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Bring reading to life with these beautifully animated children's stories

Nessy Tales are a fun new way to improve children’s reading, vocabulary and listening skills at home. Nessy Tales are particularly suitable for reluctant readers or those with special educational needs. Dyslexic children often have an aversion to books. Past failure may cause confidence to be low and they do not have happy associations with books.

The five tales motivate reluctant readers and build confidence with lots of multi-media fun.

Follow Muggins, Jim and Nan in their comical adventures

Interact with these virtual books as a stepping stone to paper-based books.

“I have a 6-year-old son who just does not enjoy reading… I showed him the stories and, to my surprise, he was asking to read.” – Modern Mum magazine review

• Listen to the story or read independently
• Watch the words come alive with animation
• Enjoy the humour and mischievous adventures
• Easier reading – uniquely adapted font helps dyslexics
• Suitable for a slightly older age group
• Careful choice of graded words and limited vocabulary (suitable for reading ability 5-7 years)
• Age appropriate content up to 12 years
• Use Nessy Tales to spark interest in paper based books
• Narrated by comedian UK’s Bill Bailey

 

What the books do

Nessy Tales give children the motivation to read and act as a vital link between listening and reading. Older children who may be feeling self-conscious about their reading ability can follow the story content independently. The books can also be used for paired reading. Words are read by the student onscreen and then they can rest while they listen.

 

Key features and benefits

• Narration can be turned on or off to allow for periods of rest between reading but with continued enjoyment of the story
• Builds important early reading skills, word recognition, vocabulary, comprehension and listening skills
• Words are highlighted as they are read
• Discover hidden animations each time you play
• Virtual page turning is great on an interactive whiteboard
• Interactive quiz for each tale
• Reinforces learning with printable support resources
• Short stories mean the tales can be enjoyed by children with a limited concentration span
• Great for a whole class when used with interactive white boards
• Provides vital practice at transferring knowledge of individual words in context
• Uses decodable words that can be read by sounding out letters and blending them together
• Developed by specialist teachers at the Bristol Dyslexia Centre

 

What are the books about?

1. Muggins – Muggins the dog is in trouble again, getting mucky, chasing cats and even sleeping in Nan’s bed! But has Muggins gone too far this time?
2. Jim’s Pet – Jim is sad when Nan will not let him get a pet, but when he finds a pet bug things go crazy in the kitchen!
3. Jim the Slob – Jim will not get out of bed but he had better look out. Nan will do anything to make him get him up and find a job.
4. Top Dog – A mystery voice is calling Muggins a twit. He runs through the dark streets to find the voice and meets many strange characters of the night.
5. The Long Run – Jim has to take Muggins for a walk but his plan to take it easy goes horribly wrong when a frog hops up.

Nessy Tales books 1-5 provide confidence and support by using a small vocabulary of carefully selected words. The introduction of additional words is a gradual progression, building knowledge in small steps. The learning structure follows the UK National Curriculum, advancing from Consonant-Vowel-Consonant or C-V-C words (e.g. ‘t-a-p’), to C-C-V-C (e.g. t-r-a-p), and building to C-C-V-C-C (e.g. t-r-a-m-p) in book 5.

Many children will learn to read words when they are presented individually but it is vital that they transfer this learning to recognise words within the context of sentences and stories.

 

How to use the books

You can read books 1-5 by knowing less than 100 words.

For example, book 1 provides vital contextual reading practise with CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant) e.g. ‘cat’ and early stage high frequency ‘sight’ words. 50 words are used in the story but 43 words can be read by sounding the individual letters and blending them together.

Reading should be enjoyable. Encourage reading by using the animations as a reward. Try listening to the story and then reading some of the words. When the reader becomes tired, rest by listening or save the remainder of the story for another time. Once familiar with the animated tales try saving the end of the story to read in book form.

 

Includes Printed Books

The 5 animated stories have also been developed as a series of printed books (included).

View sample pages

The printed books are an ideal companion to the animated Tales. Once familiar with the animated story this gives the confidence and motivation to read the paper versions.

Requirements and ResourcesexpandClick to collapse

Prices

	Code	Media	Platform	$NZ Price	$NZ GST
	Nessy Tales - Single User Licence with Five printed books
	INNESSYT	CD-ROM, Book	Mac OS X, Win XP, Win Vista, Windows 7	$90.00	$13.50
	Nessy Tales - Ten-User Pack with Five printed books
	INNESSYT-10	CD-ROM, Book	Mac OS X, Win XP, Win Vista, Windows 7	$190.00	$28.50
	Nessy Tales - Site Licence with Five printed books
	INNESSYT-SL	CD-ROM, Book	Mac OS X, Win XP, Win Vista, Windows 7	$300.00	$45.00
	Extra Nessy Tales Book Pack - Five printed books only
	INNESSYTBP	Book		$60.00	$9.00