Nat Has a Hat, has been written for beginning readers. It contains three mini-stories created with mostly short a vowel, 'at' word family, CVC (consonant/vowel/consonant) words such as Nat, cat and bat. Created by a teacher with three decades of experience helping children learn to read, this first book in the First Books series uses basic words in repetition and simple non-distracting illustrations to help young readers create meaning from text.
In the minimalist stories in this book, Nat, a cat, a rat and a bat interact in several situations involving hats, mats and sitting. The emphasis is on repetitive words and letter sounds that improve sight word vocabulary and, hence, reading confidence. After multiple read-throughs with an adult or older sibling, young readers will be able to take the reading reins themselves and experience reading success.
With mostly two- and three-letter words that can be sounded out, Nat has a Hat, is the first step to the gradual addition of more letter sounds and word families. Word family knowledge opens up an ever-increasing vocabulary with the later incorporation of more complex digraphs and letter blends, and compound words.
Nat has a Hat contains three short stories over its 32 pages. The stories are created using only nine 'at' words (bat, cat,