Customer Reviews

Hand Clap!

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I am an elementary physical education teacher and I have thoroughly enjoyed using many of the hand clapping games in my classes. The students love the hand motions along with reciting the rhymes. This is great practice for coordination and rhythm. I would recommend this book for any educator looking for fun and exciting ways to engage students in hands on learnning.

Written by twelve year old Sarah Bernstein, this fun book has all your favorite childhood "Hand Clap" games in it, from "Miss Mary Mack" to "Say, Say Oh Playmate". Bernstein researched and collected Hand Clap games from all over the country to gather over 40 "Hand Clap" games, including many I've never heard of, but all that I remember. Interestingly, the "Miss Lucy had a Steamboat" Hand Clap listed in the book, is not the scatological version I'd learned as a child, but rather a "clean" version you'd be happier to share with your children.

The book is laid out in a clever manner with the lyrics, the musical notes, as well as visual cues as to the hand movements. The last part of the book has a section for writing your own "Hand Clap" games with your children or friends. This book is sure to be a hit for your kids and their friends!

I found this book hard to follow. The author put a lot of effort into trying to make this an easy book. There are 79 hand pictures of the basic hand claps with the movements described in words, but I just can't get it. Music notes are included for each rhyme. I wish the author would have included rhythym as well. I have yet to use it with my students.

I ordered this book over the holidays for a friend with three little ones thinking it would be a fun activity for them. When I received it I looked through it and thought my goodness how can anyone figure out how these are suppose to sound. I found it would take a few hours to figure it out and so knowing my friend is a busy Mom as it is would not appreciate receiving something of this nature. The print is very small and I think it would be better in a spiral binding, larger print and a CD along with it to give an example of how the clap is suppose to sound. I have a masters in music and if I found this confusing, good luck for everyone else.

The drawings are too small to see what you need to do. I know these hand claps and the songs and I don't think a school-age child could figure this out very easily.

i bought this for my daughter for chrismtas, and she still hasn't used it - she's tried looking through it several times, but it's hard to follow and the rhymes aren't that fun (kind of strange, actually.)

This book is filled with fun verses that are new to me and some that I played when I was a kid. Now I can play them with my kids. Very fun!

This book has a lot of great rhymes and claps to clapping games, and it was written by a hippie looking adolescent. There is a pretty good explanation of the claps at the beginning of the book, which is good because many of the pictures would be impossible to figure out without it.
The book is near useless though, since it includes no melodies. So one need either already know the melodies, in which case you wouldn't need the book, make up melodies, in which case you might as well make up your own rhymes and claps, or speak the rhymes like a robot, and that is no fun at all. I found this extremely disappointing, but this may be a plus for people who can't read music.