Biff chip kipper series#

Biff chip kipper series#

The Oxford Reading Tree series was first published in 1985 with a set of 30 stories, and there are now over 300 stories altogether. It starts to glow and transports the 7 children, Floppy and sometimes the Robinsons' grandmother through a vortex to other worlds, where they have exciting adventures, such as dealing with trolls in a cavern, being characters inside of a computer game, or finding the Fountain of Youth and when the adventure is done, they get a gift and the key glows and they all go home.Īlongside the main story, to fit in with the book's original educational values, there are helpful hints towards teaching children the best use of English. The key is magic, as the title suggests, and seems to do some strange things whenever one of the children asks a question and Floppy wishes for something. Floppy wears a collar around his neck with a golden key upon it.

The series centres on the lives of three children, Biff, Chip and Kipper Robinson, their parents, their grandmother, their friends, Wilf and Wilma Page, Nadim Shah, Anneena Patel and the Robinsons' dog, Floppy. The series is a co-production between Collingwood O'Hare Entertainment Limited and HIT Entertainment, in association with the BBC and aired within the BBC Schools strand on BBC Two from 2000 until 2001. The Magic Key is a British educational animated television series based on the 'Biff, Chip and Kipper' stories from the Oxford Reading Tree published by Oxford University Press, originally written by Roderick Hunt and illustrated by Alex Brychta. Most children will be given a book band colour (such as red) at school and will read within that until they are ready to move on.īiff, Chip, Kipper and Floppy have helped millions of children to read, making them some of the best-known kids book characters’ out there.British TV series or programme The Magic Keyĩ minutes (without educational segments CBBC and CBeebies broadcast) There are six stages in the Oxford Reading Tree (see more below) and within each one the books are categorised into coloured book bands. The simple plots and familiar characters help build confidence and the wide range of stories to choose from will hold young readers’ interest. The clear levels in the Oxford Reading Tree make sure that children are reading the right books for them, taking into account vocabulary, comprehension, language, sentence structure and pace. From the everyday to the magical, all the books have a funny element that young children enjoy and colourful illustrations that help tell the story too. The Magic Key books take the children on adventures all around the world, into space and even back in time on thrilling adventures.

As readers develop, the stories get more exciting when the children discover a magic key that acts as a portal into different worlds. Books for younger readers follow the children in everyday scenarios: at school, at home or on holiday. The stories all focus on the Robinson family - Biff, Chip and Kipper, and their friends Wilma, Wilf, Nadim and Anneena. First published thirty years ago, there are now hundreds of books in the series, each one categorised by reading level making the three children by far the most popular Oxford Reading Tree characters. Written by Roderick Hunt and illustrated by Alex Brychta, the Biff, Chip and Kipper books were designed by educational experts at Oxford University Press to help children to learn to read using the phonics framework adopted by primary schools. The Oxford Reading Tree books featuring the three siblings along with their Mum, Dad and Floppy the dog are used in 80% of primary schools to help children learn to read, primarily in Reception and Years 1 and 2. Biff, Chip and Kipper will be very familiar names to any child learning to read and to any adult who has struggled through the highs and lows of phonics with them.