500 Five Minute Games: Quick and Easy Activities for 3-6 Year Olds

I absolutely love the layout of the book and how well it is organized. The easy-reference table of contents in the front helps you find games and activities by genre. Some examples include active games, language games, listening games, math games, music games, relaxing games, science games and weather games. Listed under each genra are not only the names and pages of the activities, but also what skill the game works on or what lesson it teaches. In the back there is a terms index (say you are looking for something about dancing, or ice cubes or specific circle or rhyming games) as well as a skills index. The skills index allows you to search for games based on specific skills targeted, such as coordination, colors, counting, body awareness, self-esteem, social and friendship skills etc. With the ease of searching the internet today for activities, many reference books seem to be becoming obsolete. However this book, I have personally found, helps me to determine what it is I am looking for, as I am often just searching for a fun idea and am not sure what types of games to search for that would be appropriate for the setting. One thing I have found is that many of these are for a classroom setting and may not work for small groups of children (2-4 kids). Also, some require a little prep-work, although whatever is needed is typically minimal. My biggest (and relatively small) criticism is that a lot of rhyming or music is involved in many of the games, more than I personally would like to use. When you are working with a small group of kids and don't have much for musical equipment or talent for that matter, remembering the rhymes or songs and helping the kids in a productive way can be a bit of an unexpected challenge. But, as I said, this is a minor criticism that many will not find an issue. I highly recommend this book for teachers, group leaders, day-cares or anyone working with groups of children. Many of the games can be slightly adapted to include 2 year olds and I am sure 7 year olds as well, which slightly broadens the age range given. I would not recommend this book as a primary purchase if you are only working with small groups of kids (1-3 kids) as many of the games require more participation to really make good use of. If you have 4-5 children many of them can work if slightly changed, and some activities can definitely be done with one child. So for a primary book with small groups, not my favorite. However as a supplemental book, even for small groups, I would definitely recommend it.