Books in Painless Junior Series series

This very approachable text combines instruction in parts of speech and sentence structure with down-to-earth examples, funny illustrations, and examination of some of the more amusing and peculiar words in the English language. A chapter on clear e-mail communication and etiquette is brand new in this edition, as are many of the author's challenging "Brain Ticklers." Her helpful chapter on how to edit a school paper has also been heavily revised and updated. Barron's popular Painless Series of study guides for middle school and high school students offer a lighthearted, often humorous approach to their subjects, transforming details that might once have seemed boring or difficult into a series of interesting and mentally challenging ideas. Most titles in the series feature many fun-to-solve "Brain Tickler" problems with answers at the end of each chapter.

The author demonstrates how solving geometric problems amounts to fitting parts together to solve interesting puzzles. Students discover relationships that exist between parallel and perpendicular lines; analyze the characteristics of distinct shapes such as circles, quadrilaterals, and triangles; and learn how geometric principles can solve real-world problems. Titles in Barron's Painless Series are written especially for middle school and high school students who are having a difficult time with a specific subject. In many cases, a student is confused by the subject's complexity and details. Still other students simply finds a subject uninteresting, an attitude that usually results in lower grades. Painless titles offer informal, student-friendly approaches to each subject, emphasizing interesting details, supplementing the text with amusing insights, and outlining potential pitfalls clearly and step by step. Students begin to understand how disparate details all fit together to form a clear picture. Timelines, ideas for interesting projects, and "Brain Tickler" quizzes in many of these titles help to take the pain out of study and improve each student's grades.

Young students learn to comprehend the many uses of numbers as they engage in number games and fun-to-solve puzzles. Starting with counting, they advance to arithmetic, fractions, decimals, and the different ways of measuring. Teachers in grades 3 and 4 will appreciate the new Painless Junior Series of classroom helpers. Designed to resemble titles in Barron’s Painless Series— which are used in middle school and high school classrooms—the Painless Junior books feature larger page sizes, amusing illustrations, games, puzzles, and an approach to their subjects that reflects third- and fourth-grade curricula. Their purpose is to inject an element of enjoyment into subjects that many younger students find either boring or mystifying. Kids’ understanding will improve as they have fun learning.

Teachers and students in third and fourth grades will value this instructive and entertaining journey to Grammar World, where kids have fun while they develop their facility in correct English usage. Grammar World is a make-believe amusement park where boys and girls are introduced in chapter one to the animals who teach them about different kinds of sentences: statements and questions, commands and exclamations, subjects and predicates, combining sentences, and how to avoid fragments and run-on sentences. Chapter two takes kids to Grammar World's rides, where they learn about nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and several other parts of speech. Chapter three takes them to the Water Park, where they learn how to use verbs. Chapter four is a dolphin show, and explanation of prepositions, prepositional phrases, conjunctions, and interjections. The fifth and final chapter is a fireworks display, in which kids learn punctuation, capitalization, abbreviations, and other details that will help them write clearly and correctly.

Kids travel with Sammy Octopus on a reading and writing adventure. They are encouraged to try different methods of writing and see which way works best for them. They also learn the value of revising and editing, engage in activities that help them make good word choices, and get practice in descriptive writing, letter writing, report writing, poetry, and much more. Teachers in grades 3 and 4 will appreciate the new Painless Junior Series of classroom helpers. Designed to resemble titles in Barron’s Painless Series— which are used in middle school and high school classrooms—the Painless Junior books feature larger page sizes, amusing illustrations, games, puzzles, and an approach to their subjects that reflects third- and fourth-grade curricula. Their purpose is to inject an element of enjoyment into subjects that many younger students find either boring or mystifying. Kids’ understanding will improve as they have fun learning.

This book was written for kids who find science courses--and especially, science projects--daunting. Author Faith Hickman Brynie promises that she will show them "how to carry out a project that's as much fun as a day at the beach." Her opening chapter tells how to ask good science questions and shape them into promising plans for a project. Chapter 2 offers guidance in transforming an idea into a logical design that's safe, practical, and affordable. Succeeding chapters instruct on collecting and organizing data, writing a report or giving an oral presentation, building a display, and improving a project as it evolves. She also provides helpful checklists on topics ranging from safety to seeking expert help. Kids learn to enjoy doing original science projects, rather than merely repeating experiments taken from books. Middle school and high school students who think they hate science will change their minds in a hurry when they use this book.

