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How to Improve a Child's Writing Ability through Big Writing

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'If a child can't write it, a child can't say it!'

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1+2 Language Learning in Scottish Education

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1+2 Language Learning in Scottish Education

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Guide for parents

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Choosing a book that is 'just right' for you!

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Choosing a book that is 'just right' for you!

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Letter Formation

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https://www.scottishbooktrust.com/learning-resources/encouraging-reading-top-tips-for-parents

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Great ideas for 'playing with words!' Age specific sections.

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Words for Life | National Literacy Trust

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Activities and support for parents, children and young people to improve language, literacy and communication skills from home.

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Scottish Parent Club Spelling Tips & Tricks

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Most of us know from experience that some days it can be hard to squeeze in time to help with their homework. Kids are tired, you need to get tea on, or they just don't want to sit still to write down their ABCs.

We've got a few hacks to make spelling a fun and easy thing you can do with them during the day. Why not try out a few of these games from dads and mums?

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How to help kids with their spelling homework

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When the kids are tired, getting them to do their homework can be a battle. We've got some games that can make spelling a fun and easy thing you can do with them during the day. Why not try out a few of these games from dads and mums?]

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With English audio help.

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Super list of picture books to read & share together (Recommended ages 3-7)

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Top Tips for Supporting Your Child With Languages at Home

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Top Tips for Supporting Your Child With Languages at Home

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Helpful advice no matter what the language!

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Organise by subject & age

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Primary resources, homework help and online games - BBC Bitesize

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Learn with Bitesize’s primary resources. Explore English and maths games and get homework help. Discover activities for all KS1 and KS2 topics.

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Home learning packs to download/print for free (2 age ranges)

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Home Learning Packs \x26 Activities | TTS

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Download our brilliant, completely FREE home learning packs covering KS1, KS2 and Early Years, designed by educational experts to support home learning during school closures.

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Free Cursive Handwriting Sheets to Print

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Free Cursive Handwriting Sheets to Print

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[ Age Rating] [ Introduction] [ Printable Worksheets]

All children develop as individuals. Parents and caregivers should use the age ratings below as a general guideline, taking the abilities, temperament and interests of their children into account.

Ages 9+ Can complete without assistance.

Age 8 Can complete with minimal assistance after directions are given.

Age 7 Introduction to cursive writing concepts -- can complete with adult assistance.

Just like printing, cursive writing is typically not presented in alphabetical order. I've chosen to present the letters in groups that are formed in a similar manner (you'll find this is what most schools do). The worksheets build on one another so you'll want to begin with the letter a and add letters in the order listed. It is important to build when it comes to handwriting as the key difference between cursive writing and printing is that the letters flow together (connect).

Present lower case letters first -- you can quickly begin forming words so that cursive handwriting can be incorporated with other lessons such as spelling and social studies.

Note: Of course, the first thing every child I've ever met has wanted to learn to write is their name -- and I always approach learning as something fun, so by all means encourage them to do this. The worksheets on this page won't help you, but pop over to our customizable cursive tracer pages to type in your child's name (or anything else that tickles their fancy).

Also, check out the Cursive Alphabet Coloring Pages for some fun cursive practice pages to compliment these worksheets.

Rockin' Round Letters: a d g q c

The Rockin' Round letters are a group of letters that are formed using the same basic steps as the letter a.

Climb 'n' Slide Letters: i u w t

The Climb 'n' Slide letters are a group of letters that are formed using the same basic steps as the letter i.

Loopy Letters: e l h k b f j

The Loopy letters are a group of letters that are formed using the same basic steps as the letter e.

Lumpy Letters: n m v x

The Lumpy letters are a group of letters that are formed using the same basic steps as the letter n.

Mix 'n' Match: p r s o y z

The Mix 'n' Match letters have mixed attributes of two or more of the other categories.

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Age Rating] [ Introduction] [ Printable Worksheets] All children develop as individuals. Parents and caregivers should use the age ratings below as a general guideline, taking the abilities, temperament and interests of their children into account. Ages 9+ Can complete without assistance. Age 8 Can complete with minimal assistance after directions are given.

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Lots of languages to choose from - and it's all free!

