Fun and Games Books

This book has activities dealing with every season, however, the worksheets may be too hard for younger children grades 1-3. This book is more for children grades 4-8. The worksheets do not explain directions very well so if your parent or teacher be prepared to explain in detail the object of the worksheet. These worksheets are more one-on-one, not group.

This book is very basic and generic. If you are looking for something with specific ideas on lessons for read alouds, this book isn't it. What it does have is a good list of titles for read alouds, but to me it isn't worth the money. But, someone else may find it useful. If you have the option to look through the pages on screen, I would before buying.

I was looking for more theme based ideas.. this is a get out your pots and pans and let them pretend they are cook kind of book... I can think of those things on my own.

I am inclined to think favorably of any book that comes out from Chronicle Books. They publish very good quality books. Their craft books are often first rate.

I bought this book through the mail, but was very dismayed to find that it has very few pictures of the crafts and activities. Consequently, it is not very enticing. I put it in a box and didn't think about it for months until I just unpacked it today.

Some of the activities seem awfully bland and unoriginal. Make and play with a paddle and ball? Make wet footprints on the sidewalk? Ideas like this for almost 20 bucks? This is not up to Chronicle's usual standards. There are some very fine books out there that suggest great activities for kids, but this isn't one of them.

Planning for a Wild West day camp for this summer - had high hopes for ideas for games, crafts etc - not as helpful for active games etc. for energetic boys as I'd hoped. But, a good resource about the change of seasons during the old west.

I work with many children as well as have 4 children of my own, and this book was pretty good. Some of the games were not worth listing... but some others are very good. I got some good dance games out of it. All in all worth having!

This is a very superficial activity book. Not only are the activities in it not very engaging, but most of the descriptions are very poorly worded. This is at best a guide for those dear people who think "dance" is for an elite class of people. You would be better off just teaching P.E. if this is what you consider creative. Better by far is a book called "First Steps in Teaching Creative Dance to Children" by Mary Joyce.

Don't waste your money on this!

This book's activities are poorly described as well as being just plain corny. I cannot imagine the children I work with wanting to jump in and do these excersizes. Even in the spirit of pure play, I find these activities boring and silly (and not silly in a good way). If the activities had more depth, I could then use them to open up into a discussion or exploration. However, with the exception of a few, their relevance was insignificant. I cant see how any of these activities would break down walls, establish trust, inspire children to create, or even bring up a subject worth exploring, etc.

As the others have said, this book is terribly edited/written. The ideas and pictures are good, but often the text would directly contradict the pictures illustrating the point being made - picture says cut two, text says cut one, sewing directions are for something quite different altogether. I was very disappointed. Pictures say blow up 200%, but then don't blow up to the correct size (there are measurements on it as well). This is the third C & T book that I've bought that has not been edited. I won't be buying any more. At $16.95 they need to do better.

I bought this book online, admittedly a bit suspicious based on reviews of the "Fast, Fun, & Easy Fabric Boxes", but the pictures looked enticing. Unfortunately, that's about all this book has going for it. The instructions, if you could call them that, are more like suggestions and sometimes very vague at best. I had a hard time figuring out whether the book or I missed a step - or three! I had to skip back and forth through the book searching for what I thought would be a logical next step. I did wind up making a lovely little handbag, but it had almost nothing to do with this book!

I have a lot of experience sewing and quilting, and not only would I not recommend this book to a beginner, I would caution anyone against buying this book if they were looking for good instruction; inspiration, yes, "how-to", no. C&T books are generally very good, and I will credit the book with lovely photos and a few basics to get you started on if you are already competent with reducing bulk in seam allowances, setting zippers, beading, and embellishments. However, this book would have been much more successful if it offered detailed and sequential instruction on just one or two basic patterns, then branched out with options on shapes, fabrics, closures, handles, etc. My suggestion... keep browsing.

On first glance, this book looks like the perfect venue for an inexperienced crafter to create very functional bags. I can sew a seam, but I'm not an expert, so I purchased this book for the projects. As promised, the projects looked quite nice. However, the book itself lacks a level of detail necessary for the novice crafter to successfully complete the projects.

For instance, one of the projects is a box-type bag. While the point is to provide a guideline for creating many different bags using a single technique, the directions were confusing, there weren't enough illustrations for the 'tricky' aspects of the seaming and construction, and the directions didn't take you through a sample project with precise directions and specifications. For beginner projects, this is essential--you want to make the first project using the precise directions. Once you master the technique, THEN it's time to branch out and use your creativity.

I liked the projects in this book, but I wish the author and the editors took the time to consider their audience and not assume specific experience and knowledge of sewing. There are better books to look at--try "Mary Mulari's Accessories With Style: Quick & Clever Sewing Projects to Wear & Carry."

I didn't think there were any good ideas in here at all. You can come up with better games based on Bible stories on your own.

For example, for 2-3 year olds, the game for David & Goliath was write on 2 pieces of paper the words "Big" & "Little" and then have kids find the big and little stuff in the room. Instead, tell the story, then have an adult be Goliath and the kids each get 5 marshmallows to throw at Goliath. It teaches the story better and is a physical game.

This book has a couple of good games but, I was looking for more activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers which were not very many good ideas.

this was not what I expected. I found it to be uninspiring, slow, and ho hum. My kids were not engaged at all.

I couldn't listen to the complete song on any of the tracks so I couldn't image myself doing it with 30 5th graders. I'm looking for something better.

We ended up not using this for my sister's shower...we found it was too difficult to hold everyone's attention. Maybe it would better for smaller groups?

This is a deck of cards, not a book. The questions are tailored for a generation or 2 before us. Not recommended.