to 40 characters each). The PDF uses a built-in font: emoji and non-Latin scripts print best with Print cards.
Caller sheet
Every call in a shuffled order. Tick each one as you read it out; the same share link always gives the same order.
Updated
About ESL School Supplies bingo
ESL School Supplies Bingo names the things in a student's backpack and on the teacher's desk, from “Pencil”, “Eraser” and “Glue stick” to “Protractor”, “Hole punch” and “Construction paper”. It is a natural first-week game for newcomer students, who need to ask for a “Pencil sharpener” or “Lined paper” long before they can follow a full lesson in English.
This ESL School Supplies list is 39 entries long and a 5x5 card with a free center takes 24, which leaves 15 off each card. That is why one entry (Eraser, say) appears on about 18 of 30 cards: card 1, for instance, has no Eraser or Marker.
Play it like classic bingo: one person reads the 39 entries in the shuffled order of the caller sheet, everyone marks matching squares, and a full row, column or diagonal wins.
All 39 ESL School Supplies bingo words
Every entry from Backpack to Workbook, grouped by first letter. Edit them in the generator above: drop Headphones if it does not suit your group, or add your own.
- B: Backpack 🎒, Binder
- C: Calculator, Chalk, Colored pencils, Compass, Construction paper, Crayon 🖍️
- D: Dictionary
- E: Eraser
- F: Folder 📁
- G: Glue stick, Graph paper
- H: Headphones 🎧, Highlighter, Hole punch
- I: Index cards
- L: Laptop 💻, Lined paper, Lunch box
- M: Marker
- N: Notebook 📓
- P: Paintbrush 🖌️, Paper clip 📎, Pen 🖊️, Pencil ✏️, Pencil case, Pencil sharpener, Planner, Protractor
- R: Ruler 📏
- S: Scissors ✂️, Stapler, Sticky notes
- T: Tape, Textbook 📘
- W: Water bottle, Whiteboard, Workbook
ESL School Supplies bingo at a glance
| Entries | 39 words and phrases |
|---|---|
| Card | 5x5 card with a free center: 24 of the 39 |
| How it is played | A caller reads the shuffled caller sheet |
| Different cards possible | about 1.56 × 10³⁴ (order matters) |
| Different selections | 25,140,840,660 sets of 24 entries |
| Shortest entry | Pen (3 characters) |
| Longest entry | Construction paper (18 characters) |
| Multi-word entries | 13 of 39, such as Glue stick and Paper clip |
| Picture squares | 13 of 39 entries have a symbol, e.g. ✏️ Pencil, 🖊️ Pen, 🖍️ Crayon |
| Good for | ESL lessons, kids and classrooms |
| Occasion | Back to school |
| Category | Language arts & ESL (61 themes) |
How long ESL School Supplies bingo lasts
150 shuffled call orders, played on the first 60 cards of this set. With 30 players the first line comes after a median 12 calls (about 2 minutes at one call every 10 seconds); the first blackout needs 36 calls (about 6 minutes).
| Players | First line | Line, 80% range | Blackout | Blackout, 80% range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 players | 15 calls | 11-18 | 37 calls | 36-38 |
| 30 players | 12 calls | 8-15 | 36 calls | 34-37 |
| 60 players | 11 calls | 8-13 | 35 calls | 34-36 |
| 1 card (exact average) | - | - | 38.4 calls | of 39 |
How to host ESL School Supplies bingo
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Print the ESL School Supplies cards
Give each player one card; a free set prints up to 30, no two alike. Card 1 above starts with Highlighter, Paintbrush, Workbook, Whiteboard and Crayon.
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Print the caller sheet
All 39 entries appear on it in shuffled order, opening with Highlighter, Laptop, Glue stick, Construction paper and Protractor; tick each one as you read it out.
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Turn the game into a treasure hunt: as you call “Stapler” or “Highlighter”, the first player to hold one up earns the right to mark first.
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Teach the request “Can I borrow a…?” with the calls, so when a learner marks “Ruler” they ask a neighbor “Can I borrow a ruler?”