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Tutorials, games and tests for free

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2nd level French learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers.

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Learn how to touch type with the BBC Dance Mat Typing game. It’s a fun introduction to touch typing game for kids and covers levels 1, 2, 3, 4.

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Doorway Online - touch typing

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The touch typing tutor that takes learners from the home keys to mastery of the whole keyboard and typing sentences. This activity is designed to be as accessible as possible to visually impaired learners as possible. This should benefit all learners.

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Edinburgh Library Overdrive - books to borrow online

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Edinburgh Library Overdrive - books to borrow online

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* Borrow ten titles at a time for up to 21 days

* Books return automatically so no fines
Use OverDrive on:
* the Apple, Android or Windows Libby app on your smartphone or tablet

* a Nook, Kobo or Sony eReader for ebooks (incompatible with Kindles except the Kindle Fire)
Get started:
* Join the library and sign in with your card number and PIN (access to OverDrive

restricted to EH postcode members)

* See our app or computer "How to use" guides and find out how to get started

* Problems? See our help pages

* Use our Digital Stock Suggestion form to suggest new ebooks and audiobooks

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Borrow ten titles at a time for up to 21 days * Books return automatically so no fines Use OverDrive on: * the Apple, Android or Windows Libby app on your smartphone or tablet * a Nook, Kobo or Sony eReader for ebooks (incompatible with Kindles except the Kindle Fire)

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Listen to Stories

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Take ten minutes out and let our professional storytellers take you on an adventure! Browse our videos for stories suitable for all primary school ages.

Biff, Chip & Kipper | Julia Donaldson's Songbirds | Winnie and Wilbur | Traditional Tales | Chapter books

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Let our professional storytellers take you on an adventure! Traditional tales, Winnie the witch stories, and more for children aged 3-8.

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With access to libraries, classrooms and bookshops limited for many, we’ve been busy finding some of the best online storytimes for children to access freely at home. The QR codes and links lead to videos of children’s books read aloud by authors and illustrators.

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Always provides lots to discuss!

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The home of news and fun facts for kids. Find out what is going on, with stories, pictures and videos. Try a quiz or one of our free games.

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Includes lots of other aspects of literacy, and is FREE!

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Lots of free resources, great for inspiring reluctant readers.

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Bookzilla is Scottish Book Trust's free app for early secondary school students in Scotland, designed by and with teenagers. The app encourages pupils to read for pleasure, whether they are already regular readers or just embarking on their reading journey, including book recommendations, ratings and reading dares.

This resource includes ideas for using the app in school, including activities to use in school library sessions, class time and book group meetings.

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Bookzilla is Scottish Book Trust's free app for early secondary school students in Scotland, designed by and with teenagers. The app encourages pupils to read for pleasure, whether they are already regular readers or just embarking on their reading journey, including book recommendations, ratings and reading dares.

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Create Your Own Comic Strips Online with MakeBeliefsComix

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Create Comics Online, it’s Fun & Free at MakeBeliefsComix!

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Create comics online at MakeBeliefsComix. A fun way educators & parents can empower students to express ideas and stories in comix!

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See a Literature Circle session in action, 10 minute clip of 'The Witches.'

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Literature circles differ from other small group instructional approaches like guided reading in several ways:

Guided reading:

usually homogeneous groups formed around students' strengths and needs

teacher selected text

focus on reading strategies (for decoding and comprehension)

teacher plays central, guiding role in the lesson.

Literature circles:

can be heterogeneous groups formed around students' interests

student selected text

focus on higher level thinking skills: author's intent, writing style, characterisation, etc.

teacher is more of a facilitator/observer/encourager.

Expecting students to have the skills to sustain a conversation around a text they have all read is a big expectation (regardless of how much the text was enjoyed). As a result, different supports or structures have been suggested by different writers and researchers as ways that rich talk might be scaffolded.

These would need to be explicitly demonstrated and modelled by the teacher before students work independently using these supports. Prompt cards or anchor charts (developed in collaboration with the students) would reinforce these scaffolds and supports. Some of these frameworks or scaffolds are listed below.

Daniels (2002) literature circle roles

Briefly, Daniels' (2002) role descriptions

Discussion Director: to develop a list of questions that will facilitate group conversations.

