Dandelion Catchup Readers
Dandelion Phonic Books – Catch-up Readers and Workbooks
Dandelion’s popular Catch-up Readers and Workbooks are suitable for readers aged 8 – 14 and are designed to introduce the English Phonic Code in small sequential steps. The purpose of these Series is to fill in the missing gaps in phonic skills and knowledge for older students that are preventing these students from making progress and becoming fluent readers.
Special features to engage students include:
- Age-appropriate illustrations and storyline involving quests and missions in chapter book format;
- Each Reader has reading practice and vocabulary pages to develop receptive and expressive language;
- Multi-syllable words are split into syllables on each page to assist the reader.
Comprehensive Workbooks supporting each set of Readers include pre and post reading activities.
Moon Dog Series
Click to explore this series with a highly controlled introduction of new code!
Magic Belt & That Dog!
Click to explore these series that address the basic code!
Totem and Alba Series
Click to explore these series that take students from the basic code to reading the extended code!
Talisman 1, Rescue, Island Adventure
Click to explore these series that introduce more extended code vowel spellings!
Titan’s Gauntlet and Hidden in Paris
Click to explore these series that introduce alternative spellings and common Latin suffixes!
Talisman 2 and Amber Guardians
Click to explore these series that introduce further alternative spellings and morphology!
Moon Dog Series
The Moon Dog Series are designed for older students who are working at the very early stages of reading skill. They have a highly controlled introduction of new phonic code. Short, humorous stories using contemporary illustrations engage older students with story lines based on the adventures of a group of teenage friends in a band.
Interested in the Moon Dog series for your school or clinic?
SPELD NSW has put together the whole series in our Moon Dog book pack! Get all of the Moon Dog titles together with one, three, or six copies of each reader!!
This pack is a great resource for clinics, learning support teams and stage 2 and 3 classrooms working to support students who are struggling with reading.
Magic Belt and That Dog! Series
The Magic Belt Series and the That Dog! Series are catch-up decodable readers aimed at pupils in years 3 to 8 who know the single letter sounds and can read CVC words. These exciting, age-appropriate tales take the students from CVC and CVCC word-level text through to adjacent consonants, consonant digraphs, and simple suffixes.
These series have the same phonic progression and can be used in parallel. Magic Belt has a fantasy theme and That Dog! is an adventure story – to appeal to a wide variety of student reading interests.
Do you need a collection of Basic Code readers for your students?
SPELD NSW has put together all the adventure stories from the Basic Code Dandelion Catch-up Readers together in our new Basic Code Adventure Pack. Ideal for those students who need lots of practice decoding decodable texts at a Basic Code and those students looking to accelerate their reading with repeated reading to develop their fluency.
The Basic Code book pack is available with one, three or six copies of each reader so that you can select the pack that suits your context best!
Totem and Alba Series
In the Totem Series, Zak’s adventures begin when he’s captured by two men and his shepherd’s staff acquires special powers. This story continues the adventures of Zak from the Magic Belt Series and has a fantasy theme.
In the Alba Series, Alba is a feisty, resourceful female heroine who steps in to save the day when someone threatens to jeopardise her father’s important scientific work. These Catch Up Readers have an adventure theme.
These parallel series are aimed at students in years 3 to 8 who can read a simple text at CVC level and who know most of the consonant digraphs but have poor knowledge of vowel digraphs. They recap and quickly progress through adjacent consonant words (CVC, CVCC, CCVC, and CCVCC) and the consonant diagraphs (sh, ch, th, ck, ng, qu, and wh). Vowel spellings are introduced for the following vowel common phonemes: /ae/ /ee/ /oa/ /er/ /ow/ /ie/ /oo/.
Talisman 1, Rescue and Island Adventure Series
In the Talisman 1 Series, Zak’s adventures begin when his Grandpa gives him a talisman with special powers. From this day on, Zak’s life is never the same again. The story in this Series follows on from the Totem Series.
In the Rescue Series, heroine Erin and her best friend Danny embark on an epic adventure to save baby brother Jack.
In the Island Adventures Series, Jack and his little sister, Snub, are visiting Gran and Grandpa on a remote Scottish island where they live. An accident brings them closer together, but a subsequent calamity is the beginning of an exciting quest. The Rescue and Island Adventure Series are adventure stories.
These parallel catch-up reader series are aimed at students who are developing knowledge of the alternate spellings for vowel sounds. They introduce alternate spellings for the following vowel phonemes: − /ae/ /ee/ /oe/ /er/ /ow/ /oi/ /oo/ /ie/ /or/ /air/ /ar/.
Talisman Card Games
Looking for extended phonics code catch-up decodable readers for your students?
SPELD NSW has put together three great packs that contain extended code titles – the Fantasy Pack and the Adventure Pack (both of which contain some Basic Code titles along with the Extended Code titles) and the Extended Code Adventure Pack (which focuses on the extended code titles).
These packs are a great resource for stage 2, 3 and 4 students working on reading and fluency at the extended phonics code level. These Packs give you lots of different titles to engage students and to give them plenty of opportunities for reading and re-reading!
Titan’s Gauntlet and Hidden in Paris Series
The Titan’s Gauntlet Series is a gripping quest story where Finn has been chosen to stop the evil Winged One from destroying the world.
In the Hidden in Paris Series, follow Ash, Frank, and Ted as the three bandmates embark on an exciting adventure through the streets of Paris that they would never have dreamt possible! Ash starts her day trying to cross a river on a rope. By the end of the day, she and her two friends are involved in a mysterious trail that will take them to Paris!
These parallel series of catch-up readers are aimed at pupils who have gaps in their knowledge of the complex phonic code. These Series introduce alternative spellings for the vowel and consonant phonemes (/ue/ /u/ /o/ /s/ /l/ /j/ /f/) and common Latin suffixes are introduced (-ture, -tion, -tial, -cial and –sion).
Readers can progress to Talisman 2 which follows the same phonic sequence but with additional alternative spellings and more text per page.
Talisman 2 Series and Amber Guardians
In the Talisman 2 Series, the night before his 14th birthday, Zak has a strange dream. A mysterious lady appears before him bearing an important message…
This series follows the same phonic sequence as in the Titan’s Gauntlet and Hidden in Paris Series but with additional alternative spellings and more text per page. The story in this series follows on from Talisman 1.
In the Amber Guardians Series, a chance discovery of an ancient necklace in an old bazaar soon leads Finn and his friends on an incredible quest. The story in this series follows on from the story in the Titan’s Gauntlet Series.
The Amber Guardians Series helps readers further develop their reading by increasing their morphological knowledge and skills. Students learn to recognise and understand the structure of words and parts of words through the study of morphology. The morphemes in this Series include prefixes, suffixes and root words and are grouped according to their function or meaning and includes a higher ratio of text to illustration.
Are your students working on developing their word attack skills?
SPELD NSW’s Word Attack Pack includes titles with unusual spellings and morphologically complex spellings allowing students to practice their word attack skills.
The books in this Word Attack Pack are a wonderful transition from decodable readers to uncontrolled texts for students who have had reading difficulties in upper primary and high school. You can select a pack with one, three or six copies of each reader to suit the needs of your clinic, classroom or learning support team.
Contact us to request a decodable reader sample pack for your school
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