Mêts Maesllan 2: Dathlu'r Calan

Are you aware of the old tradition of celebrating ‘Calan’ (the New Year) on the 13th of January with ‘Y Fari Lwyd’? The tradition is still very popular in many areas including Cwm Gwaun. Why not learn some of the verses they sing in order to be invited into people's homes? Do you go out to sing 'calenning' on the 1st of January? Find out more about the history of New Year's celebration practices here in Wales by reading this book.

The popular Mêts Maesllan series continues with this new series. The series aims to help learners on Progression Steps 2, 3 and 4 that have specific learning difficulties in mastering literacy in Welsh. The series centres on phonetic and linguistic patterns based on 'O Gam i Gam' (Griffith, updated by Thomas and Jones, 2009) and 'Ffynhonell Eirfaol' (Hughes, 1978).

Like the first series, these new books and activities follow the adventures and interests of a lively group of friends - Mim, Ben, Sam, and Wil (and Bob the dog) who live in Maesllan and are now 11 and 12 years old. The series includes a pack of 32 cross-curricular books, some of which are fictional, others factual, and some in the form of rhyme.

The books are relatively short and are designed to attract the interest of children who are usually reluctant to read. There's activities on Hwb to coincide with the series, including digital and paper activities made to support and reinforce the vocabulary and language patterns presented in the books.

To provide both continuity and progression on the first series, the books are graded at 4 levels in order to help develop reading skills, with each level building on the previous one. This series begins with level 2 and introduces level 5 to the series for the first time.