Literary Luminary: to locate sections of the text the group would like to hear read aloud.

Illustrator: to draw some kind of picture related to the reading.

Connector: to find connections or links between the book and something outside the text.

Summariser: to prepare a brief summary of the day's reading.

Vocabulary enricher: to locate important or unusual words that appear in the text.

Travel Tracer: to track the action that takes place in a story and record as a diagram or map.

Investigator: to find out some background information about the book.

Chambers' (1993) book talk supports

Three Sharings:

Sharing enthusiasms

Sharing puzzles

Sharing connections

Four Kinds of Saying:

Saying for yourself

Saying to others

Saying together

Saying the new

Mills & Jennings' (2011) conversation stems

The important thing to remember is that any scaffolds taught and employed for the purposes of literature circles are intended as temporary supports to facilitate rich, extended conversations around texts.

As students become experienced in meeting in these dialogue-driven groups, the need for them will dissipate and the conversations will become more free-flowing and text responsive. Daniels (2006) has himself noted that schools increasingly dispense with his roles - something he intended.

Repetitive routines around texts, as the roles and other scaffolds can become, have been critiqued as reducing the intrinsic pleasure of reading. Gallagher (2009) has warned against readicide: "the systematic killing of the love of reading, often exacerbated by the inane, mind-numbing practices found in schools".

In this video, the teacher uses Chambers' practice of the 'Three Sharings' to facilitate a Literature Circle discussion with students.

In this video, the teacher leads a literature circle to engage students in deeper understanding of the text. Each student has a specific role to play when it is their turn to lead the discussion.

While literature circles are often seen as more suitable for older students, rich conversations, observations and wonderings about texts are possible at all year levels, even as early as Foundation to Year 2.

Teacher support and involvement needs to be adjusted to reflect the students' abilities and needs. Apart from familiarising students with the roles or scaffolds, teachers could introduce the books and gently suggest aspects of each that the students might focus on.

Sample texts are provided and all propose a way that a teacher might introduce a text to a group of students who are to form a literature circle to read and discuss that text. The different scaffolds and frameworks above are then linked to these sample texts to illustrate what conversations might arise from these texts.

What follows, in lesson plan form, are ways that different scaffolds for rich literature circle discussions might be drawn on. They are not intended to be viewed as scripts in any way, but more an indication of the student-led conversations that might arise.

Because the talk and the engagement in the texts are central to literature circles, teachers need to be close observers of the interactions that take place. Student interactions can be assessed both quantitatively (who spoke? How often?) and qualitatively (what kind of comments were made? Did these reflect accurate readings of the books? Is there evidence of student thinking beyond literal levels?). Observations can be recorded anecdotally by the teacher and can contribute to the array of assessment data collected that, in total, provide a rich and multi-faceted picture of the students as readers and - more generally - learners.

There may be some work sample artefacts that can be collected from the literature circles, though being dialogic focuses, these will be few. Teacher-student conferences and student self-assessments will also provide valuable insights into how the students feel about their reading and how they view their contributions and interactions in the different literature circles that they join.

Chambers, A. (1994). Tell me: Children, reading and talk. Newtown, NSW: Primary English Teaching Association.

Daniels, H. (2002). Literature circles: Voice and choice in book clubs and reading groups. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Daniels, H. (2006). What's the next big thing with literature circles? Voices from the Middle, 13, (4), 10-15.

Gallagher, K. (2009). Readicide: How schools are killing reading and what you can do about it. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Graff, J.M. (2010). Reading, readin', and skimming: Preadolescent girls navigate the sociocultural landscapes of books and reading. Language Arts, 87 (3), 177-187.

Keene, E. O., & Zimmerman, S. (2007). Mosaic of thought: The power of comprehension strategy instruction. (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Krashen, S. (2004). The power of reading : insights from the research. Westport, CN: Libraries Unlimited.

Krashen, S. (2011). Free voluntary reading. Westport, CN: Libraries Unlimited.

La Marca, S. & Macintyre, P. (2006). Knowing readers: Unlocking the pleasures of reading. Carlton: SLAV.

Matar, H. (2017, March 16). Books can take you places Donald Trump doesn't want you to go, The New York Times.

