The Big Book of Books and Activities

by Dinah Zike

Dinah-Might Adventures, LP

Dinah Zike has developed a dazzling array of craft activities through her classroom experience, and home educators can pick and choose for the conucopia of ideas in this book to jazz up learning at home.

Many of the activities are labeled as "books," but Zike stretches the idea of books to lenghts most of us never imagined.

There are miniature "matchbooks" for drilling math facts, putting together mini-reports on social studies topics, and other creative uses. Layered books, circle-mobile books, top-tab books, and frame books are among the other options that can be used for teaching, reviewing, researching and reporting across many subject areas as well as for creative art activities.

Since books are not the limit here, we also find directions for making giant sidewalk chalk, colored glue, macaroni, and cornmeal (plus what to do with them), and much more. Ideas are useful for kindergarten through the elementary grades. Materials required are very basic and inexpensive. Full instructions with illustrations are provided.

Dinah's ideas have become very popular among homeschoolers and homeschool publishers, especially with some of the newer unit study programs. In addition, Dinah co-authored The Great Science Adventure series from Common Sense Press, one of my 100 Top Picks. Her creative "books" are used for all the lessons. The Easy French program is another product that incorporates lap books. The Ultimate Lap Book Handbook actually incorporates six of Dinah's book ideas, giving credit and recommending the Big Book for even more ideas. It's wonderful to see Dinah's creativity sparking others to incorporate her ideas and take them even further.