Fun at Christmas (Usborne Preschool Activities: Christmas Fun - Fiona Watt)

Member Name: juicy_lucy

Product:	Usborne Preschool Activities: Christmas Fun - Fiona Watt
Date:	01/12/08 (180 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of ideas

Disadvantages: none

Christmas Fun

With Christmas just around the corner it's time to start our Christmas crafts, and it was with this in mind that i bought this latest addition to my Christmas collection.

The book itself is slightly bigger than A4 size and has a nice thick hard back cover with a picture of one of the makes on the front (a jolly snowman). It is spiral bound which means that the pages are easy to turn but is bound in such a way that they can't be seen- invisibly bound, which makes it look and feel nicer as there are no spiral edges.

Once I open the book, there is a very brief paragraph about the activities and then we are straight into the makes. One of the things i like is that each make is book marked, and it's like having colourful file dividers because each make has a picture of the finished item and its name, so that we can quickly locate what we want. This means that the book doesn't need a contents page or page numbers and is easy for children to find their way around.

There are 12 things to make altogether, these being: Stencil trees; Snowman; Snowy Village (great to link into a shape theme); Stand up Santa; Santa's sleigh; Angels; Glittery trees; Finger Puppets; Felt decorations (trees stars and hearts); Gift tags; Stocking; Snowflakes. Each one of the pages is made of card and must have some kind of plastic covering because paint can be wiped off as long as you don't use too much water- we know because we have tried and the book has come to no harm! I think this is a great idea when a book is primarily an art and craft book; we know it will be close to messy things at some point in its "life".

Each make is clearly illustrated with step by step instructions. Most of the makes have only 6 steps to completion and each step has a picture inside a box of what it should look like at each stage and there are the written instructions underneath. The step by step instructions are very clear and children who are not especially confident readers will be able to follow a lot of the instructions just by looking at the pictures. Throughout the book, the background for the pages changes and it is never just white, but changes according to the theme. All of the illustrations are bright colourful and give a good idea of what in a perfect world, each craft activity could look like.

The font is a bold font, easy to read and with each sentence being written as clear instructions. I have found it handy so far this year to ask children older than pre school to read and follow instructions and then to make their own decorations and write instructions.

OTHER BITS OF INFORMATION...

RRP: £6.99
ISBN: 978-0-7460-9767-0
Publisher: Usborne (2008)
Website: www.usborne.com

OTHER BOOKS IN THE SAME SERIES:

There are two other books in the same sereis, Farm Fun and Animal Fun. This being Usborne, and the books being very recently published, I would expect more to follow.

VERDICT...

I am already a bit of a fan of Usborne books, and this is another good one, so I am pleased with my buy.

Already we have mad the stars for a shepherd display and several of the other makes just because it's Christmas craft time. The makes all tend to need things you would have in the house, or which is easy to buy, and not expensive. There is even at the front of the book a little idea that if the instructions state that the make needs coloured paper, then wallpaper can be used.
A really good book for anyone wanting to make art and crafty things with young children. And for older children, they can follow the instructions to make their own things.

Great stuff- this will come out year after year.

Thanks for reading.

Daniela x

Summary: Christmas crafts for young children