Mills, H. & Jennings, L. (2011). Talking about talk: Reclaiming the value and power of literature circles. The Reading Teacher, 64 (8), 590-598.

Nodelman, P. & Reimer, M. (2003). The pleasures of children's literature. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Thomson, S., Hillman, K. & De Bortoli, L. (2013). A teacher's guide to PISA reading literacy. Camberwell, Vic: ACER.

Thomson, S., Hillman, K, Wernert, N., Schmid, M., Buckley, S. & Muneme, A. (2012). Highlights from TIMMS and PIRLS 2011 from Australia's perspective. Melbourne: ACER.

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Literature circles differ from other small group instructional approaches like guided reading in several ways: Guided reading: usually homogeneous groups formed around students' strengths and needs teacher selected text focus on reading strategies (for decoding and comprehension) teacher plays central, guiding role in the lesson.

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A tool for creating your own story.

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Do you like writing stories? You can make a fairy story, a science fiction story or a horror story here!

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Specific to the Scottish curriculum

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Doorway Online is a collection of free and highly accessible educational games that learners will find easy to use independently. Each activity has a range of accessibility and difficulty options. Originally developed with funding from Scottish Borders Council, it is now managed by the Doorway Accessible Software Trust, a Scottish charity.

Filed Under: Tagged With: News accessible, activities, educational, free, games, interactive, interactive whiteboard, iwb, learning, literacy, maths, numeracy, school, spelling, typing

We are proud to announce Text Type, the final version of our touch typing activity. Please read these notes carefully.

We have made numerous changes to Text Type to make it more accessible:

Enhanced speech feedback echoing all keypresses and on-screen text. This makes Text Type accessible to leaners with extremely low vision, with some support.

We have increased the size of the target text to make TextType more accessible to visually impaired learners.

As far as possible, Text Type can be navigated by keypresses. These are the standard keys to navigate web browsers. TAB, Enter, the Up and Down Arrow Keys.

Doorway Single Handed Typing has been added to Text Type. This allows learners with use of a single hand to practise typing using exercises developed for their particular need. Select Left or Right from the title screen.

Teipio Testun Text Type is now a totally bilingual activity The Welsh Governement has paid for this development including the above improvements. Text Type/Teipio Testun is also available on their education website, The Hwb.

Browsers - Text Type has been tested on Microsoft Edge and Chrome. It should work in Firefox, but this is not guaranteed.
An important notice about the Speech Output
In previous versions of Text Type, the target letter (female voice) and any mistyped letter (male voice) were spoken by recorded human voices. Text Type now uses text to speech voices. The first time you use Text Type, you will need to choose the voices.

These voices are specific to the browser:

In Microsoft Edge, Sonia Online and George might be a good choice

In Chrome, the choice is between the Microsoft voices and the Google voices, female and male.

In Firefox, you can use a favourite pair of SAPI voices such as Cerevoice Heather and Stuart which are particularly clear in differentiating the names of the letters. You will have to use Firefox, which still supports SAPI voices. Firefox is not officially supported, but we have found no issues with Text Type and Firefox.

Documentation. We have produced a guide to Text Type/Teipio Testun in English, for learners in both languages.

To download this documentation, use the link below:

Two previous versions
For the moment we are keeping two previous versions on the site, TT3 phase 2 and TT3 phase 3. These are no longer supported and may not be kept here much longer.

Scheduled maintenance will be happening to the Doorway website on 16-02-2022 between 9 am and 3pm. During this time the site may not be available for around 10 to 15 minutes.

We are sorry if this causes you any inconvenience.

Doorway Online is designed to run on the following supported web browsers:

Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox (should be compatible).

If you are experiencing problems accessing our site or activities please check you are using one of the above browsers and that your browser is up-to-date.

If you are still experiencing problems please fill in an error report and we will get back to you.

Note: Internet Explorer is no longer supported by our site as it will soon be retired by Microsoft.

Important Update: There is even more up-to-date version of Text Type. Read more about this update here.

