Fall Leaves BINGO

We love a good BINGO game and with the temps dropping, leaves will soon be falling as well. To mix a little natural science lesson in with our play, I made a game that is perfect for autumn (which will be here before we know it).

What You Need

Paper

Game pieces such as buttons, coins, bottle caps, acorns, etc. (We used poker chips.)

10-page PDF (download it free from Google Drive here)

Paper cutter/scissors

The game I made contains 10 different types of tree leaves randomly arranged on six game cards. There are four pages of call cards that need to be cut apart and shuffled before play begins.

How to Play

The game is played like a traditional BINGO game. Players put a game piece on the FREE space and then on all spaces called as the cards are flipped over one by one. The first player with five in a row (vertical, horizontal or diagonal) wins!

For an alternative way to play, try black-out and see which player covers every space on their card first.

Books to Pair with the Game

We read some great fiction and non-fiction after playing a few rounds. Here are our picks.

Our 9-year-old son read Ellen Rene's science detectives book that described why the leaves change color. The book really expanded his vocabulary, explaining terms like photosynthesis and chlorophyll.

I read Leaves Fall Down to our 5-year-old. This fiction book provides a basic explanation of why the leaves turn. It was perfect for introducing the science concept to my little guy, without being too detailed or advanced.

Lastly, we all read Lucky Leaf. The book begins with a boy whose mother makes him abandon his video game to play outside. It felt like a page right out of my own playbook. There's no science in this book; it's pure whimsy. Both boys enjoyed it.