Bees and Phonics (Top That! Review)

Our latest package of books from Top That! included Po-Tolo Plan Bee From Outer Space and three free-standing flipover Phonics books: Word Families, Spelling and Short Vowels.

Po-Tolo is a colourful story with an ecological message. The odd pairing of a spaceman (Po-Tolo) and a purple octopus need help. On Po-Tolo's planet the bees are dying. They head to Earth for assistance and are rewarded when the Earth bees come to the rescue.

My children loved the rotund characters and the vivid illustrations in this story. They listened intently to the facts about bees, which are at the end of the book. Even I learnt something new about bees! This was a fun, simple to understand story with a serious message about the decline of bees.

The phonics flipover books were a hit with Middle and even Girl liked to have a go! He could easily read all of the words but they have helped to reinforce his spelling capabilities and encouraged him with learning phonograms. They are split into 3 so that children can flip the cards over to make words or rhyming word families, depending on which book you have. The words are easily recognisable and the pictures are clear. 

These books probably would have come in handy when Middle was starting to learn to read so he could have got the most out of them but he still enjoys picking them up and going through them either on his own or when he's sitting with us.

You can find Top That! books on their website here.