We have completed Text Type 3, the touch typing tutor for visually impaired learners that should suit anyone learning to touch type.
The new features are aimed at learners with very low vision:

Text to Speech is available for almost all on-screen text

TAB, Space and Enter can be used to access most functions

Newly recorded female and male voices are used to prompt the next keypress and warn of an incorrect keypress

Single-Handed Typing is now included in Text Type 3

We invite you to take a look at Text Type 3.

Text Type 3 phase 2, has been available on the site for over a year and will be available for three more months. It can be found here.

With the decline of Adobe Flash, soon some of our activities may not continue to function. The following activities have been renewed and will continue to work: Text Type, Speller 2, Letter & Number Formation, Cashing In and the First Phonics suite.

Fortunately, the downloadable version of our remaining activities should continue to run on Windows computers. All of our activities can be downloaded for free below!

The file is zipped and will need to be extracted before use ( how to extract/unzip a file). For installation on a school network, a request will need to be made to the network administrator.

Filed Under: Tagged With: News doorway activity pack, download, windows

Doorway Activities were originally developed in Adobe Flash. This was a good way to develop such activities up to eight or ten tears or so ago. However, Apple decided not to support Flash and later tablets entered the scene. There was a solution in Puffin Browser. Our older activities still work on PCs and Android devices with Puffin Browser installed. This is no longer available on the Apple Store.

We have been able to re-code these activities to work with almost all computers and devices;

Text Type 3

Speller 2

Letter & Number Formation

Cashing In

First Phonics suite, incorporating First Sounds; First Words; First Blends; First Digraphs; More Digraphs; First Blends

First Phonics. The suite of activities now working with most devices.

These have been developed in the modern format of html5 and JavaScript and there are no restrictions to their working on browsers on PCs and Macs. They also work on tablets although on iPads they do not enter full-screen mode as they do on Android tablets. For the remaining activities, we hope to convert more.

In the meantime, if you want to access the Flash-based activities on this site; - Do not use Chrome Browser. Firefox is more friendly to Flash-based activities. If you are using a PC you can buy the Doorway Activity USB pen-drive and install the activities directly to your PC, Pendrive or Network, or even run them directly from the USB stick. It's available now at £ 10, below cost price from [email protected]. There is no copyright restriction any more.

The Doorway Activity Pack, now on USB pen-drive. All the Flash-based activities from the website should work on all Windows PCs. This includes networked PCs, but installation may require a network administrator.

We expect that you'll be able to download these activities directly from this site before too long. Watch this space .................

We are working on the final phase of Text Type 3, the touch typing tutor that can take learners from the home keys to mastery of the whole keyboard and typing sentences. This activity is designed to be as accessible as possible to visually impaired learners as possible. The final version should be accessible even to blind learners, after some initial guidance.

Learning to touch type.
There are some things that you need to know before supporting a learner on the road to touch typing

Touch Typing is just that. There should be no keeking at the keyboard. Do not look at the keyboard or your hands, all the information you need is on the screen in Doorway Touch Type.

Touch typing is a motor learning experience. This means not looking at your hands. The best way to ensure this is to cover the learner's hands with a light cloth. If you truly learn to touch type this skill will last a lifetime like riding a bike. Even learners with mild VI can be tempted to peep.

Motor learning is a very powerful tool and such skills will remin with you thoughout life. However you need to be careful. An incorrect motor habit is very hard to correct. So get it right from the start.

You need to get into a comfortable position in which the hands fall naturally onto the keyboard. The surface on which the keyboard stands must not be too high. The wrists may rest on pads if you are typing for a long time.

A Touch Typing programme is a series of lessons starting with the home keys (A S D F J K L ; ) and leading to full mastery of the keyboard. Moving on to the next exercise without sufficient mastery of the current exercise, will only lead to disappointment later on. A score of 90% or one error in every ten keypresses should be the minimum achievement before moving on. 94% or better is our recommended level of accuracy before moving on.

Learners benefit from regular practice. Little and often is best.

Accuracy should come before speed. Start slowly. If you can type at a regular pace, almost to a beat, it will help you achieve a high speed.

Doorway Text Type is a series of exercises that, followed properly, can lead to a high rate of accuracy in typing and a good rate in terms of words per minute. In handwritten exams with a lot of writing involved. Writing at a rate of 20 words per minute is an arduous task. For a typist that is a low rate of entry. A rate of 40 words per minute is entirely realistic for a sixteen-year-old typist coming up to exams.

