Reading books after Oxford songbirds

[SilverSixpence]

Can anyone recommend simple reading books to use after Oxford songbirds/reading tree? DS has nearly finished them and I'd like to get him some new books.

[Tgger]

Hmmmm, well DS liked this series www.amazon.co.uk/Read-Write-Inc-Home-Phonics/dp/019838677X/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1356639716&sr=1-8&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21, but he'd only covered 1-3 with Songbirds so I don't know if they'd be too easy. Have you tried your library as you can try things out there? In ours there are quite a lot of phonics readers now although I hadn't discovered them when DS was learning

For DS I bought these www.amazon.co.uk/Read-Write-Inc-Phonics-Storybooks/dp/0198462573/ref=pd_rhf._se_p_img_2?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21. They do the job re establishing good phonics and they are quite cheap, however they are black and white and not the most creative of story lines (have to say DS liked them well enough).

Oh yes, you can get ideas on Oxfordowl as well, another site I discovered a bit late in the day! oxfordowl.co.uk/Library/Index/?AgeGroup=3&BookType=Phonics If you want harder ones, just tweak the age to higher.

[simpson]

Would second the Oxford owl website as its fab and free!!!

I would also check out the reading chest (although you don't get to keep the books)...

Our local library has loads of phonics based books, so it is definately worth checking out...

DD loves the start reading series of books which are levelled along side school books ie pink, red, yellow etc etc....

Also it's worth checking out the green, blue and red bananas books (green is the easiest and red is the hardest). They are usually chapter books but your local library should have some....

[SilverSixpence]

Thanks will have a look at those

[mrz]

If your son has completed all the Songbirds range (Paula the Vet, Jack and the Giants, Claire at the Fair etc) he should be reading well and have covered all the common alternative spellings.

[gfrnn]

DS also recently finished songbirds (inc. the stage 6 ones listed by mrz) so I have moved him on to read-write inc (set 5) as it continues to a higher level.
It is worth knowing there is an offset of 2 in the levels of the two schemes, i.e. songbirds (ORT) 6 corresponds to read write set 4. You can get packs of around 10 black and white read-write books for each level online for about 9 quid. They are flimsy and a bit dull, i.e. not as visually appealing as the songbirds books, but they are fully decodable/phonic books and so far are helping him to make good progress.
We have bought some 'happy families' and 'frog and toad' books which look much more fun but are still a bit too advanced so the read-write inc books are mainly to bridge that gap.

[simpson]

Reading corner phonics books are really good.

They start at a very basic level and gradually get harder...

Your local library should have some...

[mrz]

If you think your child needs the structure of a phonics reading scheme after completing Songbirds I would probably look at Big Cat Phonics, Phonic Bugs, Project X phonics (orange band) rather than RWI as your son is already decoding well

[gfrnn]

mrz - thanks for the info. They look useful. Out of interest, is there something you feel these schemes offer that RWI does not? One reason I chose RWI was that it's coming out of my pocket rather than a school budget and RWI works out at less than a quid a book, whereas e.g. big cat phonics seem to be £4 per book - the latter is probably fine for a school purchaser where they'll get used repeatedly but less good for us as DS will go by memory after 2nd reading.
Also, any recommendations for easing the transition to chapter books?

[dixiechick1975]

If you want a variety cheaply look at signing up to reading chest for a couple of months. They have a wide variety of schemes inc those mentioned by mrz.

[mrz]

I'm not a fan of RWI because it is so prescriptive as I've said before and don't find the books particularly inspiring I also feel that the books need to be used with the programme unlike other books available.
I always feel that children confidently reading Songbirds orange are ready to move on as the books contain all the common alternative spellings.

www.phonicbooks.co.uk/product.php?catid=2&subcatid=15&act=yes#

If the school follows a scheme the books gradually have more words per page and more pages per book so it's a gentle transition into longer texts alternatively books that contain a series of short stories.

[londonkids]

My DS went from songbirds to leapfrog tadpole and frog books from library and then on to Arnold Lobel Frog and Toad books.