“Green Crocodile”: Reading Whole Words
Price range: £6.00 through £20.00
The “Green Crocodile” set (Books 6–9) is the perfect bridge between initial phonics and independent reading. Designed specifically for bilingual children who have mastered syllables and are ready for their first “real” independent reading experience.
“Easy Books” (Простые книжки) by Nina Romanova is a book series designed around the principle of gradual complexity. These simple, humorous stories are loved by both adults and children. The series format is ideal for a “one book per week” pace (as practiced in English primary schools) and serves as a perfect ready-made homework solution for weekend Russian schools.
What is in this set?
While the first five books in the series, “Ginger Cat”, focused on letter recognition and reading syllable by syllable, the “Green Crocodile” set (Books 6–9) takes the child to the next level. We move away from mechanical decoding and begin working on fluency, comprehension, and language intuition.
Key learning goals for this stage:
- Words are printed without syllable divisions (we will explain separately how to assist a child if they still find it challenging to read words without syllable divisions).
- We teach the child to read words with consonant clusters. Carefully selected vocabulary is used to develop this skill (consonant clusters are consecutive consonants as seen in the beginning of the word “construction”).
- We instruct the child in reading words with consonant clusters, highlighting how the meaning of verbs changes without introducing the concepts of “perfective” and “imperfective” aspects. Instead, we discuss what’s happening, showcasing the beauty of prefix-based word formation in Russian verbs. For example, “вили, вили и свили”. This aspect of learning to read words with consonant clusters provides a truly wonderful opportunity.
- We teach the child to read long words, drawing attention to their endings and how these endings alter the meaning of the entire phrase.
- We teach the child to correctly emphasise words without using special markers. We explain that there are “крУжки” (circles) and “кружкИ” (clubs), and within the books, there’s a special twist in the plot, along with illustrations and vocabulary material, to address this.
- We instruct the child to read words attentively – not guessing but reading carefully. To facilitate this, we introduce characters with names that differ by only one letter.
- We consistently reinforce reading words with combinations of soft consonants and iotized vowels.
However, the most important aspect is that we do all of this without haste or pressure, discussing the wonderful illustrations, inventing our own twists in the storyline. We approach this with a sense of fun, asking each other questions, laughing, smiling, and genuinely enjoying our encounters with the lazy rabbit, the clever and organised crocodile, and the students at an unusual school for animals. We learn about the hobbies of Sanya and Senya, our old acquaintances, and the nanny Yana’s interests. We discover extraordinary birds that fly to distant lands and peculiar fish living in tropical seas. And all of this we discover by reading independently! Although we are still in the process of learning to read. As a result of all this ease, smiles, and laughter, these simple stories become a part of our lives alongside the books. And we begin to truly enjoy reading!
Wishing you a delightful journey into the world of simple stories!
| Kristina, Krosha and Kroha | 9781911565628 |
| Storks | 9781911565635 |
| School for Animals | 9781911565642 |
| Aquarium | 9781911565659 |
Vika Tyazhelnikova graduated from M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) and subsequently completed her postgraduate studies there. After moving to the United Kingdom, she taught the Russian language to children in London. In 2008, she founded the company LinguaPlay, which currently unites ten Russian language schools in London. Vika continues to lead speech and reading development classes, preparatory classes following the Russian school curriculum, as well as classes for preparing for the GCSE and A Level exams in Russian language. Under the pseudonym Nina Romanova, she writes books for children who are beginning to read in Russian.
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