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Until the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test® was adopted by the New York School District we hadn’t often been asked for suggestions for children this young.  If you are in New York with a child with a 2008 birthday being tested for kindergarten placement they will be taking part of the OLSAT® Level A in January 2013.  They will be given only the verbal component of the OLSAT®.  The non-verbal portion of the OLSAT®, which has been used in previous years, will be replaced in 2013 by the NNAT2®.   If you're a New York City parent we have a section on our website just for you here.
 
They will be tested individually with a proctor.  The children are not expected to bubble in their answers.  They will simply have to indicate their answer choice to the proctor who will record it.  There is no reading.  The test proctor reads the instructions, questions and answers once only.  Listening is very important.
 
Thinking Skills for Tests   bambinoLUK Complete Set    Building Thinking Skills Primary   Can You Find Me K-1  Mathematical Reasoning, Level A

Making recommendations for Pre K children isn't clear cut.  Your Pre K child may be a three year old with no formal learning exposure or a four year old in a formal Pre K program studying a K curriculum or somewhere in between.   While your child will take the same test as all the other children born in 2008 their performance will be compared with that of children in a three month band.  A child born in December 2008 will have the opportunity to answer questions of the same difficulty as those presented to a child born in January 2008 but won't have to get as many correct to get the percentile ranking required to be identified as gifted.  To restate while every child born in 2008 takes the same test and has the potential to benefit from the most difficult of the titles we suggest here your young child may find them too hard.  Start at your child's level and don't push them past the point where it's fun and they're learning.  If your child is only three you may be better off beginning with the titles recommended for three year olds and coming back here once you've finished those.
 
Scroll down to see all our suggestions.  Click on "more info" at the end of each brief product description and viw the sample activities.  If they look really easy get the next level in the series.  If they look difficult considering starting with a simpler level. We've assumed in making these recommendations that you have a bright child.  The grade level designations in the titles of the products are based on typical children.  With a bright child you can go higher than this and the higher level of understanding will be needed to answer the most difficult questions on the OLSAT®  test.
 
For the OLSAT® you want to expose your children to verbal, aural, arithmetic, pictorial and figural reasoning activities.  The Building Thinking Skills series is a great place to start for verbal and figural reasoning.  Add to that Can You Find Me? for pictorial and aural reasoning and Mathematical Reasoning for arithmetic reasoning and you're well placed.  The LUK Learning System adds another dimension introducing independent learning and concentration building activities.
 
If you have some time the K-1 book bundle offers a selection of the titles recommended and others utilizing the skills in different contexts (only titles published by The Critical Thinking Company are included in this bundle).  Most bright 4 year olds will be ready for much of the material in the  in the Gr K-1  Book Bundle.  If you've got some time this is a good choice.
 
The Building Thinking Skills series is a great place to start.  Read the product descriptions and table of contents and try out the sample activities with your children to see if your child is ready for Building Thinking Skills Primary.  Building Thinking Skills Primary is designed to be used with manipulative blocks which are sold separately.  Without blocks you won't be able to do about 1/4 of the exercises.  You could trace the attribute block shapes out of cardboard instead of purchasing the plastic blocks I sell.  You could do the same for the interlocking cubes but I strongly recommend that you purchase these.  The interlocking cubes easily lead themselves to extension activities in developing more complex sequences (in addition to color each block has a geometric shape cut out which can add another dimension to sequencing) and understanding orientation and constancy of area and volume.   Young children learn through play so even though actual blocks won't be used in testing playing with them is an important way for many children to learn some of the skills needed.
 
Your gifted child may even be ready for Level 1 of Building Thinking Skills (for the typical child in Gr 2-3).  As with the Primary level don't expect written answers at this stage.  Scribe for them, allow them to just tell you the answer or choose the software.  Finally if your child needs more practice with figural reasoning Hands on Thinking Skills contains additional activities in this area.
 
Can You Find Me? is a great choice to use for listening and reasoning.  For testing it will be important that your child stays focused and listens to the instructions, questions and answer options.  
 
If you want just one book I can't offer anything that covers the entire skill set tested for in the OLSAT® but recommend that you choose between Building Thinking Skills Primary and Can You Find Me? K-1  The best one for your will depend on your child and what they do and don't know already.
 
While there is no math per se in the OLSAT® questions on arithmetic reasoning are included at this level.  As an illustration a question might ask the child to identify the picture of flower with two more flowers than the first picture.  The Mathematical Reasoning series has more math that you'll need but it develops this type of reasoning skill.  Your child may need to start with Mathematical Reasoning Beginning 2 or may be ready for Level A in this series.  Again I recommend looking at the sample pages and trying the activites with your child.
 
Math Analogies is another good choice for both arithmetic reasoning and verbal and figural reasoning.  It uses pictures and numbers to present analogies and the user has to complete analogy pairs.
 
