For practising letter formation and handwriting. Pupils trace words laid out on specially lined paper, to encourage correct letter height and formation. This progresses from basic non-cursive writing to letters with ‘lead-ins’ and ‘lead-outs’, to fully cursive writing. Useful alone or with the Sound Foundations writing and spelling programme, Apples & Pears, for pupils who are learning to write and spell but need that little bit more practice between lessons. If you need to know where to start pupils on our spelling programme, then download our Free Apples & Pears Placement Tests here. Pupils who are just starting out with reading and writing should use Apples & Pears A. A sample is available here on TES.

The first 33 pages of Bear Necessities A1. Introduces the first letters and simple blending up to ‘ee’ and ‘sh’ Ideal for young children just starting to read. Should be used with Sound Foundations flashcards available here (free download). Bear Necessities is designed for children who need extra support with the basics of learning to read; children who are not learning letter-sound correspondences and blending in whole-class teaching. The books starts by teaching blending in small, easily-mastered steps, beginning with oral blending with simple picture cues. At the same time, the basic flashcards—which are used at the start and end of each session—teach children instantaneous recognition of single letter sounds and unambiguous digraphs (e.g., ee, ar, sh). The oral blending skills are gradually combined with letter recognition and transferred to print. The transition is gentle enough to ensure that the pupil rarely makes a mistake. Within a few weeks, children are beginning to read simple three-letter words. When basic blending skills are securely in place, high-frequency irregular words are gradually introduced in simple sentences with the additional reinforcement of tracing exercises. Our innovative ‘Bear Markets’, mini-scripts for two or three voices, are very popular with pupils eager to show off their newly-acquired reading skills!

CHARITY SALE - Confidence Builder 1 covers all the single letter sounds plus ‘ee’, ‘ar’ and ‘sh’ These phonics-based decodable readers are great for reading practice. The stories are especially suited to children needing catch-up. We do not provide pictures to ‘tell the story’ - the words do that - but these have fantastic illustrations by Ed McLachlan (The Oldie, Private Eye, New Yorker) who lent his skills to complement the writing of Hilary and Tom Burkard. Only five of the original ten books still exist, and they are out of print - a real ‘barn find’ after Tom Burkard died in 2019 - but I am putting them on TES because this content should be shared. Any proceeds will go to East Lancashire Children’s Hospice. Learning to ‘sound out’ words is only the first step in becoming a fluent reader. Children need to practise until they can recognise words and spelling patterns automatically. If you rush ahead too fast, reading can become stressful and your child may become discouraged. It’s no fun reading if you have to sound out every other word, so these decodable readers provide invaluable regular practice to include reading fluency. The books were originally written to complement Sound Foundations Dancing Bears A and Bear Necessities, but they work well with any phonics based reading programme. I am editing the books and hope to get them back in print, but for a limited time I am making them available on TES for charity. All feedback welcome!

CHARITY SALE - Confidence Builder 3 covers all the single letter sounds plus ‘ee’, ‘ar’, ‘sh’, ‘ck’, ‘th’, ‘er’, ‘ch’, ‘qu’ and ‘you’, ‘why’, ‘fly’ & ‘said’ These phonics-based decodable readers are great for reading practice. The stories are especially suited to children needing catch-up. We do not provide pictures to ‘tell the story’ - the words do that - but these have fantastic illustrations by Ed McLachlan (The Oldie, Private Eye, New Yorker) who lent his skills to complement the writing of Hilary and Tom Burkard. Only five of the original ten books still exist, and they are out of print - a real ‘barn find’ after Tom Burkard died in 2019 - but I am putting them on TES because this content should be shared. Any proceeds will go to East Lancashire Children’s Hospice. Learning to ‘sound out’ words is only the first step in becoming a fluent reader. Children need to practise until they can recognise words and spelling patterns automatically. If you rush ahead too fast, reading can become stressful and your child may become discouraged. It’s no fun reading if you have to sound out every other word, so these decodable readers provide invaluable regular practice to improve reading fluency. The books were originally written to complement Sound Foundations Dancing Bears A and Bear Necessities, but they work well with any phonics based reading programme. I am editing the books and hope to get them back in print, but for a limited time I am making them available on TES for charity. All feedback welcome!

