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Essay / A review of the giant book of creativity for children, a book by Bobbi Conner
The Giant Book of Creativity for Kids is a teaching resource book for early childhood educators written by Bobbi Conner. The book offers various activities that encourage creativity in children aged two to twelve. Bobbi has a Bachelor of Fine Arts and was a radio host for Parents Journal for twenty-four years. Bobbi's books, articles and programs have been featured across the country through various forms of media. Although Bobbi has no specialized training or education in the field of early childhood education, she is revered online as a "mother of three children who were raised with a heavy dose of creativity." Bobbi is the author of other educational resource books such as: Unplugged Play, The Book of Birthday Letters, Everyday Opportunities, and The Parents Journal to Raise Great Kids. Currently, Bobbi presents workshops and programs to educators, professionals, and parents across the United States of America on topics related to children's creativity and the importance of unplugged play. The book is well organized thanks to the table of contents. It begins with a section on the principles of children's creativity. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The importance of creativity and play in the learning process is emphasized. The table of contents is further organized into three specific age groups: toddlers, preschool, and school age. These categories are in bold and divided by chapter. These chapters contain activities such as: art, construction, music, dance, drama and cognitive activities. Activities are play-based and can be modified to meet the needs of various interests and abilities. Each activity encourages learning through interactions with objects, people and information (Applied Curriculum). The index is also a good way to navigate the book. Activities can be found by consulting the index and searching alphabetically. Looking through the index, it is evident that the activities are game-based. Some game-based educational content that can be found in the index includes: Carlton dancing, charades, and a woodworking project (Conner , B. 2015, p. 364). The book also includes a resource page divided into the following sections: arts and crafts, building/construction, music, and simulation/theater. Each section includes materials that may be needed for each of the activities and websites that early childhood educators can use to purchase these materials. The giant book of creativity for children is published by Roost Book Publishing, an imprint of Shambhala Publications, and distributed by Penguin Random House, an American publishing company established in 2013. Penguin Random House was formed from the merger of Random House and Penguin. Band. Roost Book Publishing is an independent, family-owned publisher that has been creating books for five decades. Their books are used to inspire people and focus on cooking, creativity, family and nature. Roost Book Publishing offers a variety of other books that can be used as educational resources, such as: Playful Learning, Tinkerlab, and Made to Play. I chose this educational book for various reasons. One of the main reasons for my selection was that the activities were clearly presented. Each activity in this book is divided into three main sections: target objective, clear list of materials in point form, followed by a list.