Another simple, eye-catching phonics resource is the classroom phonics tree.

Thanks to Kirsten Baxter for the link on Pinterest:

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/296956169150714382

Monster Tip: You can create a ‘Tricky Word’ tree for your classroom too.

Download our Teach Your Monster to Read colouring in sheet and create your own monster at home. Download the file by clicking this link: Monster Printable.

We’d love to see your homemade monsters! Share them on our Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Teach Your Monster to Read will be heading to London, Manchester and Cardiff with Save the Children to share and celebrate the magic of reading!

These free reading events will offer lots of fun activities for families; including storytelling, poetry and a treasure hunt hosted by some of the nation’s most famous faces, authors and illustrators.

There will be interactive sessions with Teach Your Monster to Read where children can play the game on iPads, win Usborne books and meet the monster himself!

We cannot wait to introduce the monster to our fans!

Join in the fun at a shopping centre near you:

Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th October
Westfield Stratford City
Thursday 30th October
Wales Millennium Centre
Saturday 1st November
Manchester Trafford Centre
To read more about Save the Children’s campaign to get all children reading well by the age of 11 go to: www.readongeton.org.uk

Teach Your Monster to Read is looking for a person to dress up as a fun and friendly monster for an event in Cardiff (Thursday 30th October) and Manchester (Saturday 1st November). The actor should have an up-to-date DBS check and have experience working with children. Must be between 5’7-5’10 to fit in the costume. Please email [email protected] with details of your relevant experience. This is a paid job and will be a fantastic event, encouraging children to learn to read!

This is a great starter for those children who are beginning their reading journey.

Create a phonics flip chart from a notebook and use it to help children sound out words.

For more information about this resource and others go to the Kids Activities Blog.

Reading is the key to a child’s future: it unlocks their potential and opens up a world filled with possibilities.

And for our poorest children reading well is their best route out of poverty: they do better at school, better in the workplace and are better placed to give their own children the best start in life.

However, every year in the UK, 130,000 children leave primary school not reading as well as they should. This figure includes 40% of all children from poorer backgrounds – a shockingly high proportion. (Figures from Save the Children’s report – Read On. Get On. How reading can help children escape poverty.)

This means over the next decade almost 1.5 million children will start secondary school already behind, and with likely consequences for their future.

Teach Your Monster to Read is one of the partners launching Read On. Get On. – a reading campaign driven by a coalition of organisations, communities, parents and schools, businesspeople, media and politicians. Organisations include Save the Children UK, Booktrust, The Reading Agency, Beanstalk, NAHT and National Literacy Trust.

Read On. Get On. is a campaign that will encourage all of us to play our part.

Everyone can do something – just ten minutes a day reading with a child makes a huge difference and helps them fall in love with reading. Children who don’t enjoy reading are ten times more likely to fall behind by the age 11.

We can’t afford to fail. Join us today.

For more information go to www.readongeton.org.uk and sign the petition to get politicians behind this campaign.

Thanks to this image on Stacey Adams Pinterest page and the fantastic Meaningful Mama blog for the idea of using bubble wrap as a phonics game.

It’s simple; add sticky labels containing target words or graphemes. Say the word out loud and ask children to find the words and if they get it right they can pop the bubble.

You can also try blending words together by adding letters to the bubble wrap and asking children to pop the right bubble to the corresponding sound.

It’s an easy game to set up and we know that lots of children love popping bubble wrap! Read how to set it up on the Meaningful Mama blog page.

A quick and easy phonics activity that helps children practice blending and segmenting. Use it every day with different letter blocks.

Head over to Mrs Ostermans’ blog for more ideas and resources on the ‘shake a day’ theme.

Send over any phonics games or resources you use at home or in the classroom and we’ll feature them on this blog.

The winner of our Draw a Monster competition for Summer 2014 is… Yuan with his drawing of ‘Creep and Deep’.

‘Creep and Deep’ is green and likes ‘Floating at the ocean’. We love that he has two faces, wings and four tentacles.

Yuan wins £150 worth of Usborne books for his school. Congratulations Yuan!

Runners up in the competition were Holly from Scotland and also Lucas from South Korea. (Teach Your Monster to Read is truly international!)

Holly drew the colourful and original ‘Mr Vlad’. ‘Mr Vlad’ likes teaching children. Here he is below in all his vampiric glory.

Lucas drew ‘Mr Grandpa’. ‘Mr Grandpa likes dancing! He also has a marvellous beard that impressed the judging panel.

Well done Lucas and Holly! You will each receive £75 worth of Usborne books for your schools.

Thank you to Micaela and Mary-Anne and the team at Kideeko for judging the game and to Teach Your Monster to Read’s illustrator Rich Wake for making the final selection!

All the entries to the competition can be found in this Facebook gallery. Thank you to everyone who entered. The monsters were out of this world!

It’s here! We’re delighted to announce that Teach Your Monster To Read: First Steps is now available as an iPad app.

Download the Teach Your Monster to Read iPad app from the Apple App Store today!

All the functions and features of the web game are there – children create a monster, and take it on a fantastic adventure through a magical world where they meet island kings and collect letters to win prizes, developing speed and accuracy of letter recognition along the way.

Just as with the web version, the Teach Your Monster To Read: First Steps iPad app is designed for children aged 3 – 6 years old. We hope the app is used by parents and teachers alike, in and around the house, in classrooms, on the move and everywhere in between.

You can email us [email protected], or drop us a message on Facebook or Twitter. We’d love to see pictures of the app in action.

Teach Your Monster To Read for iPad is available from the Apple App Store, priced at £2.99/$4.99. All proceeds go to the Usborne Foundation, helping support new games and ideas for Teach Your Monster To Read, as well as other learning and literacy projects.

More questions? Head over to teachyourmonstertoread/ipad

Help us spread the word! Tell your friends about our brand new iPad app.