How the sheets are made
Each game is rolled ball by ball, so every count is one a real lane can produce: a second ball never takes more pins than were standing, and the 10th gets a third ball only after a strike or spare. The marks follow the USBC rulebook, and every total in the key is worked out from those balls. Pick the level your class is on, or switch to Write the marks, where a ball-by-ball story goes onto the sheet.
The seven levels
- Open frames: counts and misses only, to learn the running total.
- Spares: 10 plus the next ball.
- Strikes: 10 plus the next two balls, doubles included.
- The tenth frame: bonus balls, turkeys and the odd 300 game.
- Fouls, splits and gutter balls.
- Find the scorer's mistake on a filled-in sheet.
- The highest score still possible, and which 10th frame wins the game.
A worked example
In set TPNS44 (level 3), Theo opens with 9 and a miss twice: 9, then 18. Frame 3 is a strike and frame 4 starts 8 and 2, so frame 3 counts 10 + 8 + 2 = 20, total 38. Frames 7 and 8 are a double, then frame 9 is a gutter ball and a spare. Frame 7 counts 10 + 10 + 0 = 20, total 112. Frame 8 counts 10 + 0 + 10 = 20, total 132. The game ends on 159. Open set TPNS44
Questions
How do you score a strike in bowling?
A strike counts 10 plus the pins from your next two balls, even if those balls are in two different frames. Mark an X and leave the total box empty until both balls are rolled. Strike, strike, then 8 makes the first strike worth 10 + 10 + 8 = 28.
How do you score a spare?
A spare counts 10 plus the pins from your next ball. Write the first ball's count, then a slash. If the next ball knocks down 3, the spare frame is worth 13, added to the total before it.
How does the 10th frame work?
A strike or a spare in the 10th earns a third ball, and every ball in the frame is added to the total. With no strike or spare you get two balls. The most the 10th can score is 30, from three strikes.
What does F mean on a bowling score sheet?
A foul: the bowler crossed the foul line and touched the lane or anything past it. The ball counts as a delivery but scores 0, whatever pins fell. If it was the first ball, the pins are set back up and the second ball goes at a full rack, so F then all ten is a spare.
What does a circle around a number mean?
A split: the head pin is down and the pins left standing have a gap between them, like the 7 and 10. The USBC rulebook says a split is usually marked with a circle. It never changes the score.
Why can't I write a total for a strike frame yet?
Its bonus balls are not rolled yet. A strike waits for two more balls and a spare for one. After a double, the first strike waits for the ball after the second strike.
What is the highest score in bowling?
300, from 12 strikes in a row: one in each of frames 1 to 9 and three in the 10th. Every frame is then worth 30.
How do I use this with a PE class?
Pick a level, then Share with class: everyone who opens the link gets the same games and can check their own answers. To stop copying on paper, print a class set: each student gets a different set, and the keys print after the worksheets, labeled by copy number.
Sources, read October 26, 2026: USBC Playing Rules 2026-27 (PDF), Rule 2 (the game, strikes, spares, splits), Rule 5 (fouls) and Rule 6b (pins respotted after a foul); USBC Keeping Score (PDF) and its web version; USBC Bowler's Ed teacher's curriculum: academics (PDF).