The final title in the list of suggestions below is the Spectrum Test Prep book for Gr 1-2.  This series was designed to prepare children for conventional standardized tests of reading and math.   Despite the difference in focus from the OLSAT® there are a number of questions in this book that are similar in content and format to those on the OLSAT®.  In addition practice listening and shading bubbles is very important for some children.  There will be problems in this book that will be difficult even for a bright Pre K child but I'm not aware of anything like this designed for younger children.
 
If you are in New York your child will be taking the Naglieri Non-Verbal Ability Test (NNAT2®) in addition to the OLSAT®.  We have a special section with suggestions for your situation.
 
 
NNAT®. NNAT2®, Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test®, OLSAT® and Otis-Lennon School Ability Test® are registered trademarks of NCS Pearson.  The suggestions made here are those of Think Tonight and are not endorsed by NCS Pearson.
 
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Teach Your Kids to Think Teach Your Kids to Think

For parents of children of all ages
Pages: 108
Author: Maria Fisk

Suggestions and tools to help parents teach their children how to think wisely and well during the time they already spend together.

Our Price: $14.95
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Can You Find Me  PreK Can You Find Me PreK

Grade(s): PreK
Pages: 101

Can You Find Me? develops skills in reading readiness, science, math, and social studies using five basic thinking skills: similarities and differences, sequences, classifications, analogies, and logic. Each riddle requires identification of two or more clues to deduce the answer. Activities may be enhanced by teaching additional information about the animals, objects, shapes, letters, and numbers used in the riddles.

Our Price: $16.99
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Building Thinking Skills Beginning Building Thinking Skills Beginning

Grade(s): Pre K
Pages: 224

Building Thinking Skills® Beginning provides highly effective verbal and nonverbal reasoning activities to improve child?s vocabulary, reading, writing, math, logic, and figural-spatial skills, as well as their visual and auditory processing. This book is designed to be used as a hands on program utilizing attribute blocks sold separately.

Our Price: $26.99
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Mathematical Reasoning, Beginning 2 Mathematical Reasoning Beginning 2

Grade(s): PreK (age 4)
Pages: 288

Age appropriate problem solving and computation build the math reasoning skills necessary for success in higher level math and math assessments. All the math you need for a typical 4 year old presented in full color with illustrations designed to appeal to young children.

Our Price: $35.99
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Thinking Skills for Tests Thinking Skills for Tests Set

Grade(s): Pre K-2
Pages: 120 (two books with 60 pages each)

Nine core thinking skills form the base of verbal and non-verbal reasoning and logic and are commonly tested in primary level testing for school and gifted program placement. This title presents questions in a format similar to that of many commonly used tests. The Workbook presents the questions without words just as a student will see them during a test. The Instructor/Answer book provides a script for presenting the questions and additional information for building on the skills.

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bambinoLUK Combo Set bambinoLUK Combo Set with Controller

Age: 3-5 years
Activities: 1980

bambinoLUK is a play and learn system to reinforce early childhood developmental skills such as visual perception, memory and concentration, critical thinking, beginning math, fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, self-esteem, and everyday knowledge. We will beat any competitor price on this item by 5%.

List Price: $126.00
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bambinoLUK Complete Set bambinoLUK Complete Set with Starter Pack

Age: 3-5 years
Activities: 1980

bambinoLUK is a play and learn system to reinforce early childhood developmental skills such as visual perception, memory and concentration, critical thinking, beginning math, fine motor skills, eye-hand coordination, self-esteem, and everyday knowledge. We will beat any competitor price on this item by 5%.

List Price: $132.00
Our Price: $124.99
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Grade K-1 Book Bundle Gr K-1 Book Bundle (Critical Thinking Company)

The Critical Thinking Company publishes award winning products to help students of all abilities improve their critical thinking abilities and achieve higher test scores. This collection contains their most popular Kindergarten - Grade 1 titles and is offered at a 10% discount.

Publisher Price $235.90
Our Price: $212.31
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Building Thinking Skills Primary Building Thinking Skills Primary

Grade(s): K-1
Activities: 435
Pages: 272

Building Thinking Skills®
provides highly effective verbal and nonverbal reasoning activities to improve children's vocabulary, reading, writing, math, logic, and figural-spatial skills, as well as their visual and auditory processing. This exceptional series provides a solid foundation for academic excellence and success on any assessment test.

Requires manipulative blocks sold separately. Purchase of the accompanying Instruction and Answer Guide highly recommended.

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Building Thinking Skills Primary Building Thinking Skills Primary Complete Set

Grade(s): K-1
Pages: 272

Building Thinking Skills® provides highly effective verbal and nonverbal reasoning activities to improve children's vocabulary, reading, writing, math, logic, and figural-spatial skills, as well as their visual and auditory processing. This exceptional series provides a solid foundation for academic excellence and success on any assessment test.

