a school of fish.......

Turtle and Doodlebug both had a week off from homework last week. The teachers decided to let them off for the first week of term. It was a relief..... for me..... my boys do not enjoy it and I do not enjoy making them do it. All in all I think homework causes some stress around here.

However.... some things can be made more fun... like maths, spelling and reading. Meet our school of fish:

This is just a variation on the ever popular fishing game. Fishing rods made out of dowels, string for a line, magnet for "bait". I laminated the fish because they spend a lot of time on the floor, and I thought they might last a little longer that way. With the paperclips on them, the fish are easily caught.

We have maths fish and word fish. The maths fish have basic addition and subtraction for LP and multiplication for the boys. I will be adding some division fish soon, too.

The word fish I laminated plain, and I have stuck the words on with BluTack. This way we can accommodate spelling and sight word lists as they change. the Times Table doesn't really change... :)

The rules are simple. In order to keep the fish(count it as your catch...), you have to give the correct answer to the equation. The boys - ever competitive - want to see who can get the most fish. LP just likes to play and count....

The word fish are the most versatile. LP and I vary the games that we play with our wordfish:

• Reading the word on the fish that you catch.
• Spelling the word,
• Using the word in a sentence,
• Finding words that rhyme with your word or
• Finding an opposite to your word.

The fish can also be used for learning basic grammar. When all the fish have been caught, they are sorted into 3 piles: Verbs, adjectives and nouns.

(we have to put the rod down in order to have full use of all counting fingers.....)