Fun, Fitness, and Skills: The Powerful Original Games Approach
Paperback: 175 pages
Publisher: Human Kinetics Publishers; 1 edition (September 27, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0736068295
ISBN-13: 978-0736068291

Reviewer: Terry A. Silver, Ed.D

Howie Weiss, Master Teacher Award winner for New York State and past physical educator, has provided an outstanding collection of original games in his latest book, Fun, Fitness, and Skills: The Powerful Original Games Approach. I was absolutely delighted to read and share this book with some of my "future teachers" in physical education.

'Fun, Fitness, and Skills' is an excellent resource for beginning and veteran teachers alike. Weiss's unique style of organizing his book lends itself to easy and quick access to many types of games for various ages and skill emphasis. The book has 174 pages divided into chapters covering warm-ups, fitness games, tag games, fitness games with a skill emphasis, games for students ages four to seven, and how to create an original game. Each chapter follows a similar format and is easy to read, which helps readers efficiently gather quick and energetic games for children.

Weiss begins his book with an introduction on how to teach a powerful game. In this section he includes actual field-tested ideas and activities that facilitate maximum success in teaching games. With the success of his field-tested ideas on activities, Weiss meets the main purpose of his book, and also shares a multitude of activities to get kids up and moving.

Each subsequent chapter focuses on a particular game emphasis, such as warm-ups, fitness, tagging, and games for younger students. The games are presented in a lesson-plan format including topics, objectives, equipment, safety considerations, the game itself, and variations.

This is one book you'll want to include in your library. Not only does it include innovative games and activities, but many of the games are also integrative and use academic concepts in game settings. Weiss incorporates holiday themes, and includes updated versions of games such as Duck, Duck, Goose (turned into Moving Duck, Duck, Goose) which facilitate more movement by children.

This book was shared with a methods course for future teachers in a physical education setting. The students were very excited about using the book in their classes. I particularly liked the way all 93 games can be adapted to any grade level, and most importantly any ability level. I give this book a rating of five stars and think it would make a most welcomed addition to your library!