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Doorway Online does not collect any information about users.

Text Type 3 stores the results from a user's last session on the computer it is accessed from, but we cannot see that data.

We use Google Analytics to give us usage figures for our activities. This is anonymised data that allows us to see which countries users are accessing our site from, which activities they access and allows us to check for bandwidth issues. It is not possible for us to identify a school or an individual user. We also get anonymised data from Google ads. These adverts are usually blocked in schools.

If you communicate with us by emailing [email protected], our mail server may store your email address. However, we will not use this address to communicate with you except regarding the issue you contacted us about. Your email address will be shared with no other organisation.
Email addresses will be deleted from our mail server when we no longer require them and in any case, two years after our last contact with you. You may send an email to that address asking for your emails and email address to be deleted.

A teacher in East Lothian has made up some very useful record sheets for students to keep track of their progress through the Speller levels. He has been generous in making them available to all.

They are in a compressed zip file which you may have to open using WinZip.

Thanks again to Darren Donnelly, PT Support For Learning, Musselburgh Grammar School for compiling these word lists.

The off-line version of Doorway activities for Windows PCs or laptops which had poor or no internet access has been the Doorway Activity Pack CD. This installs the activities onto your hard disc, server or pen-drive. Typically these were licensed by a school or LEA. We are no longer charging for this, beyond the costs of materials and copying.

We will be making the Doorway Activities freely downloadable. We must thank those authorities that licensed the Doorway Activity Pack CD when we started up. Those licence fees kept us going when finances were terribly tight. Now, it makes sense to make them freely available.
Coming Soon

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Doorway Online is a collection of free and highly accessible educational games that learners will find easy to use independently. Each activity has a range of accessibility and difficulty options. Originally developed with funding from Scottish Borders Council, it is now managed by the Doorway Accessible Software Trust, a Scottish charity.

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Games & activities for P3 onwards.

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Input your own spelling lists and explore interactive games.

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Choose a spelling rule then choose to either practise the spelling or take a test with those words. All words are read aloud (make sure your sound is turned up) and provided within a sentence for context.

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Choose a spelling rule then choose to either practise the spelling or take a test with those words. All words are read aloud (make sure your sound is turned up) and provided within a sentence for context.

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¿Qué hay de nuevo en Online Free Spanish?

What's new in Online Free Spanish?

La Casa-Tablero Magnético is a creative magnetic board with furniture shapes, home objects, pets, and family characters. La Casa incorporates word magnets with home vocabulary in Spanish and English for each figure. Playing with La Casa, kids can move and manage the pictures and words in innumerable forms, and all the engagement helps kids learn and practice the Spanish language.
Use the magnetic house for dozens of language activities. Perfect for both Spanish and English speakers.

Actividades por categoría

If you use OnlineFreeSpanish.com, and are happy with it, we'd love if you would consider donating. Donations help keep the updates coming, pay for bandwidth, and help pay for the time spent maintaining and creating new activities.
Donations are entirely voluntary and every donation is greatly appreciated.

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OnlineFreeSpanish: Study Spanish for free

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What's new in Online Free Spanish? La Casa-Tablero Magnético is a creative magnetic board with furniture shapes, home objects, pets, and family characters. La Casa incorporates word magnets with home vocabulary in Spanish and English for each figure.

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The video below goes through all of these sounds, in British English, or you can view the American English version of this video by clicking here. Alternatively, you can listen to any of the letter sounds by clicking on the icons below the video.
Click the icons below to hear each letter sound in British English. Alternatively, you can download all 42 letter sounds by clicking here. Click the icons below to hear each letter sound in American English . Alternatively, you can download all 42 letter sounds by clicking here.

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Hear all the letter sounds. Listen or download all the 42 letter sounds. Available in British or American English.

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These are always a big hit in class!

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Words that cannot be sounded out using phonics.

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Letter formation/hand writing

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Free to register and great for using on an iPad.

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Learning to read with phonics? Click the '+' for advice.

