Created & Canadian educator-owned since 1998
Watch the Difference that Play Makes with
Played just like Crazy 8's or UNO
-only with cards that highlight the spelling pattern for easy reading!
-
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 practice using (often challenging) vocabulary words in a sentence!
-
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 learning to decode, expand vocabulary, and build syntax skills
-
It's so Easy! These are real card games (or, you can purchase the downloads and make them yourself!). Just shuffle the deck and deal! Instructions are always the same. Wild Cards and Miss Your Turn cards make them BEAM with joy.
-
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 a Canadian teacher, and based on solid evidence about how children learn to read.
The following 5 Sets cover all of the major spelling patterns in English from simple (Set 1) to complex (Set 5):
Crazy Shorts
FOR STARTERS
-
spellings that go with short vowel sounds
-
5 decks:
-
cvc words
-
digraphs (sh/ch/th/wh)
-
floss spellings
-
-ck,
-
-ng/-nk
Crazy Shorts
WITH BLENDS
Come back to these decks over & over again.
-
beginning & end blends (ccvc, cvcc)
-
even after moving on to the next decks, students need practice with these words
-
L Blends
-
R Blends
-
S Blends
-
End blends (plus '-tch' and '-dge')
-
End blends (more)
*all with short vowel sounds only
The Original Crazy Shorts
First 5 decks from 1998!
-
Short a word families
-
Short e word families
-
Short i word families
-
Short o word families
-
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!
-
Long a spellings (a, a_e, ai, ay)
-
Long e spellings (e, ee, ea, ie, y)
-
Long i spellings (i, i_e, igh, y)
-
Long o spellings (o, o_e, oa, ow)
-
Long u spellings (u, u_e, ue, ew)
Crazy Mores
Keep going with even MORE spelling patterns!
-
Ways to spell the sound /oo/
-
Ways to spell the sound /er/+ar & or
-
ou/ow, oi/oy, au/aw
-
short /oo/, short /ea/, all/alk/wa
-
-tion, -sion, -ture, -ment, -age
SAVE 25% when you purchase all 5 sets!
Complete Set of 25 Decks of Crazy Cards!
-
Crazy Shorts FOR STARTERS
-
Crazy Shorts WITH BLENDS
-
The Original Crazy Shorts
-
Crazy Longs
-
Crazy Mores
*plus free shipping!
Why buy the hard copies?
-
They can be played right out of the box - they are ready to go - no prep!
-
No printing, no cutting, no organizing, no ripping, no replacing
-
They come all organized and in their own tuck boxes
-
Kids LOVE the look and feel of playing a 'real' card game
But we get it. They can seem expensive. So... they're available in PRINTABLE format too!!
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
Pick a Card... Any Card...
Can also be used for SPELLING!
#1: Fan out the cards and ask them to pick a card, but don't show them the card they picked!
#2: Tell them that word, and that becomes their spelling word!
#3: If they pick 3 WILD CARDS, they win! (or if they pick 3 MISS YOUR TURN cards, they are out! ;)
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.
