29 August 14 (Friday)

Dear children,

Today, we worked on a new composition on the topic of a lost kitten. While you wrote your compositions, some of you had your individual oral practice with me. 

So far, I am pleased with how well many of you are able to read. However, some of you were having difficulty with the new Stimulus-based Conversation (SBC). Over this weekend, please refer to my blog post on 21st August regarding how you will be assessed for SBC. Refer to the AskNLearn package "P2 Oral Examination Practice" that I posted last week too, so that you know how you can use the DEEP approach to help you do well for that. It would be really good if you could practise at home with your parents or siblings. If not, practising by yourself in front of a mirror would help too. To score well for oral, there is no better way than practising, so practise, practise, and practise!

During art lesson, we discussed about textures. You used your plasticine and simple tools such as pencils, rulers, keys, plastic knives and coins to create different textures. Next Tuesday, you will have 20 minutes to continue with your work. Bring your materials along again so that you can create and submit a beautiful masterpiece. 

Here is the final ice-cream sticks update for this month:

The members of Hobbit have worked hard at keeping up their performance. I hereby announce that Hobbit is the Group of the Month for August! Congratulations, Hobbit! :)

Have a good weekend with your family. Remember to spend some time practising your conversational skills. See you on Monday! :) 

28 August 14 (Thursday)

Dear children,

We began today with Amelie sharing with us some interesting facts about sea stars, just like Risa did yesterday. If you would like to add on to David's sharing about hybrid animals yesterday, let me know. Write a comment below to let Amelie, Risa or David know what you have learnt from their sharing. 

We spent time going through a punctuation exercise, an editing exercise, a phonics exercise on the consonant endings "-th", "-ck", "-st", and "-sh", and two comprehension exercises. By now, you should be very familiar with using the TAPS method to check your comprehension answers after our revision and thorough practice today. Do you remember what "TAPS" stands for? You have to! :)

For math, we discussed the different ways that we can combine 10-cent coins, 20-cent coins and 50-cent coins to make up $1.50. Dawn was the one who got the correct answer for my question from two days ago. She said that there are 18 ways we can combine those coins to make up $1.50. If you used systematic listing, you would have arrived at the same answer as her! :)

You also worked on an activity that required you to subtract different amounts of money from $10. We will continue with that tomorrow.

Here are today's reminders:

1) Your red Composition File is to be submitted tomorrow. If there are still corrections and re-corrections that are not marked, please complete them. Check your work before submitting.

2) Please bring plasticine and old newspapers for art lesson tomorrow.

See you tomorrow! :)

27 August 14 (Wednesday)

Dear children,

We had some practice today on using the connectors "so", "and", "but" and "because" to connect sentences. We also discussed the past tense forms of some irregular verbs like "cut", "buy", "bite" and "think". Do you still remember what is special about irregular verbs? How are they different from regular verbs? :)

For more practice on the irregular verbs we learnt today, go to this Quizlet link and play with the flashcards there: http://quizlet.com/46450352/flashcards

Move from one flashcard to the next by using the two arrows at the bottom of the screen. Click on a flashcard to flip it from its word's present tense to its past tense. You can try the 6 different modes available - Cards, Learn, Speller, Test, Scatter and Race - by selecting them from the top of the screen.

I realised that I did not post the list of Super Spellers for the previous spelling yesterday. Here it is:

Zhi Zong, Amelie and Zane from Toothless

David and Natalie from Phoenix

Isaac, Phoebe and Luke from Hobbit

Seth, Jonathan and Vanessa from Impossibles

Risa and Raeann from Candy

Ashley from Nameless

Christian from Genius

These children earned two ice-cream sticks each for their groups.

Tomorrow and Friday will be the last two days that you will be able to earn ice-cream sticks for your group for August. Are you interested to know the number of ice-cream sticks your group has earned so far? Here it is:

Hobbit has been secretly leading! Will Hobbit continue to be the leading group over the next two days? Let's see! :)

Here are today's reminders:

1) You would have received your English Language Test today. Show it to your parents so that they can rejoice together with you! Ask for a signature. If there are re-corrections to be completed, complete them. Bring back your test paper tomorrow for me to check.

2) Your red Composition File is to be submitted on Friday. If there are still corrections and re-corrections that are not marked, please complete them. Check your work before submitting. I hope I will not have to go after anyone for incomplete corrections or re-corrections.