Learning to read with phonics

If you live in England, your child will learn to read using phonics. Their school is very likely to use either the Letters and Sounds phonics framework or the Read Write Inc. programme. Check with your school if you're not sure which one they use.

Using Letters and Sounds?

If your child is using Letters and Sounds, you can find this list of eBooks by Letters and Sounds Phases useful. Bear in mind the following:

If you don't know your child's Phase, you can check with your school. As a guide, most Reception children will be on Phases 1-4 and most Year 1 children will be on Phases 4-5. Beyond Phase 5, your child will be able to decode most books.

In Letters and Sounds, there are 'sets' within the Phases - so your child might not know all the sounds in every book within their Phase.

Some series contain occasional 'tricky words' that your child can't decode using phonics. Use the inside front cover notes to teach your child these words before they start the book.

Find out more about Letters and Sounds >

Using Read Write Inc. Phonics?
If your child is being taught to read using the Read Write Inc. programme, you can find books suitable for them by clicking on the 'Levels' menu below and using the 'Read Write Inc.' filter to select the right level.

Find more support and resources for Read Write Inc. in our parents' guide to Read Write Inc. >

Looking for printed books for phonics practice at home?

Not reading to practise phonics?

Sharing books and independent reading

If your child is reading simply for enjoyment, comprehension, or practice, just browse the library or use any of the other filters. You can check which level is right for your child with this simple test from Read with Oxford.

Reading for pleasure

Are you a teacher? Find out about the Oxford Owl for School eBook library.

More available on Oxford Owl for School

Schools who are registered with Oxford Owl can provide pupils with access to an additional 30 Oxford Primary eBooks, plus a separate library of 50 Read Write Inc. titles all for free using a class login associated with their Oxford Owl for School.
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If you need more eBooks, Oxford Owl for School has introduced a new annual subscription of up to 550 titles. For more information, please visit the OUP website.

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Accessing your class eBook library from home

The class log in link has moved. If your teacher has given you login details to use your class library at home, please use the log in link at the very top of this page and select 'Students'.

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Songbirds

Levelled phonics books from the fabulous Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo.

Read Write Inc. Phonics

A step-by-step phonics programme to support reading. Learn at home with Read Write Inc. Phonics

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Free eBook library | Oxford Owl from Oxford University Press

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Learning to read with phonics If you live in England, your child will learn to read using phonics. Their school is very likely to use either the Letters and Sounds phonics framework or the Read Write Inc. programme. Check with your school if you're not sure which one they use.

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Great for all ages/stages (even the grown ups!)

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Arrange words in the correct order and complete the sentence. A fun and educational app for kids in Kindergarten and above.

The app does NOT need internet connection and does not have any in-app purchase. Your son or daughter can be occupied while on the road or anywhere where there is no internet available. Keeps kids occupied for hours.

We back our product with 100% refund ANYTIME beyond the refund window. Just send us an email to request refund.

* Kids and Parents tested
* Helps your kids build a strong vocabulary.
* Very useful for speech therapy, language learning
* App includes 150+ jumbled sentences.
* Encouraging clap after each sentence completion.
* Simple three word sentences to complex sentences (increasing order of complexity)

We are constantly updating the sentences and all future updates are FREE for LIFE

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Jumbled Sentences For Kids - Apps on Google Play

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Arrange words in the correct order and complete the sentence. A fun and educational app for kids in Kindergarten and above. The app does NOT need internet connection and does not have any in-app purchase. Your son or daughter can be occupied while on the road or anywhere where there is no internet available.

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*Some are US spellings.

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Expanding on the Dolch list, Dr. Edward B. Fry in 1996 created a new list of high frequency words ("Fry Words"). These are the most common words used in English ranked by order of frequency.

Dr. Fry found that 25 words make up 1/3 of all words published, 100 make up ½ of all words published and 300 make up 65% of all written material. These high frequency words should be recognized instantly by young readers.

These are helpful for adults learning English as a second language as well as for children.

This app has 500 words divided into five levels and then divided into groups of twenty-five, based on frequency of use and difficulty in a flash card setting.

Features included:
* The first 500 Fry Words
* The word is read out when the card is touched
* Cards can be marked for the Review list (use the star to mark and settings to clear)
* Long press arrow buttons to jump to start or end

For the next 500 words, see our Fry Words 2 app.
Paid and ad-free versions available.

