Book Review
The crafts in this book are geared toward assisting in the development
of early learning skills for children such as fine motor, social
emotional, cognitive, language as well as exposure to science, social
studies, mathematics and pre-reading. Some of the crafts are
accompanied by a relevant children's poem, finger play or story
to tie in with the theme of a craft and with developing some of
the skills listed above.
I also really appreciate that the patterns directly follow the craft
instructions and they are not in a different section. This
makes the craft quick and easy to put together, which is essential
when working with children. Another bonus of this book is
that the number of copies of the pattern necessary to create a craft
is written right below the pattern so you don't have to keep going
back to the instructions to check how many you need to cut out.
These shortcuts are great because time is of the essence for teachers
making resources and props to use with the children. Children
also have relatively short attention spans for most activities (depending
on their age, interests and skill levels) so the quicker activity,
the better. Not only is this a child friendly book, it is
friendly to the environment because some of the crafts (i.e. Wallpaper
Fish on page 151) use recyclable materials.
The only thing to be concerned about is the use of glue guns with
children. When a glue gun is one of the options with some
of the projects in this book (i.e. Pinecone Petal Turkey on page
87) choose white glue instead so all ages and skill levels can participate.
Older children may be able to operate a glue gun or an adult can
complete this part of the craft. It is safer and more fun
for everyone just to use white glue and adjust the drying time.
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