Watch the Difference that Play Makes with
The Power of Playful Word Work
Deeper Engagement.
Stronger Readers.
Getting the brain to connect sounds and spellings takes PRACTICE.
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Crazy Cards make it EASY.
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Crazy Cards turn practice into a FUN CARD GAME.
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Crazy Cards get phonics spellings to STICK.
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It's More than just Sounding out Words: After reading a word, students say a silly sentence using that word. This helps them relax, have fun with peers, and feel good! And THIS is what makes the sounds & spellings STICK in the brain.
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It's the WIN they Love : They spend most of their time focused on which card they can play that will stop you from winning! At the same time, they don't even notice they are getting sounds & spellings (phonics) to stick.
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It's so Easy: These are real card games. Just shuffle the deck and deal! Instructions are always the same. Wild Cards and Miss Your Turn cards make them BEAM with joy. It's funny, actually, how they don't even get they are learning.
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It Works: This isn't just a fun "nice to have" game. It has been loved by teachers & parents for over 25 years. Created by Canadian Structured Literacy teacher, Martha Kovack, this game is based on solid evidence about how children learn to read.
The Sound Readers® Crazy Cards Series:
A Fun & Organized Path to Decoding & Spelling Mastery
From basic short vowels to advanced vowel teams and suffixes
Crazy Shorts
FOR STARTERS
Start Here.
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first 5 decks
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spellings that go with short vowel sounds
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cvc words
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digraphs (sh/ch/th/wh)
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floss spellings
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-ck,
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-ng/-nk
Crazy Shorts
WITH BLENDS
Come back to these decks over & over again.
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beginning & end blends (ccvc, cvcc)
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even after moving on to the next decks, students need practice with these words
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L Blends
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R Blends
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S Blends
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End blends (plus '-tch' and '-dge')
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End blends (more)
*all with short vowel sounds only
Original Crazy Shorts
First 5 decks from 1998!
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Short a word families
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Short e word families
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Short i word families
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Short o word families
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Short u word families
These games are sometimes the easiest to play because they concentrate on only one short vowel sound at a time.
Crazy Longs
Ways to Spell Long Vowel Sounds
This set is Dr. Marnie Ginsberg's (Reading Simplified) favourite set.
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Long a spellings (a, a_e, ai, ay)
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Long e spellings (e, ee, ea, ie, y)
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Long i spellings (i, i_e, igh, y)
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Long o spellings (o, o_e, oa, ow)
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Long u spellings (u, u_e, ue, ew)
Crazy Mores
Keep going with even MORE spelling patterns!
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Ways to spell the sound /oo/
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Ways to spell the sound /er/+ar & or
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ou/ow, oi/oy, au/aw
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short /oo/, short /ea/, all/alk/wa
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-tion, -sion, -ture, -ment, -age
SAVE when you buy these 3 Sets
(Original Shorts + Longs & Mores)
SAVE 20% when you purchase all 5 sets!
Complete Set of 25 Decks of Crazy Cards!
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Crazy Shorts FOR STARTERS
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Crazy Shorts WITH BLENDS
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The Original Crazy Shorts
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Crazy Longs
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Crazy Mores
Note that card games are EXPENSIVE to produce! They require a special card-playing printing machine. If we could make it any more affordable, we would!
Why buy the hard copies?
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they can be played right out of the box - they are ready to go - no prep
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they will last forever
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they come all organized and in their own tuck boxes
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no printing, no cutting, no organizing, no ripping, no replacing
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kids LOVE the feeling of playing a 'real' card game (not 'educational' ;)
But we get it. They are expensive with shipping and tax.
So... you can also purchase the games in printable pdf format to make yourself!
Available in Printable format too - just Download, Print, Cut, & Play!
Each deck is 7 pages double-sided - so 14 colour pages to print, but if you just print on one side, it would be 7 pages per deck. There are 25 decks in all. Note that it takes a lot of ink and work ;)
How to Play Crazy Cards
Crazy Shorts FOR STARTERS Deck #1: cvc words
Crazy Longs Deck #1: long a words
Click Here for Crazy Shorts for Starters Deck #2: Digraphs
Click Here for Crazy Shorts for Starters Deck #3: Floss Words
Click Here for Crazy Mores 5 Deck #25: Suffix Words
Click Here for Crazy Longs Deck #17: Long "e" Deck
Click Here for Crazy Mores 3 Deck #23: ou/ow, oi/oy, au, aw
Recently added to The Reading League Decodable Text/Games Listing
Founder of Sound Readers Crazy Cards, Martha Kovack, MEd,. talking with founder of Reading Simplified, Dr. Marnie Ginsberg, about the card games and their instructional power.
