F is for Fun, Fishing games and Felt Flowers

This year my A to Z Challenge has a double theme.  The first focuses on the resources and teaching that may help children with special educational needs learn more effectively and the second is to do with my crafting likes and ideas.

Firstly - just  wanted to say I have been taking a small detour through the cat name related blogs F is for Feline (right?) on the A to Z Challenge - so pleased to say that many are taking part in this year's challenge and I have read some wonderful blogs over the past 24 hours :)

Fun - is a very important aspect of getting children to learn.  If something is fun they will spend more time doing it, they won't mind returning to it and doing it again, they can remember it and they will often take it home with them to try there too :)  Getting children active in the classroom so they can move around, being allowed to do activities with their friends or in mixed groups, using plenty of the arts in all areas of the curriculum rather than just writing to show what they have learnt - these are all ways of bringing more fun into learning.Children who find learning difficult need plenty of fun to make them want to continue (who wants to do the same boring old tasks each day and still not seem to get any better?) and try.  That is also why I want to say a big thank you to all the support assistants I have worked with who encourage with a smile, give plenty of thumbs up and "way to go"s and try each day to make learning fun for the children they work with.

What did you find fun at school?  What do your children bring home from school that they want to do again?

Fishing games - it always amazes me that simply by tying a magnet to a piece of string on a rod and putting paper clips on pieces of cards can transform any old learning activity into a game children want to play time and time again!!  I have made a habit of buying up second hand fishing games (I got one of this type for £1.50 !!)

whenever I see them in charity shops or car boots for their rods and wooden or card "ponds" as this saves on making them but obviously the cards can be made for whatever you want the children to be learning and practising.  In the past I have made fishing games for phonic words and High Frequency words, rhyming words, what added to this number makes 10? tens number recognition, doubling numbers and a whole lot more.  Sometimes the cards are fish shapes or I stick post-its to the original fish but on the whole the children don't really seem to mind if their not - they just like the idea of "fishing" and this applies to girls as much as boys :)

Felt Flowers - is something I got into when I started making hat pins and brooches for craft stalls at school.  They are relatively simple and quick to make - particularly if you go for the more stylized ones rather than perfect copies and they do not use much felt :)  You can now buy books that will teach you how to make more realistic flowers such as this amazing one by Gillian Harris.  I would like to have a go at making one of these sometime! 

This is one of the ones I made without any pattern or book that I liked and kept :)

My freebie F is a worksheet for one more and one less that I created especially with a summer Flip-Flop theme - have FUN!!

If you do download from my TpT store I would love you to leave feedback on the site - many thanks :)