3) If you did not submit your Time booklets to me today for checking, submit them tomorrow.

4) We will be having our art lesson on Friday. If you have not bought plasticine, please do so before Friday. You will need enough plasticine to make a tile of about 8 cm by 10 cm.

5) Mr Lee found a school skirt outside the hall after your P.E. lesson with him. If it belongs to you, please collect it from me tomorrow.

See you tomorrow! :)

26 August 14 (Tuesday)

Dear children,

You must have worked very hard for the English Language Test you got back this afternoon. I am pleased to announce 2/2's fantastic achievements:

22 out of 32 children

achieved Band 1 

(38.5 marks and above)

• 18 children scored at least 40 marks
• 30 children scored higher than they did for Term 2's English Language Test

These are the 10 children who made the biggest improvement:

Dylan: +12 marks

Wei Xiang: +12 marks

Shineta: +11 marks

Phoebe: +10 marks

Richelle: +8.5 marks

Dawn: +8.5 marks

Christian: +7.5 marks

Janine: +7 marks

Lea: +6 marks

Risa: +5.5 marks

You will be able to bring home your paper tomorrow after I have marked your corrections.

During your computer lesson with Mr Edwin, you illustrated your group's imaginary hybrid animal using Microsoft PowerPoint. Here are some of your illustrations:

Since some of you did not manage to complete your illustration, we will continue with this during next Tuesday's computer lesson. 

Here are today's reminders:

1) You would have received your Spelling Book today. Complete all your corrections and re-corrections. Update your contents page before showing your Spelling Book to your parents for a signature. Bring it back next Monday.

2) Complete your corrections and re-corrections for your Time Booklets A, B and C. Show them to your parents for a signature. Bring them back tomorrow for me to check. 

3) We did not manage to have our art lesson today because we spent all our time together going through the English Language Test. We will have it on Friday instead.

See you tomorrow! :)

25 August 14 (Monday)

Dear children,

We spent today learning more about using coins and notes to make up different amounts of money in different ways. How many different ways are there to combine 10-cent coins, 20-cent coins and 50-cent coins to make up $1.50? Remember to list systematically so that you do not miss out on a combination. Write a comment below to let me know your answer. I will have a little prize for the first person who posts the correct answer.

The highlight for today must have been the Money Master activity that you got to participate in. All of you were so excited about having your own laptops to learn with that the classroom was chaotic for a while. I am glad the situation got better after that. Try to be better behaved next time. If you know how to behave correctly, I promise you that we will have more lessons where you will each have a laptop to use for learning. :)

This is the link to Money Master:

http://www.mathsisfun.com/money/money-master.html

Your homework is to play the "Simple (no totals)" puzzle. Achieve a score of at least 60 points. When you have achieved that, show your parents so that they know that you are very good at combining coins and notes to make up different amounts of money. If you are interested, you can explore the other countries' currencies after that.

Here are today's reminders:

1) Bring the sketches of your imaginary creature tomorrow. You will need to refer to them during your computer lesson with Mr Edwin so that you can use Microsoft Powerpoint to illustrate your creature.

2)  Bring the following for art lesson tomorrow:

-Plasticine (Try your best to bring it. If you do not have it at home and really cannot get it in time, it is all right.)

-Old newspapers

Since we have been discussing "The Best Pet", I thought some of you might be interested in hybrid animals like these:

Zebroid

Liger

Beefalo

Cama

Leopon

Donkra

Grolar Bear

Wolphin

Cheetoh

Zorse

Would anyone be interested to share a little about hybrid animals with the class? Let me know.

