Dancing Bears Book A ISBN 1-905147-10-1 EAN 9781905174102 Dancing Bears Book A starts with our oral blending exercises, which teach phonemic awareness in a matter of days (if not minutes!). The basic flashcards—which are used at the start of each session—teach children instantaneous recognition of simple letter sounds and unambiguous digraphs (e.g., ee, ar, th, oi). Within two or three weeks, children are beginning to read simple three-letter words, such as hot and can. Once basic blending skills are in place, pupils read Decoding Power Pages consisting of carefully-structured word lists. By using a cursor, children are taught to scan from left to right—this eliminates the need for coloured overlays or tinted lenses. Old material is constantly reviewed, so nothing is ever forgotten. Irregular words are introduced after the pupil has developed good basic decoding skills—these are introduced with our cloze sentences, which are designed to be amusing and instructive (later on, they play a big role in teaching vocabulary). Timed readings are used to encourage fluency. There are two series of stories to maintain interest—"Tim the Dim Cop" starts in Level 1, and "Froid, the Pet Snail" starts in Level 3. Each episode gives more sustained practise of a new spelling pattern. Meanwhile, advanced flashcards—with less frequent digraphs and spelling patterns—are introduced to prepare the pupil for Dancing Bears Book B.  Dancing Bears Book A teaches a wide range of one-syllable words, including consonant blends. The final page of cloze sentences will show you what a child should be able to read upon completion of this level.