Review of Decodable Books for Use With Phonic Teaching – Follifoot Farm Early Vowel Combinations 1

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Teaching a child to read is a vital part of their educational development. In the UK decodable phonic books are now commonly used as a teaching aid in schools and nurseries in addition to phonic DVDs, CDs and worksheets. The Follifoot Farm collection of books, published by Jelly and Bean are decodable and are written to be compatible with Letters and Sounds phases two through to six. They are used in a number of schools in both the UK and Japan (where English is taught as a second language).

There are six new books in the Follifoot Farm “Early Vowel Combinations” series. Each book is written and illustrated by respected author Marlene Greenwood, who has written over 110 phonic books in her Jelly and Bean and Follifoot Farm Collections. The Early Vowel Combinations series of books are aimed at children at the end of the reception year / the start of foundation stage, typically ages 5 and 6 (although it is always better to teach according to ability rather than age). This particular series sits within late Letters and Sounds phase 3, with some elements of phase 4 being introduced. Teaching vowel combinations to a young age group is crucial, especially as the English language often has multiple pronunciations for a single vowel combination.

The Follifoot Farm characters (cats “Jelly” and “Bean”) will be well known to teachers and children who have read earlier Letters and Sounds phase one publications. Book one is entitled “The Bee Sting” and starts with the line “One day Bean sees a bee creep into a broken plant pot.” The main vowel graphemes within this sentence include “ay” (day), “ea” (Bean) and “ee” (sees).

As the simple story progresses the superb illustrations help children to make sense of the words they are reading. Bean the cat watches and chases a bee around the garden and when it settles on a plant pot he decides he will catch it. The cat makes several unsuccessful attempts until he is eventually stung by the bee. The final page shows that the cat is in pain as the sting remains in his paw.

There are 8 pages within book 1, each illustrated beautifully. The story is written in such a way that the child will have no comprehension that vowel graphemes are being taught. Reading is therefore more of a pleasure than a chore. Greenwood has again written a collection of books which really hit the mark. They are as engaging as they are educational and it seems this new collection is set to be a winner with her already loyal army of customers.

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Source by Lindsey Watson