Science Mind Benders®: Animals from The Critical Thinking Co.™ Review

Disclosure:  I received this complimentary product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW.

We love science in our home so I was super excited to receive Science Mind Benders®: Animals from The Critical Thinking Co.™.   This book is geared for ages 3-8 or PreK - 2nd.  I absolutely love that this book combines puzzles with science information, such a fun way to learn!

The younger boys with our book!

Our book has 88 pages with colorful illustrations that offer lessons in both science and deductive thinking.  These lessons are easy to follow and the boys really appreciate all the visuals.  Every lesson is followed by a Mind Bender®  activity that requires using the concepts that students just learned - right away application!

Table of Contents

What science concepts are contained in our book?  Students will learn about vertebrates and invertebrates, warm blooded and cold blooded, mammals and reptiles, fish and amphibians, carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, birds, and camouflage.

For those not familiar, it walks you through how to solve a Mind Bender® puzzle.

Each lesson is set-up the same.  The topic is introduced with information and colorful illustrations.  It is followed by multiple activities - listening, matching, drawing, puzzles, etc.  Students are then shown interesting animals within that particular lesson and then there is a review.

All answers can be found within the answer key at the back of the book.

Our book is reproducible within out own home and that is how we used the activity pages.  I scanned and printed them out for the boys to complete.

The boys learning about vertebrates and invertebrates.  I even brought out my homemade backbone that I made a few years ago with pool noodles and ponytail holders.

Working together on the puzzle with the clue information.

Still working...

Their finished puzzle, which had the correct answers.

I think this is such a great resource to have with the younger boys.  They are really enjoying it.  It keeps them engaged and is teaching them concepts they are unfamiliar with.  I absolutely love that they have to use the information that they learned to really think in the follow-up activities.  I plan on completing this book with them this year as an add-on to their science!

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Mind Benders 7 Review

I have something to share with you today from Timberdoodle, Mind Benders 7!  Mind Benders is published by The Critical Thinking Co. and this book, level 7, is geared for students in grades 7-12th and beyond.  Our book is 62 pages and has 23 activities to complete.  While this is a consumable book, you do have the ability to reproduce it within your own home or classroom so I can make copies for A-D without having to buy them each a book 😃.

Our book gives a sample puzzle and walks you through how to solve it.  This is particularly helpful if you have never solved a puzzle like this.

I absolutely love these types of deductive, logic puzzles.  They were my favorite when I was a kid.  Mind Benders help students develop vital logic, reading comprehension and mental organization skills that will help them with future test taking and problem solving life skills.

1st puzzle in our book - Pets at Home

With Mind Benders, students learn how to analyze each story and its clues.  The biggest key is to start with the most obvious associations, then deduce the less obvious associations until you can fit everything together and solve the puzzle.  I usually have to read through the clues multiple times, filling in the chart as I pick up on more and more as I go.

Our completed puzzle

I really appreciate that our book includes step-by-step instructions and detailed answers for each of the 23 puzzles.  You can see above how to solve this puzzle and what information can be deduced from each of the clues given.

I plan on having the older 4 kids work their way through this book throughout this upcoming school year.  I will most likely give them a puzzle a week with the challenge of seeing who can correctly solve it the fastest.  I plan on competing with them as well!

 

Mind Benders 7 is such a fun way to incorporate logic skills into your homeschool and I highly recommend it!

 

Disclosure:  Huge shout out to Timberdoodle for selecting me as a Timberdoodle Blogger.  I received Mind Benders 7 at a discount in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.

Creative Problem Solving Level 1 from The Critical Thinking Co.™ Review

{Disclaimer:  I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review.  I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.}


I love all the critical thinking resources for students that The Critical Thinking Co.™ provides.  We are currently enjoying Creative Problem Solving Level 1 as a family in our homeschool.  This book is geared for students PreK - 2nd.  While I'm mostly using our book with E and F, I'm enjoying asking the other kids for their ideas as well, regardless of their age.

I love that this book encourages creative, independent thought for coming up with solutions to various challenges.  This is especially important if you have children that see the world in black and white.  Having an opportunity for them to imagine and challenge themselves is both rewarding and beneficial.  I want my kids to be able to unlock the power of their imagination and this is the perfect outlet to explore that.

This can be viewed as a stand alone activity book and would work well as a supplement to most curriculums.

Table of Contents

Our book is divided into 11 sections:

• The Magic Pencil (students use their pencil to draw creative ways to fix a problem)
• The Creature Factory (students draw a creature with the best survival skills to survive in a unique habitat)
• Superheroes and Super Powers (students choose special powers to help in an emergency)
• Alien Designer (students draw a design to fit the specific needs of an alien)
• The Inventor (students find a solution to someone's problem)
• The Crisis Specialist (students must decide the order of steps to take to help in an emergency situation)
• The Best Tool (students must choose the best tool to help in a situation)
• The Enigma (students must use their imagination to discover the enigmas)
• The Mind Ride (students must shut their eyes and imagine they are a character in a story)
• 2-D and 3-D Figures and Shading (students have fun playing with 2-D and 3-D figures)
• Play With Mechanisms (students come up with solutions for issues with mechanisms)

Magic Pencil Challenge 3 and 4

Let's jump into a couple Magic Pencil challenges.  In Challenge 3, there is a boy that wants to eat a piece of cake.  Students must use their "magic" pencil to save the cake from the boy.

 E's solution was to create a cake dome to protect the slice of cake.  It will also keep it fresh 😉.

In Challenge 4, Ana wants to eat a coconut but she is unable to reach it.  Students have to use their "magic" pencil to help her get it without using a ladder.

