Jumpstart! Creativity: Games and Activities for Ages 7–14(Jumpstart)

Jumpstart Creativity! is a book of games and activities that any primary teacher can do quickly, at the beginning of a lesson or as a time-filler, with little preparation. They grab children's attention and get them focussed on learning. There are more than fifty provocative games and activities including, 'An Alien in the Cage is Worth Two on the Moon' and 'Faced with a Smilemma, Everybody Wins' to 'jumpstart' creativity in any Key Stage 2 or 3 classroom. Practical, easy-to-do and vastly entertaining, the 'jumpstarts' will suit a range of learning styles -- from the visual, auditory or kinaesthetic to the cognitive. The jumpstarts cover: thinking questioning reasoning problem-solving wordplay. Looking for a way to get your students' attention, fast? Look no further! Jumpstart! Creativity is the fourth book in the series, following books on literacy, numeracy and ICT.

Table of Contents:
1. Jumpstart Creative Thinking 2. Jumpstart Creative Thinking 3. Jumpstart Creative Reasoning 4. Jumpstart Creative Problem Solving 5. Jumpstart Creative Wordplay

Review :
Belle Wallace: President of the National Association for Able, Gifted and Talented Children (NACE) and a NACE/Fulton author Teachers are currently being urged to take a more creative approach to teaching. The book contains many practical strategies for encouraging learners to think more creatively. Teachers enjoy activities that they can weave into their more conventional lessons. The text supplies them with a menu of such activities. I think teachers will like this text because it is practical, easy to use and has a variety of activities that can be attached to lessons with a minimum of re-planning involved. Marcel Staricoff, Deputy Headteacher of St. Bartholomew’s CE Primary School in Brighton and author of Start Thinking, Imaginative Minds The rationale for this book is absolutely spot-on. Creativity is the current ‘buzz’ word in education and teachers are currently looking for ways to deliver their lessons ‘creatively’ whilst still covering the requirements of the National Curriculum. I like the way the author focuses on student thinking and learning as well as on the way the material is being taught. There is a wide market for a book which contains practical ideas under the umbrella of ‘creativity’. The activities described totally fulfil the Jumpstart aim. The five chapter titles would definitely appeal greatly to anyone who has ever been involved in the world of thinking skills. The activities are pretty fresh and interesting; there is enough depth within each one and enough interesting variants of the more common ones to make this book appealing to both new and to more experienced thinking skills practitioners. I think that many teachers would have come across some of these ideas in other books under the umbrella of ‘thinking skills’ - now they are under the umbrella of ‘creativity’. The sample activities are easy to follow and really grab my interest. I would definitely add these activities to my repertoire. John Taylor, Teacher and David Fulton author (Jumpstart! Numeracy and Jumpstart! ICT) Creative, amusing and varied activities. There is a market for this kind of book, particularly for NQTs emerging from the theoretical world of teacher training. I particularly like ‘Luckily / Unluckily’, which appears to have elements of BBC Radio 4’s ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue’ I would use these activities if I was still class teaching. These activities spark your interest – effective education has to be fun.