You don’t need to go to the bowling alley to enjoy the game…you can do it right from your home or classroom! No need for bowling shoes, with just some bowling pins and balls (toys or homemade, of course), you can have a bowling party!
Below is a list of different bowling games for a school-age child up to high school! Get ready for your kids to practice this skill and become bowling masters with these popular bowling games!
Pre-school Bowling Games
1. Indoor Number Bowling
Create a DIY bowling toy with chip cans and a kickball. In this 10-pin bowling game, little ones can learn their numbers!
Learn More: Preschool Tool Kit
2. Vertical Bowling
If you need a kids’ bowling set indoor games, this vertical bowling using stacked Solo cups is so simple! Have the kids stack the cups themselves in fun designs to work on building a tower of bowling pins.
Learn More: Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls
3. Build and Bowl
This is a fun challenge that engages both fine and gross motor skills. Using Duplo blocks, children build pins to play with. You can extend this by having them work on making patterns and or stack a specific number of blocks.
Learn More: Preschool Tool Kit
4. Marble Bowling
This adorable mini-bowling game uses mini erasers and a marble. Lining up the small erasers is great for working on those fine motor skills toddlers need! Plus, you need very little room to play!
Learn More: Frugal Fun for Girls and Boys
5. ABC Bowling
Teach pre-k kiddos their alphabet through this fun ABC bowling game! You can also use it to work on letter sounds or create time challenges as students get good at the game. All you need is some empty bottles, letter cards (or sound cards), and a ball!
Learn More: Kids Activities
6. Skittles Bowling
This is a great kids’ bowling game to work on some physical challenges for pre-k students. They choose a Skittle and each color represents a different move on how they need to bowl for their turn. You can change it up to add in some funky bowling moves!
Learn More: Our Family Lifestyle
Elementary Bowling Games
7. Sight Word Bowling
A fun way to engage students in learning their sight words is through bowling! Students will get in some physical activity and learn at the same time! What is awesome about this is that it is easy to make leveled groups based on sight word knowledge.
Learn More: The Ankle Biters
8. Addition Bowling Game
Bowl and learn some math! While this game uses the pins to do addition, you could also use them to create any sort of math operation, like the multiplication of multi-digit numbers for upper elementary.
Learn More: Simply Outrageous Youth
9. Ice Bowling
A super fun game for when it is hot outside! Another DIY bowling game, this one uses dye-filled water bottles, but instead of a ball, it uses a chunk of ice!
Learn More: Learn, Play, Imagine
10. Fraction Bowling
Another math game, but this time using fractions! Make fractions fun and engaging with the bowling games. It comes with a worksheet to color in the pins you knocked down and determine the fraction.
Learn More: Miss Giraffe’s Class
11. Bowling Bingo
Use these bowling bingo cards to make the game a bit more fun! It will also teach students about common bowling occurrences like “spare”, “strike”, or “gutter ball”. You can modify it and make it suitable for the needs of your students.
Learn More: Printable Creative
12. Math Bowling
In this bowling game, students actually don’t need a ball or pins, just some dice, and a worksheet! Students will use operations to try and get down ad many “pins” as they can.
Learn More: Focus on Math
13. Bowling Tournament
Bring a little competition with bowling to your PE class with a tournament! Students will have point lines and lanes created with dome cones. The creator suggests also making it more fun with lights and a bubble machine!
Learn More: The PE Specialist
14. Bar Graph Bowling
Whole class bowling is a great way to introduce graphing! This teacher uses pins (or cups and a tennis ball) to have students learn about bar graphs.
Learn More: Smitten with First
15. Read and Bowl Game
This is sort of a game of bowling “go fish”. Students are given so many cards and if they choose a card and can read it correctly and have the match, they can take it from their set.
Learn More: Teach Starter
Middle and High School Bowling Games
16. Scooter Bowling
Students sit on a scooter with a bowling ball and a partner pushes them to the indicated lines where they can throw the ball from. A bit chaotic, but lots of fun and friendly competition.
Learn More: Physical Education Update
17. Human Bowling
Super cool for older kids, this uses a human ball to knock down larger-than-life blow-up pins!
Learn More: Lucas and Marcus
18. Bowling Defender
This game is sort of like dodge ball with bowling pins. In Bowling Defender, students must try and knock down the opposing team’s pins but also protect their own.
Learn More: Physical Education Updation
19. Bowling King
Challenge friends in this online bowling game. BK is a free download where you can play with your friends or other people using the app. A fun way for kids who love technology to learn about bowling.
Learn More: Miniclip
20. Rhythm Bowling
This activity brings bowling and music together. Students will use the knocked-down pins to determine notes and rest values – a pretty cool way to learn more about music!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
21. Wacky Bowling
This bowling game includes different stations with silly ways to bowl. There are 21 different silly bowling challenges to choose from, like “kick it” and “frisbee bowling”.
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
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