Read with Oxford: Stage 3: Biff, Chip and Kipper: Dolphin Rescue and Other Stories

Great for KS1 readers. Well illustrated too.

This is one of the newly revamped Read With Oxford range and whilst the stories are part of the standard Oxford Reading Tree which most schools use (my Children's school uses this range) and therefore are the same trusted stories and reading methods, they have now introduced additional activity books and phonics flashcards etc to be used at home to support the reading tree at school.This story collection includes four different stories for your child to read at home and also suggested activities to help develop their reading skills such as tips and phonic's to practice with your child along with a couple of fun games such as mazes to guide the dolphin and the dog team through.The stories included are:-Dolphin RescueGran's New Blue ShoesHusky AdventureHairy-Scary MonsterThis is the story book containing the actual full length stories but there are activity books such as  Read with Oxford: Stage 3: Biff, Chip and Kipper: Stories and Activities: Phonics practice, writing, spelling, fun word games and more  and  Read with Oxford: Stage 3: Julia Donaldson's Songbirds: My Phonics Activity Book  that hold more activities for your child to complete alongside this story collection.We are very familiar with Biff, Chip, Kipper, Wilma, Wilf and Floppy in our home from our Children reading their stories at school and this is a lovely collection of four stories including two we hadn't read before.

This collection of phonics based and wider vocabulary first stories is part of the new OUP initiative Read with Oxford to create a sense of unity over their various synthetic phonics products. This stage 3 book is designed for emerging readers- starting to read more words and longer sentences with less help and I'd more confident with tricky words- roughly end of reception start of year 1 or ORT levels 4-5 and book bands Blue and Green.However, these stories are all previously published in the 'read with Biff,Chip and Kipper' collection of single books published and sold from a well known Book company of persons ;) online and the confusing thing is that whilst Level 3 is supposed to compare to ORT 4-5, two of th stories here are from level 5 and the other two are Level 6 stories in that pack (Gran's new shoes and Hairy-Scary Monster) which if the child's school is sticking to ORT and won't let them go up a stage until deemed successful may cause conversations and frustrations if they are reading this confidently supposedly 'above their level' and equally maybe troubling for parents to wonder if this is pitched right why their child maybe struggling if they are getting Level 4 books home from school.However, that's not enough to knock this down a star as I can see the stories are pitched right for the phonics development that should be taking place in their instruction particularly with long vowels so it's not enough to cause panic but could be worth pointing out in case of a child becoming concerned why they struggle.

Like many kids, our daughter’s been reading Biff Chip & Kipper stories at all for quite a while, but (surprisingly) still seems to enjoy it and enjoy reading about the characters, even if it isn’t necessarily her favourite series. Moving on to comprehension questions and gradually increasing the difficulty level has been well handled in the book series.So this is a great bit of supplementary learning, ideal for a Summer holiday where you want your child to do a little bit more to keep the learning ticking over. Four stories, two of them aimed specifically at phonics learning and two of them described as ‘wider reading’ to discuss broader topics, make a very nice collection. If I’m scrabbling for criticisms it might be that the final story, about monsters under the bed and with the question “what makes you scared?”, may be a little too scary for the most sensitive of readers, but that’s very minor.The quality is good throughout- well-printed, with bold colour. Because it’s a fairly thick book you have to find a way of propping it open at the right pages, which can be a bit fiddly compared to the thin, easily-turned paperback pages of the individual books, but that’s no hardship.If you’re looking to help out your child with a bit of additional school-style reading that they (and to a lesser extent you) might actually enjoy, then this is a good choice.

Dolphin Rescue is a Stage 3 (starting to read more words and longer sentences with less help) phonics book. This is the stage my daughter will be moving onto so we've worked through this book together as she was very eager to get her hands on it. She really likes Biff, Chip and Kipper and knew them from books at school.Split into two parts :- the first half focuses on phonics with two stories - Dolphin Rescue; Gran's New Blue Shoes, as well as the stories there are several different activities - practice at saying sounds, mazes and my daughter's favourite finding the hidden object in the pictures. The second half contains stories that use everyday language and are a bit trickier - Husky Adventure, Hairy-Scary Monster.We like how the book makes reading a much more interactive experience and gets you to concentrate on the story you are reading as well as the words. As a parent I find the hints, tips and help the book gives you to get the most out of the stories very useful.Overall - excellent.

Read with Oxford Stage 3 featuring Biff, Chip, and Kipper is a great book which will educate while entertaining. I love the fact the actual book which is made up of a group of short stories which makes it ideal for bedtime as our little one is not happy with a chapter or two, she loves to know what becomes of her now favourite characters.It is full of excellent illustrations as well as being well written. Read with Oxford Stage 3 is a great way of helping your child read more as well as helping them learn new words etc.I love this book and so does our youngest which makes it easy for me to recommend.