How to Play People Bingo Icebreaker
People Bingo is a great way to have people mingle and quickly get to know each other in a fun, interactive way. It works great for camps, corporate training, schools, youth groups and other situations. Best of all, it’s highly customizable and works with medium and large group sizes.
- Materials Required: Printed cards or sheets, pens.
- Recommended Group Size: Medium (20-30 people) or large groups (50+ people)
- Length of Game: Varies depending on the size of your group, but usually about 10-20 minutes.
How Do You Play People Bingo?
Setup for People Bingo
Prepare a Bingo card with 25 squares (5 rows and 5 columns). The center square can be marked with the words “FREE SPACE” and above the top you can write the word “BINGO.” Within the remaining blank squares, fill in lots of interesting facts that may or may not be true for a person. For example:
- “Has been to more than 5 countries.”
- “Has more than two dogs.”
- “Is fluent in Spanish.”
- “Loves to eat sushi.”
and so on.
If you are looking for a funnier game, you can put crazy things on the card such as “Has gone without showering for more than 2 days,” or other kinds of silly or humorous possible facts.
Once you complete this card, photocopy or print this sheet so that you have enough Bingo cards for each person to play.
How to Play People Bingo
To win People Bingo, a person must obtain unique signatures to get 5 boxes in a row: horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Once a person obtains 5 in a row, he or she should shout, “BINGO!”
To play, distribute a Bingo card and a pen to each player. Explain the rules. Begin the game and have everyone get up and walk around the room, introducing each other and asking each other questions. If a person meets someone who can fill in a box, he or she should obtain that person’s autograph for that box. When a person successfully gets 5 in a row and shouts “Bingo,” the game is paused to see if he or she has indeed won. Check that each of the five people is indeed telling the truth, and then if so, the person with the winning People Bingo card has won the game.
Sample People Bingo Cards
For a sample printable bingo card, you can download and modify this People-Bingo printable template.
