Reading is a Blast with A Shufflebook

I love thrift stores. They have such great finds that help make education easier or more fun. Sure you have to be picky, really look through a lot till you find a gem, and discipline yourself not to buy a lot of other things you don't need. But I really find that it's fun to sift through thrift stores to find a few treasures.

I recently found one that I know I'm going to use a lot this next year. And it only cost me $.25!

It's called a "Shufflebook" and was created by Richard Hefter and Marin Stephen Moskof, the publication date on this particular package is 1970.

It contains 52 large double sided cards. Each side of the card has words with large, colorful, pictures. The words are either nouns, simple verbs, or nouns with pro nouns.

The object is to simply create your own fun and crazy story by starting you sentence with "Today I" or "Yesterday we" (or get creative), and pulling cards out at whim to make a long ongoing sentence that forms a completely random story.

We did this today during our read aloud time, and this is what we ended up with:

Yesterday we went to the zoo,
and the turtle
and 8 ants
flew
and she
got kissed
and the chicken
laughed
and the astronaut
cheered
and 5 cows
flipped
screamed
slipped
pouted
and he
swam
and the dog
wiggled
and I
bounced

Isn't that a riot?!

These cards could have many applications. For a beginning reader they could be used for help with fluency in reading.

For a more advanced reader, these cards could be used as language arts aids by creating a sentence, and then using it to learn about subjects, predicates, verbs, nouns, pronouns, punctuation, etc.

I believe these are out of print. I found 2 for sale on Amazon.com, but these would be very easy to make on your own with index cards, a sharpie, and lots of cut out pictures from unwanted catalogs and old magazines.

Take this idea, and run with it to make learning in your home more enjoyable!