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Expanding on the Dolch list, Dr. Edward B. Fry in 1996 created a new list of high frequency words ("Fry Words"). These are the most common words used in English ranked by order of frequency. Dr. Fry found that 25 words make up 1/3 of all words published, 100 make up ½ of all words published and 300 make up 65% of all written material.

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Given out during P1 Curriculum Evening

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A few games to try for free but then needs a subscription.

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Set the stage for spelling with Endless Wordplay!

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Lots of vocabulary/phonics/spelling games

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Free educational games aimed at children between 5 and 8 years old. Made by a UK teacher with 20 years of experience in education.

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In order to persevere with writing, children need to care about what they are writing about. Fortunately, learning to write is also a lot of fun, and there are all sorts of enjoyable ways you can help your child learn to love writing.

1. Read to your child

Written language is often very different from spoken language. Read to your child as often as you can, including longer chapter books and non-fiction books about a subject they are interested in. This will help them to become more familiar with different styles of writing.

2. Have your child to read to you

Making time to hear your child read isn't just good for their reading. Seeing words in print helps them to understand the words, to spell them, and to see how grammar and punctuation are used to make meaning.

When you read fiction, occasionally talk about the choices the author has made. For example:

'I wonder why the author has chosen to describe the castle as "gloomy"? I wonder what that tells us about what might happen there?'

When you're reading non-fiction, talk about the features that make it easy to read such as headings, a glossary or diagrams.

3. Try some real-world writing

Writing for a real purpose can be a great way to fit in some practice. Writing cards, shopping lists, or letters or messages to relatives can be motivating real-life reasons for writing, and can show children how useful it is to be able to write well. They will also learn that we use different writing styles in different situations.

Your child might enjoy keeping a diary or writing short stories based on books they have read or toys they enjoy playing with. Perhaps your child might like to create a poster or mini-book about a topic they love. They might like to create their own comic strip about a character the know well. Be sure to encourage your child to write about what most interests them, as this is the best way to keep them enthusiastic.

4. Tell stories aloud

Giving your child the opportunity to tell stories orally is a great way to get them used to structuring their ideas and using adventurous language. If they're not sure where to start, see if they can retell a story that they already know well, like Little Red Riding Hood or Three Little Pigs. If your child prefers non-fiction, encourage them to tell you a subject they are interested in - get them to talk in full sentences with plenty of detail.

If your child finds it useful to plan out their story first, try our free Story mountain to make a great plot or use our Character profile activity sheet to come up with an interesting lead character.

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Everything you need to know about how your child will learn to write in primary school, and advice and activities to support writing skills at home.

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A game to practice simple English vocabulary. You listen to the words and then click on the matching pictures. You can use this to learn English online for free.

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Animated Clips, Games, Quizzes & Interactive Features.

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Animated Clips, Games, Quizzes & Interactive Features.

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Includes four main language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

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Learn English Kids:Playtime App Information

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Learn English Kids:Playtime App Information

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Over 100 quality videos and games

Our animated songs and stories as well as games are designed by the British Council's language learning experts. Download all the videos to watch whenever you want, even without internet connection! More videos will be added in the future, so stay tuned!

Listen then record encourages speaking

Each video comes with an engaging listen-and-record activity that encourages your child to speak out loud. Children can listen to the narrator, record themselves and compare their pronunciation with the narrator.

Games practise spelling and check understanding

Challenging word and spelling games come with each song and story to help children learn and understand the words they see in the videos.

Understand your child's progress in the parents' area

View your child's progress in the app in a locked parents area. See how your child is doing in Videos, Speaking, Spelling and Understanding.

Subscribe and get unlimited access to all the songs and videos

The app has a paid subscription package that offers unlimited access to all songs, stories and games. The subscription package is in the parents area which prevents children from accidentally purchasing the subscription.

Download the app from the iTunes Store now!

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Our animated songs and stories as well as games are designed by the British Council's language learning experts. Download all the videos to watch whenever you want, even without internet connection! More videos will be added in the future, so stay tuned! Each video comes with an engaging listen-and-record activity that encourages your child to speak out loud.