Showing posts with label Jelly and Bean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jelly and Bean. Show all posts
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
#readitmummiesanddaddies2013 - Spotlight on Jelly and Bean, a brilliant range of children's phonics books.
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| A range of Jelly and Bean Reception Stage Phonics Books |
We've looked at several valuable phonics resources already, some from large publishers and some from independent authors, illustrators and publishers introducing their own ranges of characters and books to help children with early stage reading.
We were delighted to have the opportunity to look at the Jelly and Bean range of Decodable Phonic Reading Books, attractively priced with key stage structural learning developed to introduce children to reading through characters and situations they can easily identify with.
The most interesting aspect of the Jelly and Bean range was Charlotte's reaction to them. Rather than instantly (and instinctively) knowing that they were 'learning' books, she was more willing to spend time with them on their own merits, perhaps because the characters (particularly Bella, a little girl very like Charlotte herself) were more readily accessible than some other phonics book ranges we've seen before.
Developed by Marlene and James Greenwood at Jelly and Bean, the books fit in with all key stages of the early reading programme from the very first introductory and easily decodable letters and words, through to the more complex decoding, digraphs and high frequency words, and the troublesome (but sometimes magical) magic 'e'.
As dizzying as the subject of children's phonics can be, and always with the firm advice that phonic progression is just part (albeit a very important part) of a child's learning and reading journey, it's great to see a high quality range such as the Jelly and Bean books making such an attractive and authoritative impact on UK phonics. Reading the testimonials on the J & B site from teachers and parents will give you an indication of how valuable this range can be to give kids exactly the sort of boost they need when early reading.
Please visit the Jelly and Bean Website for the full range of books, prices and details on school ordering.
Daddy's favourite bit: Simple but fantastic book designs to keep kids focussed on the important bit - the reading, rather than proving too distracting with overly busy page layouts and illustrations.
Monday, 28 January 2013
#readitmummiesanddaddies2013 - When they start to read on their own - A look at Phonics
Labels:
homework,
Jelly and Bean,
National Literacy Strategy,
Oxford Learning Tree,
Oxford Owls,
phonics,
preschool reading
As well as the national curriculum standards, and a wealth of material supplied by school we've been supplementing Charlotte's early reading journey with a combination of print, electronic and spoken resources. Not because we feel that it's a race, a competition with other children (and parents) in her class, but because she really wants to learn to read and finds it a little frustrating at times when the phonics books or classroom texts are so vastly different to books she enjoys having read to her.
Why is that, by the way? Even with some of the best writers (and illustrators) in the business contributing to programmes like the Oxford Owls / Oxford Learning Tree scheme, why are those books such a turn-off for kids when by rights they should love them just as much as "The Gruffalo" or "Six Dinner Sid" ?
Supplementing Charlotte's classroom reading journey with things we've learned in phonics workshops at school, and also with things that worked for us way back in the mists of time when we were children do seem to have a direct effect but supplementing 'work' reading with 'fun' reading is essential.
Over the course of the week we'll be taking a look at some of the ways of helping a child's literacy journey (just some, as there are so many different books, apps, sites and helpful resources - each seemingly with the same aim but at times with some dizzyingly different approaches) with a mix of stories, games and exercises that really can help.
Whether you believe that reading aloud in class is useful to your child, or whether you believe phonics and decoding are worth anything at all, hopefully you'll find some new and exciting ways to get your children into learning to read and into books.
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