HWK moderator & primary school teacher, Rachel, has somehow managed to find the time to write this amazing article for the community. Let’s go fishing!…

Tell us about it…

A fun way to practice so many things.

You can buy sets that do this but it’s really easy to make your own fishing rod or to reuse the shop bought one.

You will need: 

  • a piece of wood for a fishing rod – I used doweling you could use a blunt pencil, wooden spoon – anything sturdy, long and thin will work. 
  • a piece of string
  • a strong magnet – check reviews to see if they actually work! There’s nothing worse than a weak magnet spoiling your fun.
  • paper clips
  • paper/card

What did you do?

To make my fishing rod I attached the rod to the string and the string to the magnet. 

Here’s the creative bit – what are you going to fish for?

I chose colours because Z is calling everything that isn’t orange or pink ‘blue’. 

I printed fish from Twinkl resources site – they have free things in their home learning hub at the moment that are worth having a look at. I also laminated them so I can use them again and again but that’s the teacher in me and it isn’t necessary. 

Use card or paper to create your fish, or crabs or just plain old rectangles of paper. Be as creative as you can bear to be. The fishing for it part is more exciting than what it actually looks like.

Ideas for your fish:

  • numbers
  • letters
  • digraphs 
  • simple words to blend 
  • tricky words 
  • maths problems (1+2  6-3 or 10×7)
  • short sentences 
  • Clauses in the present tense that they can then tell you the past tense for (or progressive past even – I learnt about that this week!)

I could go on and on… whatever you are learning about go fishing for it!!

A little bit about yourself…

What’s next….? Some colour hunting. Especially for those colours he still can’t quite remember. 

(this next bit is the same as before because it took me long enough the first time!)

I’m Rachel. I’m a Primary School Teacher and have been working in F2 and Year 1 for the past 11 years.  I have a little boy who’s 22months so I’m enjoying thinking things up, finding activities and modifying things I’ve done at school in order to keep him entertained and occupied whilst trying to bits and pieces for school. It’s so lovely that he’s just about big enough to really get into things and explore it now – sometimes without my help!!!

It’s been hard work keeping Z busy and out of trouble whilst attempting to keep up with work demands and not letting the house become a right state. Hubby just started a new job in April so we’ve had to try to find balance. I went through a missed miscarriage at the beginning of March (my hormone levels haven’t gone down so I’m still not discharged from the hospital) so add in all of those emotions and it’s been rather up and down but right now I’m feeling positive!

My tips:  

  • Try to find a small slice of you time. Whether that’s to watch a TV show you want in peace, read a book or go for a walk on your own. I’ve had to work really hard to separate looking after Z, work stuff, house work and then remember on top of that to take time for myself. I’m not big on routine and so my Hubby Ben has really helped out.
  • Remember that little people don’t mind repetition – so that activity that took forever to set up and they played with for 5 seconds? leave it out, let them see you play with it, find a way to add to it and don’t loose heart.  They don’t need all singing all dancing activities all the time. It’s ok that their favourite activity is poking toys into the gap between the settee – think of the motor skills! 
  • Planning ahead is always going to give you less stress but it’s so useful to have things to hand that you can grab in those winging it moments (oh so many moments). A good little craft kit is a parents best friend and you’d be surprised at some of the things you could be adding to it. Hopefully some of the activities on here will inspire you to build your own little stash/box/tool box/cupboard full of stuff! 

Housebound With Kids has been a fab outlet for me during this time. As a moderator, I feel like I’m helping and that sense of being useful is much needed right now. 

It has inspired me to look in new places for ideas and it has given me an outlet to share all the wonderful activities we’ve enjoyed.  I think it’s probably helping me tune into what parents want and need from teachers to support them in helping their children at home. The big problem is that everyone has such different needs so it’s made me want to listen even harder and it’s certainly going to impact how I work.