CHARITY SALE - Confidence Builder 2 covers all the single letter sounds plus ‘ee’, ‘ar’, ‘sh’, ‘ck’, ‘th’ & ‘you’ These phonics-based decodable readers are great for reading practice. The stories are especially suited to children needing catch-up. We do not provide pictures to ‘tell the story’ - the words do that - but these have fantastic illustrations by Ed McLachlan (The Oldie, Private Eye, New Yorker) who lent his skills to complement the writing of Hilary and Tom Burkard. Only five of the original ten books still exist, and they are out of print - a real ‘barn find’ after Tom Burkard died in 2019 - but I am putting them on TES because this content should be shared. Any proceeds will go to East Lancashire Children’s Hospice. Learning to ‘sound out’ words is only the first step in becoming a fluent reader. Children need to practise until they can recognise words and spelling patterns automatically. If you rush ahead too fast, reading can become stressful and your child may become discouraged. It’s no fun reading if you have to sound out every other word, so these decodable readers provide invaluable regular practice to improve reading fluency. The books were originally written to complement Sound Foundations Dancing Bears A and Bear Necessities, but they work well with any phonics based reading programme. I am editing the books and hope to get them back in print, but for a limited time I am making them available on TES for charity. All feedback welcome!

CHARITY SALE - Confidence Builder 4 covers all the single letter sounds plus ‘ee’, ‘ar’, ‘sh’, ‘ck’, ‘th’, ‘er’, ‘ch’, ‘qu’, ‘ay’, ‘or’ ‘you’, ‘why’, ‘fly’, ‘said’, ‘cry’, ‘by’, ‘give’, ‘who’, ‘have’, ‘go’ These phonics-based decodable readers are great for reading practice. The stories are especially suited to children needing catch-up. We do not provide pictures to ‘tell the story’ - the words do that - but these have fantastic illustrations by Ed McLachlan (The Oldie, Private Eye, New Yorker) who lent his skills to complement the writing of Hilary and Tom Burkard. Only five of the original ten books still exist, and they are out of print - a real ‘barn find’ after Tom Burkard died in 2019 - but I am putting them on TES because this content should be shared. Any proceeds will go to East Lancashire Children’s Hospice. Learning to ‘sound out’ words is only the first step in becoming a fluent reader. Children need to practise until they can recognise words and spelling patterns automatically. If you rush ahead too fast, reading can become stressful and your child may become discouraged. It’s no fun reading if you have to sound out every other word, so these decodable readers provide invaluable practice to improve fluency. The books were originally written to complement Sound Foundations Dancing Bears A and Bear Necessities, but they work well with any phonics based reading programme. I am editing the books and hope to get them back in print, but for a limited time I am making them available on TES for charity. All feedback welcome!

CHARITY SALE - Confidence Builder 5 covers all the single letter sounds plus ‘ee’, ‘ar’, ‘sh’, ‘ck’, ‘th’, ‘er’, ‘ch’, ‘qu’, ‘ay’, ‘or’, ‘ai’ ‘you’, ‘why’, ‘fly’, ‘said’, ‘cry’, ‘by’, ‘give’, ‘who’, ‘have’, ‘go’ ‘fry’, ‘no’, ‘so’, ‘live’ and ‘today’ These phonics-based decodable readers are great for reading practice. The stories are especially suited to children needing catch-up. We do not provide pictures to ‘tell the story’ - the words do that - but these have fantastic illustrations by Ed McLachlan (The Oldie, Private Eye, New Yorker) who lent his skills to complement the writing of Hilary and Tom Burkard. Only five of the original ten books still exist, and they are out of print - a real ‘barn find’ after Tom Burkard died in 2019 - but I am putting them on TES because this content should be shared. Any proceeds will go to East Lancashire Children’s Hospice. Learning to ‘sound out’ words is only the first step in becoming a fluent reader. Children need to practise until they can recognise words and spelling patterns automatically. If you rush ahead too fast, reading can become stressful and your child may become discouraged. It’s no fun reading if you have to sound out every other word, so these decodable readers are an invaluable resource for regular practice to improve reading fluency. The books were originally written to complement Sound Foundations Dancing Bears A and Bear Necessities, but they work well with any phonics based reading programme. I am editing the books and hope to get them back in print, but for a limited time I am making them available on TES for charity. All feedback welcome!

Sound Foundations Apples & Pears is used to teach writing and spelling. Its four books (A-D) cover everything from the most basic letter formation and blending of sounds to complex wordbuilding and the writing of punctuated sentences from dictation. Sound Foundations resources are designed for use by non-specialist Teaching Assistants and parents, and have regularly been improved in response to their feedback. They are literally just ‘pick-up-and-go’. There are easy to use tests that tell you where to start with Apples & Pears. Just download them free here. More sample lessons can also be downloaded from TES. Sound Foundations was begun in the early 2000’s by phonics pioneers who led the way in revolutionising the way writing and spelling are taught in UK Schools (See Rose Review). Since then, the books have been used by thousands of schools, private tutors and home-schoolers in the UK and all around the world, but Sound Foundations is still a small family company; we reply to your emails and are happy to take any enquiries by phone. Keep an eye on this TES site - we will be uploading lots more free useful content Colin McKenzie Sound Foundations Author

