Review: Let’s Play! – Lesson Plans

If you or your kids have ever wondered about the kinds of games kids play in other parts of the world, you’ll enjoy reading and playing through Let’s Play: Children’s Games from Around the World. This book by Nancy Dickmann and illustrated by Mónica Andino explores games from different countries that can be played alone, with two players, three to five players or larger groups.

Each game takes up a page and includes the name of the game, where it comes from, how many players are needed, any supplies that are needed, what type of game it is (active play, creative play, throwing, puzzle, board game, etc.) and how much space you need to play. This is handy if you have friends over at home or you’re looking for games the whole classroom can play, or even something to keep one child entertained.

There’s then a description of how the game works and sometimes more information about the name or different ways to play.

The games come from all over the world including the United States and the United Kingdom, Australia, Columbia, Ghana, India, Japan, Liberia and Turkey to name a few. There are also a couple of games from indigenous American tribes. There’s an index that lists all the nations represented so if you’re doing a unit study on a particular country you can look and see if there’s a game from the country you can play.

Let’s Play would be a fun book to have in the classroom for younger kids or at home if you regularly have kids over who are looking for something fun to do. Most of the games don’t require much in terms of materials or preparation, and they give kids a glimpse into how kids like them in other parts of the world have fun.

About the book: 64 pages, hardcover. Published 2023 by words & pictures. Suggested retail price $16.99.

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Summer Reading Printables and Tips for Parents

I’m in deep denial about the fact that new year is almost upon us again! It’s been the fastest and the longest year at the same time, and I can look back and see some good things as well as some things I wish had gone differently.

Doing a year in review with your kids — whether in the classroom or at home — is a good way to capture some of their memories and the things they really liked about the year gone by.

There are a lot of different printable year in review worksheets you can use if you want to make this super easy. Here are links to a few (often part of larger posts about NYE celebrations with kids that are worth a read, too):

Teach Beside Me has lots of fun printables fro the end of the year, including a year in review that covers favorite memory, funniest memory and the best book they read, among other topics.
NurtureStore‘s version has space for a self-portrait and prompts like favorite toy, best day out this year and future dream job.
Remember favorites, their “best idea” of the year and have room for setting goals for next year with this one from The Keele Deal.
The year in review from Yes We Made This has room for drawing or writing and includes things like something they learned, a memory they made and a place they visited.

Of course you could pretty easily make your own year in review for the whole family to do that asks questions based on what you most want to remember. (Favorite video game? Best friend? Favorite family memory?)

And if after the year in review you’re ready to look ahead a bit, Mrs. Merry has new year’s resolution printables to inspired kids to look ahead and set goals for things they want to try. You can totally fill this one out as a grownup, too.

[Photo: Mrs. Merry]

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