Publisher's Synopsis
This pack contains 96 stories, 24 workbooks, two teacher's books and a readaloud book. It is part of a reading programme for Key Stages 1 and 2, and has four different worlds - "Once-Upon-a-Time World", which offers traditional tales, "Animal World", with stories about animal characters, "Fantasy World", about fantastic creatures, and "Our World", which offers stories about home and school.;Each stage of the series provides a carefully structured introduction of words and language. The different worlds offer a number of different, stimulating contexts in which children can practise and reinforce key sight-vocabulary. They provide the many types of story that children need to read in order to develop a range of reading skills and experiences.;Stage One adopts the "see-saw" approach, introducing only 20 key sight words. The left-hand page of each Stage 1 story consists of adult text to be read by an experienced reader. This adult text tells the story. The right-hand page provides a repetitive refrain, which the young child reads, and which follows on naturally from the adult text.;Stages Two and Three adopt the "springboard" approach, introducing a total of only 22 new key words beyond those already learnt in Stage One. These stages develop the role of the young child as an independent reader, whilst retaining some support offered by the experienced reader. The opening page provides simply told text to be read by the teacher or older child, which introduces the characters and sets the scene for the story. The young child then reads the rest of the story, with the repetitive language aiming to help with the confident development of word recognition skills.;By the end of Stage Three, the basic skills of reading should be clearly established. From Stage Four onwards, a broadening structure encourages the move to independent reading. Between 20 and 40 new key words are added at each stage, and continued repetition of text should help maintain the build-up of confidence.;The readaloud book, which accompanies Stages One to Three, can be read by a teacher to a class or group of children. It can be used to develop early comprehension and language skills, introduce the characters in each cluster of stories, introduce different genres, and develop listening and retelling skills, children's response to story, and literal comprehension. It contains coloured pictures to provide a focus for the children, while the teacher reads.;The workbooks provide a written record of a child's development, and contain a range of activities to practise reading and writing skills, including the consolidation of word recognition and sight vocabulary, and phonological awareness.;The teacher's guides offer support for the teacher introducing the series. They give information on all the stories and supporting resources, and guidance on developing sight vocabulary and reading skills. Each teacher's guide contains hints on classroom organization, ideas for activities to extend and develop the stories, and photocopiable material for assessing children's reading development.
