The Cure for Cabin Fever
By Lisa Von Drasek

I am envious of all our readers in the more temperate climes this February. This column is for everyone trapped inside and looking for activities to occupy restless bodies and minds.

Let's get crafty
I adore the how-to books from Kids Can Press. Their craft books have consistently easy-to-follow directions and the ideas are often perfect for launching further creative work.

The Jumbo Book of Easy Crafts by Judy Ann Sadler (Kids Can Press, 2001, ISBN: 1-550-74811-4) is a compendium of pre-k imaginative activities. This collection includes time-tested classic crafts like modeling dough, a milk carton bird feeder and print-making. Read aloud Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert (Harcourt, 2005, ISBN: 0-152-05304-2) and be inspired to create leaf and flower pictures suggested on page 119 of The Jumbo Book of Easy Crafts. Sadly, we'll have to wait for autumn for the leaf-gathering portion of our program. Most of the crafts contained in this volume will just jog the memory of an experienced teacher, but for me the reminders were welcome. One of my favorite after-school activities with a mixed age group of elementary students is making paper beads from triangular strips of paper cut from old magazines, wrapping paper and catalog pages. Most of the crafts use less than five common components. The simple black-and-white line drawings also support the clarity of the instructions.

The Jumbo Book of Needlecrafts by Judy Ann Sadler (Kids Can Press, 2005, ISBN:1-553-37793-1) is a compilation of projects with chapters on knitting, crocheting, simple sewing, embroidery and quilting. Each chapter begins with a project using the most basic skill and then moves on to a more complicated one. Not everyone who knits a scarf will move on to mittens, but it's cool to see the possibilities. Our third graders all learn how to knit. The knitting instructions here are paired with colored pencil drawings and are good reminders for those who have lost their way.

Many of the finished crafts would make terrific gifts and the smaller ones could be finished in a timely manner for almost immediate gratification. A charming embroidered cd pouch and an embroidered greeting card would be a welcome present. Although some of the sewing projects require the use of a sewing machine, most don't. I am particularly in love with the two-color fleece mittens. I can imagine an entire class of fifth graders making the fleece pom-pom hats. Our middle schoolers have been raising funds for tsunami victims and Hurricane Katrina survivors. These projects would make a wonderful change from the usual bake sale fundraiser as well as help kids to gain important skills.

Weave away
Kids Knitting by Melanie Falick (Artisan, 2003, ISBN: 1-579-65241-7) is my favorite knitting book for children. Kids Weaving: Projects for Kids of All Ages by Sarah Swett, (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 2005, ISBN: 1-584-79467-4) is the book that I have been waiting for. The most recent child- accessible weaving how-to book in our library collection is over 20 years old. Our second graders weave as part of their study of the Lenape people. The students stain cotton rope with natural dyes and then weave their own cloth on hand-made looms.

The format of clear instructions and easy-to-follow diagrams accompanying photographs of children in action is wonderful. I wasn't surprised when I read that Melanie Falick is the editor of this delightful volume. Sarah Swett begins by suggesting weaving paper with clear explanations of warp and weft to help slowly build students' skills. Friendship bracelets simply made with colored cotton, scissors, a pencil and a clipboard is a great low-cost fundraising project. Using handmade cardboard looms, students can also create a small colorful pouch. Swett even provides instructions for dying materials with natural dyes like onion skins. For the more advanced weavers there's guidance for making a large portable loom out of PVC pipes for more complicated projects such as dog collars, belts and rugs.

For a good companion read-aloud try Weaving the Rainbow, written by George Ella Lyon and illustrated with dreamy watercolors by Stephanie Anderson. (Atheneum, 2004, ISBN: 0-689-85169-3) Lyon's lyrical text describes the process from sheep to wool to a tapestry.

Thinking puzzles
One of our fourth grade math teachers delights in presenting the students with lateral thinking puzzles. Lateral thinking puzzles consist of presenting strange situations that require an explanation. Often important information is missing. As author Paul Sloane explains, "This kind of puzzle teaches you to check your assumptions about any situation. You need to be open-minded, flexible and creative in your questioning and able to put lots of different clues and pieces of information together. Once you reach a viable solution you keep going in order to refine it or replace it with a better solution. This is lateral thinking!" (http://rec-puzzles.org/lateral.html)

Here's one of my favorites:

A man rode into town on Friday. He stayed for three nights and then left on Friday. How come? (The man's horse was called Friday.)

Some new titles about lateral thinking are Classic Lateral Thinking Challenges by Paul Sloane and Des MacHale (Main Street, 2005, ISBN: 1-402-72361-X) and Outstanding Lateral Thinking Puzzles by Paul Sloane and Des MacHale (Sterling, 2005, ISBN: 1-402-70380-5).

The latest puzzling craze for those transitional moments and end of the day crazies is sudoku, a Japanese number puzzle. A really good introduction about this wordless crossword puzzle is at www.sudoku.com Kids will love puzzle master Will Shortz' Sudoku Easy Presented by Will Shortz Volume 1: 100 Wordless Crossword Puzzles (with Peter Ritmeester, St. Martin's Press, 2005, ISBN: 0-312-35502-5).

I hope these book picks liven up your time indoors this winter. Enjoy!

Lisa Von Drasek is Children's Librarian at the Bank Street College of Education in New York, NY.

February, 2006, Vol.36, No.5