Toys and Games Books

Teaching Students to Write Effective Essays provides an easy to use system to prepare students for writing assessments. It contains detailed lessons on everything from the persuasive essay to poem analysis and AUTHENTIC student examples. In Chapter 10, titled "Arts Review" Ms. Pryle includes a step-by-step approach to writing reviews of cds, movies, plays, and concerts. Her pre-writing questions are very detailed. "Did the scenery[at the concert] add to the music or detract? Did the lead singer connect with the crowd? How?" Mini- lessons or even whole chapters are ready to be photocopied and presented to the class with little or no adjusting. I believe what makes this book unique is its inclusion of reproducible REAL student examples from Ms. Pryle's classes. Students seem more receptive to a new assignment when they see examples of other students that have successfully completed that very same assignment. Finally, not only is the book a great tool to breathe a little creativity into one's lessons, it's so detailed that the assignments would be ideal lesson plans to copy for substitutes, especially in an emergency or extended teacher absence. What a great tool!

This book is fantastic! I have been using the lessons with my middle school students. Ms. Pryle discusses writing and what works with middle school students. She is a former middle school writing teacher and has clearly used these ideas and lessons herself. So many times I read a book that has great ideas and theories, but do not have the time to extract those ideas and create lessons, plans etc. This book have a perfect blend of both clear ideas, step by step instructions, and ready to use resources. Ms. Pryle explains each assignment, and then provides the teacher with reproducable checklists for the kids, mini-lessons, and student examples of the finished product.

This book would also work well in all subject areas, not just language arts. The book has instructions for a "Process (how to) Essay" (great for science or pracical arts!) a "Compare and Contrast Essay, "a "Persuasive Essay," an "Arts Review," and a "Letter for Social Change," among others. These types of assignments would be great for social studies, science, and many other subject areas. I highly recommend this book!

My Preschoolers enjoy singing along with the CD and "reading" the poem as they sing. They take the poem home and sing it to their parents. I have also put a set of mini poem books in my reading center for the students to enyoy.

I love this book (I bought the whole series). My class enjoys listening to and singing along with the CD. I make a class sized book by enlarging the pictures and putting the book together in a binder. We practice every day with the CD. Then on Friday, I give each child their own child-sized book and we practice with the CD. Then I send the book home with the children. I've gotten so much positive feedback--parents love it!
The children also tell me how much they enjoy the books, and we have review days where they can choose their favorites.

This packet includes reproducible graphic organizers and a description/lesson ideas on how to use them (one section for each type).

What is nice about these is that they lay out what you want your kids to learn in a clear, easy to follow way. Some of the organizers are fairly free form, leaving lots of room for improvisation, and some are highly structured. These are absolutely excellent for struggling learners.

These are geared for teachers; however these can be easily adapted for home use. For example, my son comes home with vocabulary words that he must know each week. I use these organizers to help him 1) learn the spelling, 2) learn the meaning, and 3) use them in a sentence. Left to his own, he would feel lost; however several of these organizers easily adapt to helping him study this on his own.

Reading instructors will appreciate the organizers which place emphasis on writing down words that students don't know (like a log) or new vocab words from the text and inferring the meaning from the context clues.

In summary, these organizers teach important study skills that will translate into other areas of study. Highly recommended!

A must have for instructors who want to provide a variety of differentiated strategies. I am a high school reading teacher and
I can meet the vocabulary needs of my individual students without spending an infinite amount of time creating activities. These organizers work with required lists or just exploring words in text further!

OMG this book was so cool for the Jan Brett in my heart. It was full of interesting ideas for group work or classroom themes when studying an author. I loved the book. I got a lot of ideas from the book.

If you are a teacher and teach using Jan Brett books this is an excellent resource to add to your library. It has many creative activities to compliment some of her most popular book titles. With writing being one of the critical components of the new standardized tests, this book is a fresh approach to working with those skills. This teaching guide can be supplemented with some of the many activities that Ms. Brett has available on her web site.

If a bear wanted to find out his/her family history, this would be the encyclopedia to buy. Being a teddy bear is still very in vogue. This is a fascinating way to find out why we love teddy bears and why they appeal to collectors all over the world.

You can read about all the best-loved bears, from the original "teddy" to "Winnie-the-Pooh. The latest collectibles such as Beanie Bear and the Millennium Bears are also included. Pauline Cockril is the internationally recognized expert on the history of the teddy bear. She is also a regular contributor to Teddy Bear Times.

If you see a teddy bear and instantly want to buy it...this book IS for you. Also look for The Ultimate Teddy Bear Book which is considered to be the bible of arctophily (bear collecting) and is used by collectors, dealers and toy shops around the world.