Have a good evening with your family. See you tomorrow! :)

22 August 14 (Friday)

Dear children,

After our final spelling for this term, we spent our time together working on a class project. Like the Grade One children you read about in the book "The Best Pet", you worked in groups to imagine fictitious creatures that were each made up of two animals. Mrs Lane's class had the ratosaur, the dragodog, the giraffocat and the spiderfish. We have the gorillagator, the sharkophin, the eaglebear, the cheegle, the koalaguin, the monkfrog, the peacsnake and the piggysaurus! :)

Putting to use what you learnt about the six different types of adjectives, you worked with your group members using TitanPad to type out an information text about your group's creature. Then, we spent some time listening to the presentations of some groups, looking at the different kinds of adjectives each group used, and editing some of the information texts together. Here are the links to the work you have done so far:

Toothless: https://titanpad.com/32TUO1IxVd

Phoenix: https://titanpad.com/oYIwKeDETH

Hobbit: https://titanpad.com/Azlx5DUDsM

Impossibles: https://titanpad.com/fIC4n9tn2n

Candy: https://titanpad.com/KKtSg5DqBX

Dog: https://titanpad.com/GQncGS2bNy

Nameless: https://titanpad.com/jacVv4lwVl

Genius: https://titanpad.com/I45EdVjXCT

After hearing about the creative creatures you have imagined and reading your information texts, I am really looking forward to have you illustrate your creatures in Microsoft PowerPoint during your computer lesson with Mr Edwin next Tuesday. In the meantime, you can sketch your ideas on paper first. Bring your sketches on Tuesday so that you can refer to them.

Over this weekend, you can still continue to improve on your group's information text. Remember to make use of at least one adjective of each kind. If you cannot remember what are the six kinds of adjectives, you can view the PowerPoint slides that I used for my lesson again by clicking on this link:

DropBox:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4204pu2u5uhcck1/3PPresentation_SixKindsOfAdjectives.ppt?dl=0

When all of you have completed the information texts and illustrated your creatures, we will have them put together into a class electronic book (e-book) and share with other people. Look forward! :)

Here are the announcements for this weekend:

1) I will be putting up on AskNLearn a sample of the new oral test format before 6 p.m. on Saturday. This is to give you and your parents a better idea of what the new format is like. The Stimulus-based Conversation (SBC) is quite different from the Picture Description that you have for your Chinese test. It would be good if you could get some practice at home with your parents so that you get used to the new way of testing.

2) Let's remember to keep ourselves healthy. Drink more water, eat healthily, wash your hands often, and make sure you have enough sleep.

Have a good weekend with your family! See you on Monday! :)

21 August 14 (Thursday)

Dear children,

I hope you did your best for the Composition Test today. I'm glad most of you found that it was manageable. I'm looking forward to reading your stories next week. :)

We spent quite a bit of time discussing the new oral testing format which includes the Stimulus-based Conversation (SBC). You would have learnt about the following criteria that the tester will use to assess you:

1) How well-developed your personal response is

2) How clearly your ideas are expressed, and whether or not you are confident when doing so

3) The kinds of vocabulary and sentence structures you use

4) Your pronunciation

5) Whether or not you are able to interact well with him or her, and whether that is with or without encouragement

As a class, we used pictures of four pets and discussed the things we should say and not say, and how we should be saying them when facing the tester. Over the next few weeks, you will be having two rounds of practice with me before the actual Oral Exam in the first week of Term 4. 

We spent Math period reading the book "Telling Time With Big Mama Cat" and revising the telling of time by looking at the hour hand and minute hand on a clock face. I am glad that you enjoyed the story. I am also very pleased that many of you are telling time very well now. 

Since we were talking about starfish yesterday, Risa would like to share with you an interesting video about starfish. If you are interested, please click on this link to watch it: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu0CaF6wT0s

Here are today's reminders:

1) The last spelling for this term will be held tomorrow. Here's a great chance to earn some ice-cream sticks for your group! I hope there will be at least 20 Super Spellers this time round. Work hard!

2) Do drink more water and rest well. Many have fallen ill recently. Take good care of yourselves so that you can live life to the fullest.

See you tomorrow! :)

19 August 14 (Tuesday)

Dear children,

You would have received your Spelling Book today. The Super Spellers from yesterday's spelling are:

Phoebe and Luke from Hobbit
Christian from Genius

These children earned two ice-cream sticks each for their groups.

We spent art lesson today completing your animal pattern artwork. You would have seen for yourself how the crayon applied on your artwork resisted the paint you used later on.  This art technique is commonly called the wax resist technique. If you are interested in this technique, here is a video that teaches you how to use it to create a rainbow fish:

During computer lesson with Mr Edwin, you learnt to use the freeform tool in Microsoft PowerPoint to create your own picture. Do not worry if you have not completed your picture. Mr Edwin said that you will continue with your work next week. In the meantime, if you have some free time, you can practise using the tool at home.