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Mention that “Eraser” is often “rubber” in British English, and that “Compass” here means the tool for drawing circles, not the one for finding north.
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Call until someone shouts bingo
With 30 cards, expect the first line near call 12 (Tape in this set's order) and a blackout near call 36; check the winner's squares against your ticked list.
ESL School Supplies bingo variations
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ESL School Supplies variation
Backpack-check bingo: students empty their own bags and mark every square they actually brought today. The first full row reads its items aloud in a sentence beginning “In my backpack I have…”.
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Blackout round
Card 1 needs all 24 squares, Highlighter to Dictionary; on average one card fills after 38.4 of the 39 calls (98% of the deck).
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Picture bingo for pre-readers
Use 3x3 cards with the 13 entries that have a symbol, such as Pencil, Pen and Crayon.
First 15 calls of this ESL School Supplies set
Seed "esl-school-supplies" gives this order, the same one the caller sheet prints. With these calls, card 18 of the first 30 completes row 4 (Ruler, Pencil sharpener, Paintbrush, Highlighter and Pen) on call 11, and card 5 is the first full card on call 37.
| Call | Entry | Cards marked (of 30) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Highlighter | 22 of 30 |
| 2 | Laptop 💻 | 16 of 30 |
| 3 | Glue stick | 16 of 30 |
| 4 | Construction paper | 14 of 30 |
| 5 | Protractor | 16 of 30 |
| 6 | Whiteboard | 21 of 30 |
| 7 | Backpack 🎒 | 14 of 30 |
| 8 | Paintbrush 🖌️ | 21 of 30 |
| 9 | Pen 🖊️ | 17 of 30 |
| 10 | Pencil sharpener | 19 of 30 |
| 11 | Ruler 📏 | 22 of 30 |
| 12 | Tape | 20 of 30 |
| 13 | Colored pencils | 19 of 30 |
| 14 | Compass | 20 of 30 |
| 15 | Marker | 19 of 30 |
Themes like ESL School Supplies bingo
Ranked by category, occasion and audience; none of them repeats an entry from this list, so pasting two into the Edit words box gives a longer game.
Frequently asked questions
How many words are on the ESL School Supplies bingo list?
39, from Backpack to Workbook. A 5x5 card with a free center uses 24 of them, so each card leaves out 15. The shortest entry is Pen (3 characters) and the longest is Construction paper (18).
Are all ESL School Supplies bingo cards the same?
No. Card 1 and card 2 of this set share 16 of their 24 squares, and every card is checked so none of the 30 in a free set repeats. About 1.56 × 10³⁴ different arrangements are possible from the 39 entries (25,140,840,660 different selections of 24).
How many ESL School Supplies bingo cards per person?
Usually one. Extra cards speed the game up only a little: on this list a first line took a median 12 calls with 30 cards in play, 11 with 60 (30 players on two cards each) and 15 with just 10. Two cards suit adults who want a faster game; young children do best with one. A free set of 30 covers 15 players on two cards each.
How long does ESL School Supplies bingo take?
An ESL School Supplies game with 30 players usually reaches its first line after 12 calls (8-15 in 80% of simulated games), about 2 minutes at one call every 10 seconds. A blackout takes about 36; with 10 players the first line needs about 15.
Can I print ESL School Supplies bingo cards for free?
Yes. All 39 entries are loaded above, so choose a card count up to 30 and press Print cards, or Download PDF to print later at one card per sheet (30 sheets for a full set). The shuffled caller sheet prints separately; nothing is uploaded or stored on a server.
How do I make my own ESL School Supplies bingo cards?
Open Edit words in the generator above: it already holds the 39 entries, one per line. Replace Highlighter with something from your own group, add inside jokes or names, and the sample card redraws at once. 5x5 cards need 24 entries or more.
Is there a picture version of ESL School Supplies bingo?
13 of the 39 entries have a picture symbol (✏️ Pencil, 🖊️ Pen, 🖍️ Crayon, 📏 Ruler). Print 3x3 cards with symbol entries such as Scissors and Paper clip for children who cannot read yet; symbols show on screen and in browser printing.
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