The first bear listed was made in 1902 and was an experimental Steiff bear. The bears are listed all the way up to the year 2000. If you think you have seen it all...wait until you see the Pink Dino, a Swiss bear with characteristic elongated designs that I think looks more like a monkey. I much prefer the 1991 Pam Howells bear that has a lace collar, shaggy golden mohair plush "fur" and a cute hat trimmed with fabric roses. The Australian Teddy bear on pg. 137 looks somewhat like a koala bear for some reason. :)

I know a place where a lady has bears sitting everywhere in her Bed & Breakfast. You just want to take one of the bears home with you. In each room, she also has a "resident" bear that sits on the fluffy down-comforter covered bed. The whole place is like one big teddy bear picnic. I bet she knows about this book!

It is just unbearable not to own more bears. I must go shopping since I gave away most of my teddies when they had a teddy bear drive for kids. It was sad to say goodbye to some of them, but I know they are now happily living with a child who loves them. I do think it is time to start collecting again!

~The Rebecca Review

This is a great "beginner" book to learn about the points that distinguish one bear from another. Somehow they all seem to look alike at first!!

This book teaches you to pay attention to whether the nose is stitched up and down or from side to side. Are the feet big or are they little stumps? Are the eyes glass or plastic? Are the ears close together or far apart? Are the arms long and pointed or short and stumpy? These all are clues as to the date and manufacturer of the bear!!

Includes a section on repairing an antique bear (less is better!) as well as a section on newer bears!

A great learning tool! Written so it is easily understood........you don't have to already BE an EXPERT to BECOME one with the help of this well written book!!

As an adult collector of teddy bears, I have read many summaries regarding the 1902 Presidential bear hunting trip and the Clifford Berryman cartoon that began America's love with the newly created "teddy bear". Almost every book for adult collectors has some version of this story in its introduction. I found Linda Mullins' The Teddy Bear Men to be a superior and detailed account of the real story. Mullins wisely included the highlights from the November 1902 accounts from The Washington Post, which clearly recounted how and why a bear ended up being tied and presented to President Theodore Roosevelt for him to shoot. Washington Post cartoonist, Clifford Berryman, then portrayed this incident in a cartoon, which may be familiar to many collectors. The cartoon bear that evolved from this initial cartoon became Berryman's artist symbol ("dingbat") and linked the teddy bear (both the Berryman cartoon and the toy versions) to President Roosevelt's political career. This book is a well researched documentation of Clifford Berryman, Theodore Roosevelt, and of the significant contribution they made to the rise of the first teddy bears. It is presented in a reader friendly manner, with a well written text, short chapters, and many photos and drawings on each page. I found this book to be both intelligent and enjoyable.

Here it is. Everything you wanted to know about the cartoon that started the teddy bear craze 100 years ago and more. Linda's research is incredible and her writing style is very warm and personal, sort of like teddy bears. The book is also packed with illustrations in both color and black and white. I especially liked reading the history of Berryman, and how the cartoon of Roosevelt saving the bear came to be, about the two cartoons depicting the famous event 100 years ago, and about how Roosevelt did not actually spare the life of the bear tied to a tree, just refused to allow it to be shot. Any arctophile worth his or her salt should have this book in their collection! Bravo on a fine volume, Linda!

This is a great book for babies. There are lots of tags to chew on, plus there are different textures for my daughter to feel and learn about.

This is a great bed time book for us and is part of oour good night routine. My son loves it!

My 2-year-old loves to sing the song along with me, and loves to hold this sturdy book. The illustrations are eye-catching and hold his interest until we finish the song. The rhythm of the tune helped him learn more complex word patters like "came rolling home." It is printed in bright colors, on thick paper, and can withstand some toddler handling. This book is similar to the other books illustrating children's folk tunes, but this is by far my son's favorite!

This is a terriffic book for use in the music classroom, and at home. As a book that can be either sung or read, it is versatile. It's large size and colorful illustrations draw kids attention. I have personally found it to be very effective with my kindergarten through third grade students. I highly reccommend it to anyone looking for a good book for younger kids that can be sung or read! I highly suggest Pam Adams books.

Terrific informative book, many beautiful illustrations. A must for any dollhouse and antique toy collector.

An outstanding book for dollhouse collectors. Toy Buildings is a must for any collector with interest from Bliss to Converse to Keystone buildings. This book is not limited to dollhouse, but covers a wide variety of toy buildings, many that my brother had. It is an excellent refernce for history of manufactures to present day values for many toy buildings of this era. The color photos are of high quality and does an outstanding job of detailing many old toy building. Most dollhouse collectors have accumulated many Mystery buildings, this book is very useful in unraveling these Mysteries. Written by two excellent collectors, who have written several dollhouse books, this book offers new photos and information on houses and buildings not discussed in past publications. I am a collector of over 25 years and am very glad that I have added this outstanding book to my library.

It is beautiful, you should have a coloring book like this one.

Ming-Ju Sun is a favorite paper doll artist of mine, and this book helps show why. The lovely lines and clean colors show why the kimono, while no longer a part of a modern Japanese wardrobe, will forever be concidered a wonderful artform.
My only wish with this book is that it had other clothing besides the formal kimono. Perhaps "Traditional Kimono Fashions" would have been a better name. Still, Ming-Ju Sun remains high on my list.