Whole School Literacy: A Spelling intervention for 11-16’s with easy to follow Teacher’s Notes, a Student Worksheet pack and PowerPoint. Suitable for delivery by non-specialist teachers and assistants. Features a variety of engaging activities designed to equip pupils with the skills needed to spell a wide variety of subject-specific keywords. This unit introduces the concept of spelling with morphemes, and the Dropping the ‘e’ rule. Pupils learn to build and spell new words correctly by adding affixes to base morphemes and to separate them into their components. Learning to spell with morphemes is vastly more efficient than the endemic look-cover-write model. Far fewer, shorter words need to be memorised and students are equipped with the tools to construct longer, less familiar words with confidence. For example, the morpheme ceive is the basis for words such as: conceiving, inconceivably, receivership, deceiver, perceive, etc. Sound Foundations was begun in the early 2000’s by phonics pioneers who helped to revolutionise the way writing and spelling are taught in UK Schools (See Rose Review). Since then, our books have been used by thousands of schools, private tutors and home-schoolers in the UK and all around the world, but Sound Foundations is still a small family organisation; we reply to your emails and answer your calls! **Sound Foundations **resources are designed for use by non-specialist Teaching Assistants and parents, and have regularly been improved in response to their feedback. They are literally just ‘pick-up-and-go’. Many sample lessons can be downloaded from TES. Keep an eye on this TES site - we will be uploading lots more useful content soon. Colin McKenzie Sound Foundations Author

Whole School Literacy: A Spelling intervention for 11-16’s with easy to follow Teacher’s Notes, a Student Worksheet pack and PowerPoint. Reviews Dropping the ‘e’ rule and teaches the y to i rule. Suitable for delivery by non-specialist teachers and assistants. Features a variety of engaging activities designed to equip pupils with the skills needed to spell a wide variety of subject-specific keywords. This unit builds on the Spelling with Morphemes and the Dropping the ‘e’ rule introduced in Intervention 1, and teaches the ‘y to i’ rule, e.g. how the ‘y’ in ready changes to ‘i’ in readiness. Pupils learn to build and spell new words correctly by adding affixes to base morphemes and to separate them into their components. Learning to spell with morphemes is vastly more efficient than the endemic look-cover-write model. Far fewer, shorter words need to be memorised and students are equipped with the tools to construct longer, less familiar words with confidence. For example, the morpheme ceive is the basis for words such as: conceiving, inconceivably, receivership, deceiver, perceive, etc. Sound Foundations was begun in the early 2000’s by phonics pioneers who helped to revolutionise the way writing and spelling are taught in UK Schools (See Rose Review). Since then, our books have been used by thousands of schools, private tutors and home-schoolers in the UK and all around the world, but Sound Foundations is still a small family organisation; we reply to your emails and answer your calls! **Sound Foundations **resources are designed for use by non-specialist Teaching Assistants and parents, and have regularly been improved in response to their feedback. They are literally just ‘pick-up-and-go’. Many sample lessons can be downloaded from TES. Keep an eye on this TES site - we will be uploading lots more useful content soon. Colin McKenzie Sound Foundations Author

These easy to use tests tell you where to start with the Sound Foundations writing and spelling programme, Apples & Pears. This comprises four books, A-D. The test results tell you which book and level to begin with. Sample lessons can also be downloaded from TES. Sound Foundations resources are designed for use by non-specialist Teaching Assistants and parents, and have regularly been improved in response to their feedback. They are literally just ‘pick-up-and-go’. Sound Foundations was begun in the early 2000’s by phonics pioneers who led the way in revolutionising the way writing and spelling are taught in UK Schools (See Rose Review). Since then, the books have been used by thousands of schools, private tutors and home-schoolers in the UK and all around the world, but Sound Foundations is still a small family company; we reply to your emails and are happy to take any enquiries by phone. Keep an eye on this TES site - we will be uploading lots more free useful content Colin McKenzie Sound Foundations Author

In ‘How to Teach Spelling - So Children Really Learn’, Sound Foundations Author Hilary Burkard, gives valuable advice based on nearly 30 years’ of experience as a tutor and well known author of reading, writing and spelling books. This Book Is Written For: Home schooling parents who want to give their children the best grounding in literacy. Parents and teachers of poor spellers who are searching for more effective ways to ensure their children and pupils learn an essential skill. Anyone who thinks that good spelling is important enough to be taught well.