The Critical Thinking Basics of

I am a teacher looking for some new, brief, out-of-the-box activities. I found this, and wondered if it would work for my students in the fall. To see if it was any good, I've been experimenting with it on my bright but lazy 8 year old son. He loves it! And this is the kind of kid who hates to do work. Here are the pros of this book: 1. The activities are BRIEF! It gets the job done without overwhelming students with writing and work. I find as a teacher, it's better to get these kinds of concepts down quickly before introducing complex writing skills. 2. The activities are fairly unique compared to other books. 3. It's very well organized. Each sentence is numbered so students can refer to it later when they need to analyze it. 4. It forces thinking. No lucky guesswork here. Students have to figure out which picture applies to the situation based on what each sentence says- OR DOES NOT SAY. A lot of adults can't really understand what they are reading and operate on assumption and faith. These activities require scrutinizing all the evidence. The cons: 1. The pictures, by necessity, are in color. This makes copying far more expensive. There are ways around that, but it's something to keep in mind. 2. It may take a bit to teach the students this new format, if they are used to multiple choice. This *barely* makes the con list, and perhaps should be on the pro list. So whether you are a teacher or a homeschooling parent, this book is well worth the investment.

Great workbook. Very engaging. Full color and enough content.

After working in this book for a week now, I like it! My 9 year old has a hard time of thinking for himself. In homeschool, he'd rather me answer these types of questions for him. This forces him to think, find answers for himself, think about different possible scenarios and reading comprehension. It offers great skill building! My only complaint is that the lessons are so great but I wish it had more variety. Some lessons are very repetitive for many pages. But we are skipping around so as to not do the same type of activities for many days in a row. I hope they offer a 2nd addition!!

This workbook makes it easier for parents and educators to engage their students with fun critical thinking activities. the book is for grades 4-9 however I found the activities fun for me also.

These books are great. These are more “tips” than curriculum per se. Most teachers don’t teacher test taking tricks for elementary kids. This series does the job.