Synopses & Reviews
Here's a unique collection of over 170 reproducible exercises to fill your extra classroom minutes with challenging and practical exercises that stimulate your students to think and reason more intelligently and critically!
Better yet, the exercises are fun, can be used at any time for a variety of instructional purposes, and are perfect for large and small groups as well as independent work.
For your convenience, all of the Brain Games! activities are individually printed in a large spiral-bound format that folds flat for photocopying and are organized into seven sections covering a wide range of topics.
Listening and remembering : 18 activities to give students practice in following directions, memorizing, and listening more effectively, for example, "Stand and Deliver" and "Accidents Happen!"
Across the curriculum: A collection of 33 exciting exercises in a variety of content areas, including titles such as "Time Marches On," "A Stately Find," and "Which Science?"
Language and writing: 34 activities for building written and oral communication skills, including "Mrs. Malaprop Has Arrived," in which students correct mangled proverbs ("You are the apple of my pie").
Logic and reasoning: 20 unique thinking activities, for example, "Mixed Up Advertisements," "The Art of Organizing," and "Know us by our slogans".
Math: 21 activities emphasizing fun and problem solving, such as "Number Stumpers" "A taxing situation" and "Math and the movies".
The world around you: 28 consumer and career-related activities to broaden students' experience, including exercises like "Countries, Capitals, and Currencies" "The Needed Product," and "Jobs...Jobs...Jobs".
Me: 18 activities to help teens better understand themselves, their values, and their interest, for example, "If I were," "Your Personal Timeline," and "The Sounds and Messages of Music".
In short, Brain Games! is sure to benefit both you and your students, it gives you a ready store of stimulating activities that will build your students' knowledge and critical thinking skills as it sparks their sense of fun!
Synopsis
Provides over 170 exciting, ready-to-use activities to spark critical & creative thinking in all students, grades 6-12! BRAIN GAMES! is an innovative resource that helps you quickly and easily turn virtually any spare moment into prime learning time for your students!
About the Author
Jack Umstatter, master English teach with over 25 years' experience, is a multiple winner of the Teacher of the Year Award. He is the author of Brain Games! Hooked on English! And other practical teachers resources published by The Center. He lives in Islip, NY.
Table of Contents
About this Resource.
SECTION ONE: LISTENING AND REMEMBERING.
Teacher Directions.
Activities 1-18.
Examples: "Stand and Deliver," "Does It Look the Same?" "Listen and Make the Changes," "Methods to Improve Your Memory," "Remembering the Order of People, Places, and Things," "Please Explain It to Me".
SECTION TWO: ACROSS THE CURRICULUM.
Teacher Directions.
Activities 19-51.
Examples: "The Who, the What, the Where," "What the Quote Means to Me," "Social Studies Guess Who I Am Game," "The Words (in Letters) of Famous Americans," "Potpourri Guess Me in Three Clues Game," "Faded Science Headlines".
SECTION THREE: LANGUAGE AND WRITING.
Activities 52-85.
Examples: "When the Action Fits the Mood," "How a Deed Becomes a Star," "Let's Eliminate War and Hate," "A Page of Tom Swifties," "Ted's Ripped Shopping List," "Reconstruct a Story Contest," "The Right Write Thing To Too Two Do Due Dew".
SECTION FOUR: LOGIC AND REASONING.
Activities 86-104.
Examples: "The Art of Organizing," "A Source of Analogies," "Mysterious Sequences," "Serious About Series," "The Scrambled-Up Trios," "Mets, Jets, Nets, and Other Sports Sets," "Know Us by Our Slogans".
SECTION FIVE: MATH.
Activities 105-125.
Examples: "The Big Leagues' Spring Training League," "The Percentages Are with You," "A Taxing Situation," "A Capital Experience," "It's Stopwatch Time!" "Math and the Movies," "Figuring Out the Ages and Numbers".
SECTION SIX: THE WORLD AROUND YOU.
Activities 126-153.
Examples: "Lights! Camera! Action!" "The World of Work," "All Roads Lead to Some Confusion," "Being Sensitive to Your Surroundings," "I Wish I Could Have Been There," "Connie's Confusing Calendar," "The Seven Necessary Occupations".
SECTION SEVEN: ME.
Activities 154-171.
Examples: "The Me Page," "Your Personal Wish List," "Looking at Literature," "In Touch with Your Emotions," "Parents," "A Page of Open-Ended Questions," "Where You Live," "A Change in Your Life," "Arguing Your Case," "Looking Ahead".
ANSWER KEY.