This set contains the student workbook, Teacher's Manual pdf file on cd and two types of manipulative blocks used to complete workbook problems.

List Price: $90.96
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Can You Find Me K-1 Can You Find Me K-1

Grade(s): K-1
Activities: 80
Pages: 101

Can You Find Me? develops skills in reading readiness, science, math, and social studies using five basic thinking skills: similarities and differences, sequences, classifications, analogies, and logic. Each riddle requires identification of two or more clues to deduce the answer. Activities may be enhanced by teaching additional information about the animals, objects, shapes, letters, and numbers used in the riddles.

Our Price: $16.99
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Mathematical Reasoning, Level A Mathematical Reasoning Level A

Grade(s): K
Pages: 256

Age appropriate problem solving and computation build the math reasoning skills necessary for success in higher level math and math assessments. Complete math curriculum for the typical Kindergarten child. Bright children can use this title at a younger age.

Our Price: $37.99
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Math Analogies Beginning Math Analogies Beginning

Grade(s): K-1
Activities: 48
Pages: 42

Understanding analogies and the ability to reason analogically are important problem-solving skills. There are few resources to assist children in the explict use of analogous reasoning with quantitative and spatial information. This series fills that void.

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Thinking Skills & Key Concepts Thinking Skills & Core Concepts (Kindergarten)

Grade(s): K
Pages: 272

This book uses powerful lessons to develop thinking skills important to academic success while teaching the key kindergarten common core concepts. Enhance cognitive development through discussion and observation. Students develop analytical skills as well as deductive and inferential reasoning skills as they work through the exercises.

Our Price: $21.99
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Thinking Skills & Key Concepts Thinking Skills & Core Concepts: Teacher's Manual (Kindergarten)

Grade(s): K
Pages: 173

Teacher's Manual to accompany student book. Does not contain questions. The student book can be used with a free, downloadable, answer PDF (included with purchase of the student book) or with this detailed teacher’s manual which can be purchased separately.

Our Price: $22.99
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Thinking Skills & Key Concepts Thinking Skills & Key Concepts (Kindergarten)

Grade(s): K
Pages: 272

This book uses powerful lessons to develop thinking skills important to academic success while teaching the key kindergarten common core concepts. Enhance cognitive development through discussion and observation. Students develop analytical skills as well as deductive and inferential reasoning skills as they work through the exercises.

Our Price: $21.99
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Thinking Skills & Key Concepts Thinking Skills & Key Concepts: Teacher's Manual (Kindergarten)

Grade(s): K
Pages: 173

Teacher's Manual to accompany student book. Does not contain questions. The student book can be used with a free, downloadable, answer PDF (included with purchase of the student book) or with this detailed teacher’s manual which can be purchased separately.

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Thinking Skills & Key Concepts Thinking Skills & Key Concepts (First Grade)

Grade: 1
Pages: 272

This book uses powerful lessons to develop thinking skills important to academic success while teaching the key kindergarten common core concepts. Enhance cognitive development through discussion and observation. Students develop analytical skills as well as deductive and inferential reasoning skills as they work through the exercises.

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Thinking Skills & Key Concepts Thinking Skills & Key Concepts: Teacher's Manual (First Grade)

Grade: 1
Pages: 209
Format: paperback, reproducible

Parent/Teacher Resource Manual to accompany student book. Does not contain questions. The Parent/Teacher resource contains teaching notes. It is highly recommended for new parents learn how to work with their child to develop higher order thinking skills.

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Building Thinking Skills Level 1 Building Thinking Skills Level 1

Grade(s): 2-3
Pages: 370

Building Thinking Skills®
teaches non-verbal and verbal reasoning. These skills are rarely explictly taught in the classroom but are essential for academic excellence and success on any assessment test. In print for over 30 years this is a world-wide top seller. Also available in software - a game like presentation of the same exercises.

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Thinking Skills & Key Concepts Thinking Skills & Key Concepts (Second Grade)

Grade: 2
Pages: 160, color

This book uses powerful lessons to develop thinking skills important to academic success while teaching the key kindergarten common core concepts. Enhance cognitive development through discussion and observation. Students develop analytical skills as well as deductive and inferential reasoning skills as they work through the exercises.

Our Price: $21.99
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Thinking Skills & Key Concepts Thinking Skills & Key Concepts: Teacher's Manual (Second Grade)

Grade: 2
Pages: 192
Format: paperback, reproducible

Parent/Teacher Resource Manual to accompany student book. Does not contain questions. The Parent/Teacher resource contains teaching notes. It is highly recommended for new parents learn how to work with their child to develop higher order thinking skills.

Our Price: $22.99
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