 E gave Ana spring shoes to reach the coconut. 💟

 Magic Pencil Challenge 19 and 20

Let's look at two more.  In Challenge 19, lightning is going to strike an umbrella that a man is holding.  Students must use their "magic" pencil to keep the man safe.

Solution - put the man inside a house.  This one cracked me up.

In Challenge 20, Nicole is about to touch a very hot cup!  Students have to use their "magic" pencil to prevent her from getting burned.

Solution - oven mitts - an easy peasy option.

The Creature Factory Challenge 9: Planet Extreme Weather

Now, I'd like to show you a challenge from The Creature Factory.  In the above challenge students are told that on planet Extreme Weather, the mornings are very hot and dry while the nights are cold and snowy.  They planet has cacti all over.  Students are asked to draw a creature they think could survive in this habitat.  Give it a name and why do you think it would survive.

E's creature named Blue

Here is E's description of her creature.  This new creature's name is Blue because the only color it has is blue.  He sleeps in the day and is awake at night.  He has sharp claws to dig holes in the ground at daytime for him to sleep in and a strong coat of fur to protect him from cacti and keep him warm at nighttime. 

A look at a solution from the Superheroes and Super Powers challenges.

Alien Designer Challenge 2: Bushie's Sweater

Above, you can see the sweater design that B created for Bushie (a bear-tree alien).  I like how you sew him into it and then cut it right off after winter is over.

The Inventor Challenge 8: Ball Picker Upper

And you can also see C's solution for picking up balls.  He invented a container with a robotic arm with a hand on the end that is set to pick up round, spherical objects.  One of these could be really useful in our home 😉.

I am not going to show you every problem in our book but I hope that you can see how the problems throughout our book are fun and engaging.  And a feature that I love, there are no right or wrong solutions!  As long as you can rationally explain your idea, then it is a viable one.  Younger students who cannot read yet will need the challenges read to them.  Also, if your student is young and cannot write or doesn't like to draw, they can give you verbal explanations.  This book is designed to get students to think!  If you are looking for a critical thinking resource to add to your homeschool this is a great one to consider.  I highly recommend visiting The Critical Thinking Co.™ as they have a plethora of exceptional products and resources.

I appreciate that this book is reproducible within our homeschool so several of the kids can come up with their own unique ideas for the same problem {you can see the full copyright reproduction rights here if you are interested}.

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The Critical Thinking Co. Middle School Math Games Review

I'm a huge fan of The Critical Thinking Co. so I was thrilled to receive Middle School Math Games (Grades 6-8) to use with B and C.  Their products are fun, easy to use and help improve grades.  Their goal is not to teach through drill and memorization but to empower the mind in critical thinking.  Yes!

Our Middle School Math Games Book

B and C with our book

This book is a compilation of 16 fun middle school math games.  Most of these games require a pencil, paper, and a pair of dice or a spinner.  The materials needed for each game are listed at the beginning of each game description for your convenience.  Student Activity pages are available for copying as PDFs online as needed (the link is in the front of the book).

Removing sheets is easy peasy

The book contains all perforated sheets that make them easy to remove!  I love the Helpful Math Terms page found near the beginning of the book right before Game 1 (see above).  This is just a great math reference sheet.  I laminated ours for B and C to keep.

Each of the 16 games are presented in the same format.  You will have a materials list, followed by the learning standards for mathematics concepts, followed by an overview of the game, game instructions, variations for the game, questions for further discovery and activity sheets needed for that game.  I like that there are variations to play the game simply or variations to make them more challenging!

Example of materials list and learning standards followed by an overview

Game Instructions

Variations

Further Discovery Questions

Activity Sheets for the game

I hope the above photos give you a feel for the book.  You do not have to play the games in order.  In fact, we didn't.  We actually started with Game 14, It's Logical!  We really enjoy logic puzzles so we had fun completing these together.

Playing Game 2 Can You Make...?

The second game we tackled was Game 2, Can You Make...?  This was a game we really enjoyed playing.  The concept is simple.  Players randomly pick five numbers from -25 to 25 and write them down.  A target number is chosen from -50 to 50 (we used an online random number generator).  Each player has a minute to use the numbers they picked and any operation (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, squaring the number...you get the idea) to compute the target number.  We had a lot of fun with this game.

Here is one example of C's work.  

C's numbers were 15, -7, 10, -20 and 3.  When the target number was -25 he simply took -7-15-3 to get -25.  You can see two more examples above.

Making Reproducible Card Holders for Jack's Order Me!

Game 8, Jack's Order Me! Decimals and Fractions was another hit.  Each player receives ten cards and puts them in order as they are received.  The remaining cards become the draw pile.  On their turn, a player takes a card from the draw pile and may exchange it with one of their current cards or discard it.  The next player can choose the discarded card or draw a new one.  The first player to have their cards in order from smallest to largest is the winner.  You can play with just decimal cards, just fraction cards, or a combination of both for more difficulty.

We tried using the card holders but the kids preferred the floor.

Strategizing

The first round

My goal is not to share with you all 16 games in the book but show you that the games are fun and that they use numerous math concepts and skills.  Some of the concepts covered in this book are fractions/decimals/percents, positive and negative numbers, coordinate geometry, area and perimeter, algebraic expressions, math vocabulary and symbols and more!  Students learn and refresh skills by playing fun games as math comes alive in new ways.  It is a great tool for parents and teachers to see where their students are thriving and where they may need help.

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The back of our books shows some of the other products available from The Critical Thinking Co.

A has been using Building Thinking Skills, Word Roots and Editor in Chief all by The Critical Thinking Co. this year and it has been great.  It's challenging but she is learning so much.  I look forward to checking out even more of their products.  I love their desire to help teach students to think critically and use in-depth analysis to make decisions and improve their communication.