Monday, July 12, 2010

Activities for the Summer

Here are some activities to do during the Summer!


































Boredom Blasters: Brain Bogglers, Awesome Activities, Cool Comics, Tasty Treats, and More…
by Helaine Becker and illustrated by Claudia Davila

As the title says, this book is full of activities to keep you busy. There are magic tricks, jokes, comic strips, games, puzzles, crafts, and weird but yummy recipes. Some of the games include kangaroo wrestling, sharks and fish, and gerbil jailbreak. Some of the recipes include “gross-out gummi worms,” “alien candy (Truffle UFOs, Asteridough),” and fortune cookies. The brain bogglers include optical tricks, calculator tricks, and codes to break. There are many different kinds of activities that will keep you very busy.

























Everybody Wins!: 150 Non-Competitive Games for Kids
by Cynthia MacGregor

Each game has the game’s name, how to play it, what materials will be needed, and the ages that are appropriate for each game. The games need very few, if any, materials, and they are divided up by Quiet Games, Beanbag Games, Active Games, Adventures in the Arts, and other Miscellaneous Activities. There are many games, such as Beep!, that work on skills (like the alphabet and especially their imagination) while playing the game. There is even a game that tells you how to make a “fortune teller” out of paper, and there is a game called “Blob Tag” where everyone who is tagged has to hold on to some part (hand, shirt, etc) of the person who tagged, cannot let go, and has to tag other players, if they can.
















Organic Crafts: 75 Earth-Friendly Art Activities
by Kimberley Monaghan

At the beginning of this craft book, there are recipes for making your own glue, paste, and a cornstarch paint (later on, there is a paint recipe for creating paint from fruits and vegetables), some safety tips, and the things you can keep in an “Earth art box.” The crafts include a family tree, nature journal, twig trivet, a nature portrait, rock sculptures, pebble puppets, messy mats, and many, many more. Most of the materials that are used to create this crafts are from nature, such as leaves, rocks, sand, etc, and you can learn about the environment around you as you create your crafts.



















Drawing: The Only Drawing Book You’ll Ever Need to be the Artist You’ve Always Wanted to Be
by Kathryn Temple

The beginning part of the book is very important. It says, “Everyone can draw.” The author has some important “life rules to draw by.” Then there is a list of drawing pencils, which ones draw what kind specific lines, different kinds of paper and erasers. The author also discusses different methods of drawing, such as scribble art, drawing without looking, how simple shapes can become great pictures, and how to join many simple shapes together to form a big picture. There is also discussion on shading, proportion and scale, using grids, and perspective. There are many great tips about drawing, and the author really tries to break the drawing process down into easy to follow steps.

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