Using Silly Sentences to Build Language Skills

The Cow Jumped Over the … What?!

Grammar can seem like an intimidating subject, but not when you explore it with Silly Sentences! Using the 124 color-coded puzzle pieces included with the hilarious game, kids learn how to construct sentences, discover the functions of different words, and have a blast at the same time!

Although Silly Sentences is recommended for children age 4-7, older kids won’t be able to resist the absurdity of the sentences that are created during gameplay. Get ready for lots of laughter and tons of very silly sentences!

Let’s Get Started

The first thing you’ll notice is that every card is color-coded according to grammatical function. Nouns are orange, adjectives are blue, verbs are green, prepositions are pink, articles are yellow, and periods are purple. Sort out all the orange noun cards and place them face-up in the center of the table so everyone can see which nouns are available to use. Deal out the remaining cards to the players.

Now that you have your cards, sort them by color and put each color in a pile.

How to Play

On each turn, players may do one of the following:

1. Lay a card from their pile and pick a noun to play along with the card they laid.
2. Lay a card from their pile, add an adjective (if they have one), and pick a noun to add as well.
3. Lay a card from their pile that cannot be followed by an adjective or a noun.

It’s your turn first! Look for an article card to start your sentence—and remember that articles are yellow! You have to begin every sentence with a capital letter, so find an article card with a capital letter—it could be either The or A—and place it on the table.

Do you have an adjective that you can play? If so, go ahead and play it and then choose a noun to play, too. If you don’t have an adjective, just play a noun card with your article.

It looks like you can play an adjective from your pile and add a noun from the table to your sentence.

You picked scary and cow! Good choice!

Now Player 2 can either add on to your sentence or start a new one of her own. She decides to add on to yours and plays the verb card jumped. Player 3 adds a pink preposition card, over, and then it’s your turn again.

Can you finish the sentence? Find a lower-case article card, like a, and then pick an adjective card (if you have one) and a noun card to add to your sentence. This is where the sentence might get very, very silly!

You don’t have an adjective, but you can play a noun card, so you play the word house and your turn is over.

In Silly Sentences, every sentence has to end with a period, so the next player plays his purple period card and completes the sentence.

Your sentence is complete, so it’s time to read it out loud: The scary cow jumped over a house. Now that’s a silly sentence!

You can have as many sentences going as you like (AND you can play on the other players’ sentences, too), but if you can’t add a card to any of the sentences in play, you miss your turn. The first player to use all his cards is the winner!

Look at all those silly sentences!

6 Ways to Build Language Skills with Silly Sentences

1. Practice sentence construction. This game provides a physical way to construct sentences that hands-on learners are going to love. Because the cards only connect in very specific combinations, kids quickly learn how the different words work together to form sentences.
2. Learn grammatical functions. The color-coded cards are perfect for helping kids become familiar with the grammatical functions of the words in a sentence. As you play, use the grammatical terms (articles, adjectives, nouns, verbs, and prepositions) as often as possible to help kids learn these terms.
3. Reinforce the basic rules for creating a sentence. You can’t start a sentence without a capital letter, and you can’t finish one without punctuation.
4. Build vocabulary. Forty of the 124 cards are noun cards and every noun card has a picture to illustrate the word. Even if your child is unfamiliar with the noun, the picture on the card will help him learn the word.
5. Add some extra silliness. Instead of placing the noun cards face up on the table, keep them hidden so that each noun is a surprise when chosen.
6. Have a contest! Have each player choose two cards from the noun pile. Now see who can play the silliest sentence using just the cards in his or her pile.

Notes from Our Game Testers

• The puzzle pieces are very sturdy and should stand up to a lot of gameplay.
• The game instructions include a simpler puzzle activity suitable for younger players.

Does your family have a favorite board game that is a fun and “sneaky” way to build language skills? Please share in the comments below!

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