Review: 1000 Things to Make and Do

Author: Fiona Watt

Release date: 2011

Non-Fiction: Arts and Crafts

Publisher: Usborne

Target audience: 7+

Review:

Over the last term, I have been using 1000 Things to Make and Do to plan craft activities for the children to enjoy at lunch times. We have made magazine faces, pop-up castles and masks using this book. It has simple to follow instructions and a great range of activities. There are drawing, painting printing activities as well as paper-chains and Christmas decorations. The ideas will appeal to both girls and boys: from butterflies and birds to rockets and robots.

There are also ideas for collages – everything from clowns to shoes. There are lots of cutting and sticking activities. Most of the activities in the book can be completed with things you already have around the house – paper, pens, paint, coloured paper, glue, scissors. If you’ve got lots of old newspaper then you’ll find plenty of uses for it here.

Some of the steps may require help from an adult. My students had trouble cutting the eyes out for the masks. The youngest also found it difficult to make clean folds in the paper for the castles. We have such a short time to complete activities at lunch that I found it was easier to have templates ready which the children could decorate. If you’re working on a more one to one basis, then this book will be a great tool for teaching step-by-step collages, pop-ups etc.

1000 Thing to Make and Do is the perfect book for a rainy day. It’s also great for the school library for finding ideas to keep children entertained. I highly recommend it.

Here are some of the pop-up castles children made last week:

Source: Borrowed from the school library