Black History Month Bingo for Seniors, February Activity for Senior Centers, 25 Printable Cards with Clues, Trivia Game, PDF

 

Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. Dr. King, Rosa Parks and Thurgood Marshall. Duke Ellington, Jesse Owens and Wilma Rudolph. Toni Morrison, Langston Hughes and James Baldwin. Katherine Johnson, Bessie Coleman, Mae Jemison — and Gladys West, whose arithmetic is the reason your car knows where it is.

 

**Your residents didn't read this history. A lot of them lived it.**

 

Someone at that table was a grown adult in 1955, and in 1963, and in 1968. That is the difference between this and a classroom worksheet, and the facilitator guide says it on the first page: if somebody remembers it firsthand, stop the game and listen. That's the better activity.

 

**Built for February — and you can run it knowing nothing.**

 

Black History Month is on every activity calendar, and there is very little made for it that isn't aimed at schoolchildren. Every one of the 35 call cards carries a clue that contains its own answer, so the facilitator never has to be the expert:

 

 *BESSIE COLEMAN — "No American school would train her, so she learned French, sailed to France, and came home a licensed pilot in 1921."*

 **Talk about it:** Have you ever been up in a small plane? Would you have gone?

 

Read the clue, let the room guess, and treat the ones nobody gets as the best cards of the afternoon.

 

**Written for a mixed room.**

 

Every clue states a plain fact and takes no side. The hard parts of this history aren't printed on the cards, but if the room raises them the guide tells you to let it happen rather than steer away. The conversation question lets the room have its own discussion instead of the card having it for them.

 

**A note on the pictures:** all 35 portraits are public-domain images.

 

 

* 25 bingo cards, every one a different arrangement — verified, no duplicates, so no two players bingo on the same call

* 35 facilitator call cards, 6 to a page, with cut lines — portrait, clue, and a conversation question

* 1 facilitator guide page: how to play, three game variations (Four Corners, Postage Stamp, Blackout), and notes for running it with a mixed group

 

 

Black History Month and February programming · senior centers and independent living · adult day programs · nursing home activity calendars · history and current-events groups · church and community groups · book clubs · veterans groups

 

**HOW IT WORKS**

 

1. Buy and download — the PDF is in your Etsy downloads immediately

2. Print at home or at a copy shop. Print at 100% / "actual size," not "fit to page"

3. Cut the call cards apart, hand out the boards, and use pennies, dried beans, or bingo chips as markers

 

**PLEASE NOTE**

 

This is a digital download. No physical product will be mailed to you. You'll need a PDF reader (Adobe Reader is free) and a printer, or a copy shop. Colors may vary slightly from screen to print.

 

For personal and single-facility use — print as many copies as your residents or group need. Please don't resell, share the file, or redistribute it.

 

Questions before you buy? Message me —