You had three periods of P.E. with Mr Lee at the end of the day because he will not be in school tomorrow. There will be no P.E. lesson tomorrow, so we will spend the last two periods on Math instead.

These are today's reminders:

1) If you have corrections or re-corrections for your compositions that you would like me to mark, please submit them to me tomorrow.

2) Work on your corrections for spelling before showing your Spelling Book to your parents for a signature. Update your contents page and bring back the Spelling Book on Friday for your final spelling this term.

3) A few more good compositions written by your classmates have been uploaded. If you would like to read them, you may use either Dropbox or Google Drive by clicking on one of these links:

1) Dropbox

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gikzofab5hvgzch/AABBJ-NWerHkG2PnJkp51xTSa

2) Google Drive

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwQurZ8oADp7a1gwRjhWX1h4RkE&usp=sharing

See you tomorrow for another fruitful day of learning! :)

18 August 14 (Monday)

Dear children,

Here are the Super Spellers from the previous spelling:

Phoebe from Hobbit

Lea from Toothless

Ashley from Nameless

These children earned two ice-cream sticks each for their groups.

Wouldn't you agree with me that this list is very short? :(

I hope there will be more Super Spellers for today's spelling. We will know tomorrow after I have marked your spelling books. Keep in mind that there is spelling again this Friday. That will be your last spelling for this term.

We spent some time today discussing and reviewing some phrases from the add-ons which you might be able to use for your Composition Test this Thursday. By now, most of you would have no problems writing a normal story. I hope you are not looking at just writing a normal story though. Write an outstanding story. Remember that if you want your story to be outstanding, you must be able to describe in detail how your characters feel and what they see throughout your story. Paint pictures in your readers' minds. Many of you in this class have great potential to become excellent writers. To make yourself an excellent writer, put in hard work. Learn to describe. Learn to spell. Your effort will pay off. In time to come, you will write better than Mr Wong; you will write better than many adults. You will. Start now. :)

We also began working on your "The Best Pet" booklet. We discussed compound words and looked at how they are formed. Then, we talked about how adjectives in a sentence could be identified. You also worked on a vocabulary cloze, a grammar cloze on pronouns, and a punctuation exercise.

Then, we spent a little time filing our compositions. If you did not bring your red composition file today, please file your compositions on your own at home. This is the sequence you should follow when filing your writing packages from top to bottom:

1) Is The Wise Owl Wise?

2) A Butterfly Is Born

3) Chicken Food

4) Magnetic Max (including the add-on I gave)

5) The Chinese Opera Game (including the add-on I gave)

6) Food Fit For A King

7) Chicken Rice

8) Bubble Trouble

These are today's reminders:

1) If there are e-learning activities that you have not completed, please complete them before tomorrow.

2) If you have corrections or re-corrections for your compositions that you would like me to mark, please submit them to me tomorrow.

3) If you scored lower than 12.5 marks for the previous spelling, please remember to ask a member from your group for help to test you for re-spelling on Thursday during recess. Make sure you prepare for the re-spelling.

4) Please bring the following art materials tomorrow so that you can continue with your unfinished artwork from three weeks ago:

-Crayons

-Poster paint

-Paintbrushes

-2B Pencil and eraser

-Palette

-Cup (to contain water)

-Old newspapers (for laying on the table)

-Apron (to protect your uniform)

-Rag (for drying your brushes and cleaning up)

5) Prepare well for your Chinese Language Test tomorrow.

See you tomorrow! All the best for your Chinese Language Test! :)

15 August 14 (Friday)

Dear children,

As promised, to help you prepare for the upcoming Composition Test, I have uploaded some good compositions written by your classmates. Let's learn from one another. 

You may read them using either Dropbox or Google Drive by clicking on one of these links:

1) Dropbox

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gikzofab5hvgzch/AABBJ-NWerHkG2PnJkp51xTSa

2) Google Drive

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BwQurZ8oADp7a1gwRjhWX1h4RkE&usp=sharing

Have a good weekend with your family! :) See you on Monday!

13 August 14 (Wednesday)

Dear children,

I hope you did your best for the English Language Test today! I'm looking forward to hearing good news next week. Let's see if we will do better than the previous test this time round! :)

With the little time we had today, we read "The Best Pet" together. I hope you enjoyed the story.

