Oxford Reading Tree- Why is there...

[missmapp]

a pair of glasses lying on the floor in almost every book?

Is it some sort of secret code?

I always wonder if they belong to that man who is always peering over the garden fence.

I never noticed!!

can you tell ds1 is a sloooooooooooooow reader!! Plenty of time to appreciate the illustrations

I hate them with a vengance. had to endure the baby-sitter today read with a bored monotonous voice from dd.

the glasses where there too.

fortunatly enough we dont get many oxford reading books home, is only the second and did advice dd to stay clear as they are as dull as ditch water, she agreed.

Thats true! There are times its the only thing that keeps me from falling into a coma

Yes, it's a running gag that many children like to look for.
In the same way that the cross-looking redhead with a beard is in many of them. I wondered if he was a RL individual who had annoyed Alex Brychta at some point.

I hadn't noticed. Probably because of the pins I stick in my eyes whenever dd reads them.

That babysitter is weird! I read that one with one of DD's classmates last week. I like Gran.

Oh, and for all those that hate ORT?
I used to get close to slashing my wrists, having to read The Village with Three Corners or Ginn 360 over and over with child after child, year after year.
I like ORT.

DS spends far too long studying the pictures as it is- now if he looked at the words a bit more, we might get through the books a bit quicker!!! ( yes I know the pictures are meant to help, but he just plain guesses!!)

Goblin - you are right GINN 360 is far worse. Look. Look here. Look in here. It is here
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yeah he is a bot weird, at the end dd was looking bthrough pictures and said whos that bloke. urmm hes the baby-sitter. she recons he didnt look like a baby-sitter. I had to agree.

also wondered if baby-sitter was usualy hyphenated as it is on the book?

There;s also a drawn bone in many too, along with the glasses.

Isn;t the neighbour supposed to be the illustrator himself?

Oh no. AArgh. Although I hated BIff and Co when DS started school, I am quite fond of them now. I help in class, so I get to read random ones from all the different levels and there are definitely a few good ones in there (Gran and the Loch Ness monster) springs to mind. As well as some of extreme tedium.

We love the nosy neighbour in my house - looking out for him and disapproving of his nosiness, beard and assumed pathological tendencies is what keeps my 5yo reading the wretched things!

I and, more importantly, my dds really liked ORT.

a little artistic touch
love ort and on 5th child!

Hi
can't say I'd noticed glasses: I'll look on Friday when I'm next in class! Actually, children notice picture details far quicker than adults I think. Another book series that we use has little mice, worms, insects etc that pop up in most of the pictures, but play no real part in the story.

A very bright Yr1 girl I worked with once was quite put out and insisted on knowing why the colour of a pink toy dragon varied from page to page - which I hadn't noticed of course! (you can't get the skilled printers these days)

But ORT does have all sort of strange little in-jokes, many far too subtle for kids even if they are explained to them. One springs to mind: Dad in the supermarket, happily buying masses of stuff, but standing in "Five Items Only" checkout queue, or whatever. I'll send you more as I come across them!

Could become a new cult game: collect all the ORT picture jokes you can find!

How long you been on ORT? The early books couldn't be 'sounded out' and in some schools ORT is now almost a dirty word, but I understand there are new series that CAN be sounded properly, in-line with current phonics practice, though I haven't seen them yet.

Oh - No, I don't THINK it's a secret code.

[ KS1 class helper ]

With the ORT read at home books, I think the glasses were the equivalent of Wally - i.e. a pair for the children to find on each page/in each book. DD used to be very keen.

I heard somewhere the caretaker guy was supposed to be Alex Brycht (sp?). Look also for the bones and the baseball cap. I should ask two of my kids who have met him.

Just wait till you get to about stage 5 and The Magic Key - they become great fun ... I used to sneak a read ahead before we got home.

Nosy neighbour is our favourite too. I've spent many hours trying to work out if he is shown in full in any of the pictures, or whether he just spends his whole life behind the fence.

Thanks all - read Scarecrows tonight , glasses but no nosey neighbour!!

Curtaincall- weve just started stage 5- the interest level is rising!!

OMG we do Ginn 360 at my school and it makes me want to scream having to hear 'Look. Look here. Look in Here. Look' 5 times a day. Regrettably, the higher the level, the worse they get....

I'd kill for a bit of 'glasses on the floor' suspense or a mysterious nosy neighbour...

Yawn xx