Elementary school students who find science mystifying, daunting, and hard to understand will change their minds when they open this book. The authors have transformed fundamental scientific principles into an exciting adventure where they discover how plant and animal life interact within the Earth’s ecosystem, how energy is converted into heat and motion, how matter exists in solid, liquid, and gaseous states, how light is reflected and refracted, how magnetism and electricity are related, how the Earth revolves around the Sun, how the Moon revolves around the Earth, how different kinds of rock were formed, and how the Earth’s surface has been formed and shaped over a period of many billions of years. The student-friendly text is complemented with instructive line art.

Titles in Barron's extensive Painless Series cover a wide range of subjects as they are taught on middle school and high school levels. These books are written for students who find the subjects unusually difficult and confusing--or in many cases, just plain boring. Barron's Painless Series authors' main goal is to clear up students' confusion and perk up their interest by emphasizing the intriguing and often exciting ways in which they can put each subject to practical use. Most of these books take a light-hearted approach to their subjects, often employing humor, and always presenting fun-learning exercises that include puzzles, games, and challenging "Brain Tickler" problems to solve. This title combines instruction in sentence structure with examination of amusing expressions, and gives tips on e-mail communication, editing a school paper, and more. ATTENTION STUDENTS: You get a special FREE bonus when you purchase your copy of Barron's

Here's a very approachable textbook for both children and adults who speak English as their second language. It acquaints students with correct English sentence construction, parts of speech, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling, and offers extra tips on how to expand one's English-language vocabulary. After laying out these fundamentals, the authors proceed with solid instruction on writing a paragraph in English, and then with instruction on writing a multi-paragraph story. Advice includes choosing a topic to write about, sketching out a rough draft, and finally revising and editing the finished piece. Students once daunted by what they perceived as the intricacies of English will be attracted by the authors' student-friendly approach to proficiency.

Updated with many new references, this entertaining book advises students on ways to enliven their essay assignments with vivid images, avoid the dull passive voice, and construct smooth, well-crafted sentences that flow together to create unified themes. Short quizzes called "Brain Ticklers" appear throughout the text. Titles in Barron's Painless Series are written especially for middle school and high school students who are having a difficult time with a specific subject. In many cases, a student is confused by the subject's complexity and details. Still other students simply finds a subject uninteresting, an attitude that usually results in lower grades. Painless titles offer informal, student-friendly approaches to each subject, emphasizing interesting details, supplementing the text with amusing insights, and outlining potential pitfalls clearly and step by step. Students begin to understand how disparate details all fit together to form a clear picture. Timelin

Titles in Barron's Painless Series are textbook supplements designed especially for classroom use by middle-school and high school students. The approach of each title is an appeal to students who think that the subject is boring, or too difficult, or both. The authors, all experienced educators, take a light approach, showing kids what is most interesting about each subject, and how seemingly difficult problems can be transformed into fun quizzes, brain-ticklers, and challenging puzzles with rational solutions. Here is practical advice that transforms essay writing into a satisfying experience for middle school and senior high school students. The author offers tips on enlivening writing with vivid images, smoothing out sentences, silencing the dull passive voice, and adding rhythm to writing. He also shows how to create a template that students can use when writing research papers for all subjects. In addition, students will find web site reference s cited throughout the text, which they can access. Brain ticklers (short quizzes) appear throughout the book with an answer key at the back.

Speaking correctly in English is tougher than it is in most other languages--mainly because so many spelling rules have exceptions. Even so, mastering correct spelling is a fundamental part of education--and here's a book that makes correct spelling painless. Although designed mainly for middle-school students, Painless Spelling can benefit just about anybody who needs to improve spelling skills. Twenty-six easy-to-read chapters begin with a history of English, then go on to analyze sound patterns, diphthongs, homophones, plural endings, compound words, prefixes and suffixes added to base words, and much more. Grasp these ideas about words, and chances are that you'll understand how to spell the words as well. Students are shown how to recognize differences among word endings, for instance, between ion/ian , able/ible or ance/ence. When they reach the final chapter, their spelling skills will be improved many times over--and they'll discover that they had fun getting there!