I highly recommend these to any teacher who wishes to challenge classes ...
936071
Actually I have not read this book, but rather am looking at it for possible school purpose. I, however, have had experience with several other issues from this same publisher, and that is what this comment is about. I have used these in an elementary gifted and talented program. These editions are stellar in my book for completeness, comprehension by my students, and wide open for supplemental instruction. I highly recommend these to any teacher who wishes to challenge classes from grades 4-8. Well done, and extremely sufficient. Good work!
1750433
This whole book met my expectations. Perfect for anyone that has a tough time with classroom management and want to improve especially for 1st year teachers that don't have a clear goal of how to make their classrooms run very smoothly. Highly recommended for not only music teachers but all teachers that can modify these techniques to their liking.
1631980
Hands on!  That says it all for me.  Im constantly looking for new and engaging ways to interest my students and get their hands on items that will help them learn.  So when the folks at Learning Resources sent me their new Dive into Shapes, I knew my students were going to go crazy over it.
My little guys can never seem to get enough fine motor work, and if I can couple fine motor and working with shapes then I'm one happy teacher.  Plus, look at all those bright fun colors.  I have to admit, I couldn't resist diving in and working with these fun manipulatives. (It was actually a little bit addictive to tell you the truth.)
Dive into Shapes comes with a ton of colorful curves and straight plastic pieces including connecting balls.  These coupled with the playing cards included, had my kinder friends loving this activity during our learning stations.  The easily manipulated the pieces and quickly got into the groove of replicating the different shapes on the cards.
The cards provided just enough guidance for those that needed it, but also differentiated and extended learning by offering challenges beyond the basic shapes.  As an instructor, I could quickly assess to see which of my students could easily replicate the pictures and identify those that really needed more practice.
Since we had been studying 3D shapes as well, this activity was especially fun for students when I challenged them to make a cylinder, sphere, cube or cone (that was a tricky one).
They loved the bright colors to make patterns and come up with their own designs and creations or just work off from some of the ones on the cards.  This was definitely one of the quietest stations this go around as they seemed to engaged and were really concentrating on getting the pieces to fit 'just so.'
2403325
As a Reading & Literacy Specialist, working with students in the upper elementary grades (3-6) in a public school, I purchased and have successfully used this book to support my lessons with struggling students.  The students who benefit most from this innovative book are those who have difficulty with making inferences from the various texts that they are required to read and analyze.  I believe that the author effectively designed humorous and highly engaging scenarios to motivate the students to put extensive effort into this challenging reading skill.  Through this entertaining format, the author continuously hooks the reader into practicing how to read in between the lines of a text to solve the puzzles and identify the correct solution.
Some examples of the scenarios that grabbed the attention of my students include: a hotdog eating contest, trick or treating and having a food fight.  To view a sample puzzle, simply use the Look Inside feature then choose the back cover.  This puzzle, A Babysitter in Tears, will give you a good idea how to gauge the level of difficulty found in this book and match it to the ability of your students.
Classroom teachers who are required to teach inferencing would benefit from using the lessons in this book to widen the exposure that is critical to helping their students develop higher order thinking skills (H.O.T.S.). I plan to share this resource with my colleagues in grades 3 - 6. It is a great resource!
2635737
This pack is AMAZING, but pricey. As a classroom teacher though, I love having these on hand so I can strategically use color while giving direct instruction under the document camera while my students are active note-taking. It is much more engaging and also highlights important key words and makes connections across topics in math (for example, showing growth using the same color in a graph, table, equation, and tile pattern and showing the "starting point" in a different color). They last me a really long time because there are so many. A lot of teachers use these to grade. I love them for that too, but I recommend buying a full pack of purple or green for grading instead of using this pack so that all your grading feedback colors are consistent and you don't waste any of these colors.
3499153
They are exactly what I wanted and I cannot wait to try them out with my class tomorrow.
2586075
Sturdy and easy to use. As a special education teacher I find that these are incredibly useful.
4030866
These are amazing. I use them for my classroom to hold lesson plans and I have received so many compliments on them.
1778173
These are well worth your money! The colors are vibrant, unique, and perfect for taking notes in and out of class. They erase extremely well, and because I live in Pennsylvania, I luckily don't have to worry about the weather making my notes disappear.