Here are today's reminders:

1) Log on to the AskNLearn portal tomorrow morning and complete your e-learning tasks for English and Math. You will need your "Money Part A" booklet  and your "The Best Pet" booklet.

2) You would have received your red composition files today. We did not have time to file your compositions today, so we will do that together on Monday instead. In the meantime, complete all the corrections and re-corrections you have for the compositions you are holding on to. Punch holes in them and put them into the red file. Bring the file on Monday. I will tell you the filing order on Monday.

3) You will be having a Composition Test next Thursday. Always remember that tests are for you to show everyone and yourself how good you are and how much you have learnt, so put in your best! Spend the next few days looking through all the compositions you have with you. You should look closely at how I have marked each piece to make it better. Go through the add-ons I gave you too and pick 8 of your favourite phrases and sentences to memorise. If you use them appropriately in your story, it will surely be more interesting and descriptive.

4) I will be uploading a few good compositions written by your classmates on Friday night. Check the blog again on Friday.

5) There is spelling next Monday. Prepare well to earn ice-cream sticks for your group! :)

6) Mrs Ow has the following message regarding E-learning for those in her Chinese class:

Day 1 (14/8) - Revise P2 Chapter 16 through AskNLearn portal and complete Exercises 13-14 through www.ezhishi.net

Day 2 (15/8) - Revise P2 Chapter 17 through AskNLearn portal and complete Exercises 15-17 through www.ezhishi.net

Have a fruitful time of e-learning. See you on Monday! :)

12 August 14 (Tuesday)

Dear children,

We continued with the topic of Time today for mathematics lesson. Through some practice together, you are now better at reading and writing time. Go to this website and play with the clock to test yourself:

http://www.wmnet.org.uk/wmnet/custom/files_uploaded/uploaded_resources/503/clock.swf

We also learnt about the difference between "a.m." and "p.m." before discussing how long some activities would take us. Here is the video on "a.m." and "p.m." which you enjoyed watching:

Here is another interesting video which I did not have time to show you in class:

You also learnt to draw the hour and minute hands on a clock face to show time before starting to work independently on your green booklet. You should now be experts at drawing them! :)

Here are today's reminders:

1) You would have received your latest composition today. Complete your corrections and show the writing package to your parents for a signature. Bring it back for submission tomorrow.

2) I will be putting up a quiz on the AskNLearn portal later on to help you with your final preparation for tomorrow's English Language Test. Check back tomorrow morning for the quiz. You can treat it as a quick warm-up for your test at 1.15 p.m..

3) Spelling for this week will be postponed to next Monday so that you can focus on preparing for your English Language Test. Make good use of the extra time given to you to revise the four booklets, the spelling words and the practice test.

4) We will be filing your compositions for this term tomorrow. Bring all the writing packages that you have with you to class tomorrow.

5) You do not need to go to school on Thursday and Friday. There will be E-learning tasks assigned to you on the AskNLearn portal. You must complete all the tasks latest by Friday night.

See you tomorrow! :)

8 August 14 (Friday)

Dear children,

I am so proud of you! You put up an awesome performance for us today! Even though some of you were saying right before going on stage that you were very nervous, I could see that you were totally enjoying yourselves once you got on stage! Ms Ana and I really enjoyed ourselves watching your show. We were very glad to see your cooperation with one another and your determination to do your best. I must say, honestly, that your performance touched me.

I hope you remembered to thank Ms Ana and all your parents who came to help us out in make-up, dressing up and photography. Did you thank your classmates too? Without them, the show would not have been possible!

Here are some of the videos and photographs taken today. Enjoy! :)

For more photographs and a video of our rehearsal on 6 August, click on this link:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/o8fj4dvw9pwp631/AAAtZlutjH-cFmRAf6jWLwGva

These are today's reminders:

1) There is no school on Monday. You will return to school only on Tuesday.

2) Spend this long weekend preparing well for your English Language Test next Wednesday. Review your booklets and the recent practice test.

3) You will not have art lesson next Tuesday, so you do not need to bring your art materials. We will spend the time learning some math concepts before the E-learning on Thursday and Friday.

Have a fruitful and restful weekend with your family. See you on Tuesday! :)