Phonics Readers: Hen's Pens - Phil Roxbee Cox

There has been a lot in the news over the last couple of years about the best ways to teach reading, and it seems that we are always hearing about phonics, and particularly the need for schools to teach synthetic phonics. As my daughter is now four, but won't be starting school until next Easter due to the staggered entry system that operates in our area, I am quite keen to try to start reading books with her that will support her phonics. First of all, a little background about phonics. One definition is that it is a method of teaching beginning readers to read and pronounce words by learning the sound of letters, letter groups and syllables. Children learn ...  Read the complete review

Hens Pens is a technicolor masterpiece from the Usborne Phonics range. Its been written in conjunction with a language expert to help children learn to read and works hand in hand with most school based reading schemes as phonetic reading is now standard practice in most schools. The illustrations are provided by the prolific but long-dead Stephen Cartwright who provided the art work for in excess of 150 books during his brief career. His trademark duck hides on every page and still brings a smile to the finder no matter how many times they've found the duck in the past. Hens Pens is 16 pages long with an average ten words to a page making it short ...  Read the complete review

Hens Pens is one of the Usbourne Phonics Readers books. There are twelve such books in this series. Our copy came home from my daughters nursery class and it'll now be ours until September when I can return it. Despite only breaking up for the school holidays on Friday, I think weve read this book together a dozen times! Yes , you could say its popular! Briefly, children that are being taught using this synthetic phonics learning schedule are firstly taught all of the different letter sounds. Then they learn to write these letters down, so they can see how they look on paper. They're then taught how the individual letter sounds can be used together ...  Read the complete review

This book is another one of the great phonic readers series by Usborne books. Hen's Pens is written by by Phil Roxbee Cox and illustrated by Stephen Cartwright. Within this series there are 12 books. They each retail at £4.99 or you can purchase all 12 books in 2 bound books that retail at £9.99 each. This specific book is about Hen who has ten new pens. Hen likes to draw and draws zig zags all over all of the paper she can find. When she has finished using all over the paper brown cow kindly suggests that she decorate the eggs as well. All of the eggs look very pretty but now they are in a muddle as she painted everyones eggs. Hen ends up with another ...  Read the complete review