One thing I didn't realize for a while, though, is if you write on both sides of a piece of paper and you start erasing writing on one side, just be sure not to heat up the paper too much or the writing on the other side will fade as well. I use these for my math class, and after erasing a math problem complete, I turn the page around and some of my writing had disappeared! However, this was on me, not on the pen itself, and it doesn't affect my rating.

Seriously buy these! They're awesome!!
1214891
I teach high school science and use these puzzles as warm-up activities to begin class.  In addition to being fun, the puzzles increase my students vocabularies, improve their reasoning skills and just plain wake up their brains.  Since the puzzles range from fairly basic to darn complicated, there's something for every level of student ability.  I've used the puzzles from the first book (excellent, btw) for so long that I HAD to get this new book for the kids who are taking a second or third class from me.  I have as much fun with these as my students do!
4721611
This is a fantastic set for teachers. The colors are bold, bright and great!
 I've been using them for a while and I think this site has the best price so far.
4192356
I have been an ESL teacher for elementary, high school and university students for 11 years in Costa Rica.  English classes are considered specials like art and music so  the amount of time we get to spend with our students is very limited compared to the grade teacher.  The grade teacher forms his or her own classroom rules and the ESL teacher has to struggle all year trying to get the students to behave and perform as they should.  I have been researching for years for information or a guide book that will help me get through to my students. Most books I have read don't give clear examples or the ideas are very time consuming.  I am a hardworking person who loves her job but adding more things to do to my already long list just doesn't work.
 I just bought the kindle book today and I have read up to rule 15 and I am already LOVIN'IT and planning my moves for the 2012 term that starts in a few weeks. I have already shed some tears while reading the book; it is exactly what I needed. The rules are reachable , reasonable, and teachable!  Thank you so much!  I would love to meet the author and observe teachers at his school.
4409195
I love these products I am a teacher and I'm collecting all of them to incorporate into my curriculum. This one in particular is a great one full of exciting and engaging activities dealing with writing in the ancient world not just Egyptian hieroglyphics so that was an unexpected surprise. I can use this set for other units and that's great. I highly recommend these sets for students and families. I hope the publishers put out others in the future.
446421
My First Graders LOVE these! I use these as an early finishers STEM activity- and they fight over who gets to build with them! It's amazing the creations they come up with. Would definitely buy these again- and they're at such a reasonable price!
1244991
This book is an amazing resource for any educator. It's jam-packed with "icebreakers" or activities that can be used effectively to enhance and support any curriculum.

For example, have you ever considered kicking off your class with a chant? The author suggests that chants can be great motivators and if you think teenagers won't like them, think again. How about a beanbag topic toss or birthday circle where classmates must see how quickly they can form a circle with everybody in chronological order by their birthdays?

What I love about this book is that most of the activities can spark other ideas, can be tweaked and adapted to suit a wide variety of ages and will definitely make learning fun. It's difficult to get students to be mentally present in the classroom and this book is just what a teacher needs to engage students, make them feel welcome and allow them to mingle and interact in a fun environment.
887785
I am a school based speech language pathologist and I used these with my students to generate stories.  I was surprised at how much they enjoyed them.  Even my more difficult students found these cubes to be engaging and fun.  I passed them on to another teacher for a particularly difficult student he said it worked out very well as an incentive.  I found these to be most appropriate for third graders and up for oral or written expression tasks.  I own three different sets of these now and they are one of my go-to activities.  I think it's important to remember that this is a game of imagination so bending the rules (using less dice) or modifying pictures (some students perceived certain pictures in a different way than I did and if they gave a good argument, I would let them use their own interpretations) are appropriate.
1256290
These are really fantastic!  I purchased them along with a magnetic, table-top white board for class.  The kids love these.  They are sturdy and you get a really large number of letters (so you don't run out of letters during class and have to remove some from other examples already on the board).  The colors are really nice as well.  Also, the company that makes these is a small business that really seems to care about kid's education as well as customer service.  They contacted me via email to thank me for my purchase and let me know that it had shipped.  Then, they sent a follow-up email to verify that I had received the package and that I was satisfied with my purchase. I nearly passed out.  You don't get that from most sellers.  As if that weren't enough, the front of the bag these letters come in refers you to their online site, which is filled with ideas for using the letters in class along with tons of other helpful teaching information.  I am totally pleased and would probably jump at the chance to try any other products they had.  I definitely recommend this product.