Planet Bingo

You read a clue, such as fifth planet from the Sun, and pupils cover Jupiter.

Tap a square to mark it. For a PDF, press Print and choose Save as PDF.

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Planets list, 45 squares. Paste your own to replace it, or type to add to it.

Cards per printed page

What you type stays in this browser. It is only put into a link when you press Share.

Ready to play

45 squares in the bag

Every square is called once, in random order.

Playing with 45 squares. The game is kept in this browser until you start a new one.

Called so far 0

Nothing called yet. Each call is listed here so a winning card can be checked.

Next step Find the planets in a word searchSolve a space crossword

How it works

Planet bingo with 45 squares from the solar system: the eight planets, the Sun and ten moons, five dwarf planets, and words such as orbit and comet. Each comes with a clue to read out, checked against NASA's pages.

Read the full guide

Read the clue, not the name

In Call the game, each name comes with a clue that never gives the answer away. Triton comes with: The largest moon of Neptune. It orbits backward, against the way the planet spins. Read the clue, give the class a moment, then say the name.

Planets are the easy squares

Every planet's clue starts with its place from the Sun, which is enough for a class that knows the order. The moons, the dwarf planets and words such as axis and meteorite are harder, so read those clues twice.

  • With 25 cards in play, a first line usually comes between calls 9 and 17.
  • Meteor and meteorite can share a card, and so can Phobos and Deimos. Their clues differ by one detail.

Questions and answers

How do you play planet bingo?

Each pupil gets a different card of 24 solar system names around a free center. You read a clue, such as the largest moon of Saturn, and whoever has Titan covers it. Five in a row, across, down or diagonal, wins.

Is there a planet bingo printable?

Yes, and it is free. Print up to 60 different cards, 2 to a page on Letter or A4, and a call sheet with all 45 clues and a box to tick beside each.

What are the eight planets in order?

From the Sun outward: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The first four are rocky planets, Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants, and Uranus and Neptune are ice giants.

Is Pluto a planet?

Not since 2006, when the International Astronomical Union reclassified it as a dwarf planet. Until then it was counted as the ninth planet. Pluto is on the cards with four other dwarf planets: Ceres, Eris, Haumea and Makemake.

All 45 squares

The eight planets 8

  • Earth Third planet from the Sun, and the only one with liquid water on its surface.
  • Jupiter Fifth planet from the Sun and the largest, with more than twice the mass of the other seven put together.
  • Mars Fourth planet from the Sun, known as the Red Planet. It has two small moons.
  • Mercury First planet from the Sun and the smallest of the eight. One lap of the Sun takes it 88 Earth days.
  • Neptune Eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest. One trip around the Sun takes it about 165 Earth years.
  • Saturn Sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest, circled by wide, bright rings.
  • Uranus Seventh planet from the Sun. It is tipped so far over that it seems to spin on its side.
  • Venus Second planet from the Sun and the hottest of all, wrapped in thick clouds.

The Sun and moons 11

  • Callisto The second-largest moon of Jupiter. Its surface is the most heavily cratered in the solar system.
  • Charon The largest moon of Pluto, about half as wide as Pluto itself.
  • Deimos The smaller, outer moon of Mars. One trip around the planet takes it about 30 hours.
  • Europa An icy moon of Jupiter. Scientists think a saltwater ocean lies under its frozen shell.
  • Ganymede The largest moon in the solar system, bigger than the planet Mercury. It orbits Jupiter.
  • Io A moon of Jupiter with hundreds of volcanoes, the most volcanic world in the solar system.
  • Moon Earth's only natural satellite. From Earth we always see the same side of it.
  • Phobos The larger and closer of the two moons of Mars. It circles the planet about three times a day.
  • Sun The star that every planet orbits. It is about 100 times as wide as Earth.
  • Titan The largest moon of Saturn, and the only moon with a thick atmosphere.
  • Triton The largest moon of Neptune. It orbits backward, against the way the planet spins.

Dwarf planets and small bodies 11

  • Asteroid belt The wide ring of rocky objects between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
  • Ceres The only dwarf planet in the inner solar system. It orbits between Mars and Jupiter.
  • Comet A lump of ice and dust that grows a long glowing tail when it comes near the Sun.
  • Eris A dwarf planet about as big as Pluto, found in January 2005. Its moon is called Dysnomia.
  • Haumea An oval dwarf planet beyond Neptune. It spins so fast that it is stretched into the shape of a football.
  • Kuiper Belt The ring of icy objects past Neptune where Pluto orbits.
  • Makemake A dwarf planet beyond Neptune, smaller than Pluto, first seen in March 2005.
  • Meteor The streak of light when a small space rock burns up in the air. Also called a shooting star.
  • Meteorite A piece of space rock that reaches the ground instead of burning up on the way down.
  • Oort Cloud A far-off shell of icy objects thought to surround the whole solar system.
  • Pluto A dwarf planet beyond Neptune, found in 1930 and counted as the ninth planet until 2006.

Solar system words 15

  • Atmosphere The layer of gases that surrounds a planet or a moon.
  • Axis The line through a planet's poles that it spins around. Earth's is tilted.
  • Crater A bowl-shaped hollow left where a rock from space has hit a planet or a moon.
  • Day The time a planet takes to spin around once.
  • Gas giant The kind of planet that Jupiter and Saturn are, made mostly of hydrogen and helium.
  • Gravity The pull that holds the planets in their paths around the Sun.
  • Great Red Spot A giant storm in the clouds of Jupiter, wider than Earth.
  • Ice giant The kind of planet that Uranus and Neptune are.
  • Milky Way The galaxy that the Sun and its planets belong to.
  • Olympus Mons A giant volcano on Mars, far taller than Mount Everest.
  • Orbit The curved path that a planet follows around the Sun, or a moon around a planet.
  • Rings All four giant planets have these. Saturn's are the largest.
  • Rocky planet The kind of planet that Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are. Also called a terrestrial planet.
  • Solar system The Sun together with everything that orbits it.
  • Year The time a planet takes to travel once around the Sun.

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