'My Favourite Game' 2

Today, we had Yuen Qing for the session.

"I play badminton on Saturdays."

ODT

Dear parents,

In view of the swine flu outbreak, please ensure that your child bring an oral digital thermometer (ODT) to school EVERY DAY starting from tomorrow onwards. Children without an ODT are required to buy one from our school bookshop. The children need to take their temperature every morning as part of the school's standard operating procedure. Children with temperature 37.9 degree celsius or above will need to be monitored closely. If their temperature continues to stay as such, they will need to be sent home to visit a doctor.

Our children are urged to abide by these hygiene practices:

1. Washing hands with soap and water before eating and after going to the toilet;
2. Covering our mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing
3. Not sharing eating utensils or water bottles.

The children are also given a travel declaration form in view of the coming long weekend. Please get your child to submit it by tomorrow.

'Something I'm Proud Of' 3 & 'My Favourite Game'

Harshan,"I'm proud of my sticker book."

I'm quite surprised to find that our children do not respond very well to the topic 'Something I'm Proud of'. Very few children wanted to do a Show & Tell on it. When I asked them candidly,"Don't you have something you're proud of and would like to share?" They chorused in unison,"Nooooooo ..."

Perhaps our children need a more obvious demonstration of our pride in their works or just something they have drawn or created. It need not be a trophy won from a competition. It could be a story they write in their leisure. It could be a photograph they've taken FOR the family.

Due to the lack of response for the topic, I've changed it to 'My Favourite Game'.

Hidayat,"My favourite player is Torres."

More Art Pieces in the Classroom

-ey Poem

The children have created poems with words ending with -ey.

These are pictures of them at work:

Health Check

Dear parents,

The school will be conducting Health Check for 3 Conscientious on 29th April (next Wednesday) at 9.30am. Please ensure that your child is in his or her PE attire on that day.

Thank you.

My Apologies & Clarification

Dear parents,

I just realised I made a mistake in my last post.

For Creative Dance, Singaporean children need not pay any cash. $16 will be deducted from Edusave and the other $16 will be subsidised by the school.

Non-Singaporean children will pay $16 in cash while the school will subsidise $16.

I apologise for the confusion and inconvenience caused.

Forms to be submitted this week

The children received a number of forms today:

1) Training for New South Wales (Science) form
2) Creative Dance form + Edusave form
(Singaporeans will pay $16 in cash + $16 deductible from Edusave; Non-Singaporeans will pay $32 in cash)
3) Inline skating form (to be submitted together with $18)

Of these, inline skating is optional as it takes place during the June vacation.

Creative Dance will be done during curriculum time (during PE lesson) so students are encouraged to participate in this activity as otherwise, they would have to watch the dance instead.

Please get your children to submit their form for New South Wales training tomorrow.

As for the other two forms, I will give a few days' grace, latest by Wednesday, so that parents can think it over.

Unit 7 Spelling

A parent has given me the feedback that it's tedious for our children to learn all 20 Spelling words and Dictation at one go.

In view of that, I'll let children know the ten words I'll be giving them in advance from now on. I hope it'll reduce the amount of unnecessary stress and anxiety over learning Spelling.

To make things easier for the coming Spelling, I'll be giving the children the first ten words (No. 1 to 10) for Unit 7 Spelling and Dictation this week (Thursday, 23rd April).

I hope it'll help relieve our children of some mental stress. :)

Properties of Materials

The children had some group discussion on 'Properties of Materials' today.

"Hmm ... how to test for the hardness of materials ... ...?"

Joel, "Let me do a karate chop to test the flexibility!"
Yen Long, "Sure, as long as you don't break it."

Mark, "Let me bend this ..."

Xiang Qi, "Sigh! Boring boring ..."

Mohammad, "Wow ... this ruler is so flexible, like a snake."

Jin En, "Look what I'm going to do with this plastic sheet."

Kar Moon, "How should we test the strength of the cloth?"

Jin En, "Look at me!"

Composition 'A Robbery'

Last week, the children did group writing on a composition 'A Robbery'. They were given 3 sequential pictures about a robbery and were required to complete the first two paragraphs as group work within 15 minutes.

They did a fantastic job at that. I've edited their work and asked them to transfer the writing from the butcher papers to their composition books. They are required to complete the 3rd and 4th paragraphs as individual work thereafter.

Some pictures of them doing the transfer today:

Vibrant Birds and Butterflies

The children's Art & Crafts teacher is Mr Chailani, a very experienced Art teacher. One of the noticeboards in the classroom is dedicated to showcasing the children's talent and flair in Art.

The Bremen Town Musicians

This week, we had the Red Clownfish to present for us 'The Bremen Town Musicians'.

Xiang Qi made a Narrator's Crown for the occasion. She cut out the letters 'N-A-R-R-A-T-O-R' one by one and stuck them onto her precious crown. I thought her effort was very commendable.

The audience, on the whole, enjoyed the performance. They also provided constructive feedback ie. their volume ought to be a little higher and it would be ideal if there were dramatic effects.

I hope the next group of performing children would build upon the feedback and bring their Readers' Theatre to a higher level than their peers who have done the RT.

A gentle reminder

Dear parents,

Please remind your child not to start a sentence with 'It is because' or 'Because' as sentences starting with these words are regarded as incomplete in written English.

I've reminded the children not to use these expressions in their work but some continue to use them in their last assignment.

Class rules

These are the class rules drawn up by the children themselves:

Something I'm proud of 2

David and Vishva showed us their pride and joy today.

'I'm proud of my costly pencil case.'

'My toy dog is called Davis.'

Something I'm proud of 1

Ma Wai and Joel are the first presenters for our new theme.

'I took a picture with Mr Khaw Boon Wan.'

'I won this Gold trophy when I was in Primary One.'

People are like Crayons

'We could learn alot from crayons:

Some are sharp,
Some are pretty,
Some are dull,
Some have weird names,
All are different colours - but they all have to learn to live in the same box.'

Contacting me

Dear parents,

My personal handphone number will not be available to your children. However, you will be able to reach me via a few ways:

1) Write me a note in the Student Handbook

2) Call me at the school's number 6758 8837. The administrative staff or teachers who pick up the phone will leave a message on my table and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

3) Email me at lim_lui_yen@moe.edu.sg

Thank you for your understanding.

The Gruffalo

Dear children,

Don't forget to visit the Gruffalo's website: www.gruffalo.com. There're clips, games and activities among others.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff

The Blue Pufferfish put up our first ever RT (Readers' Theatre) performance today!

Two of the children, Sue Gi and Leon, made the effort to make a mask each for their roles ie. Middle-sized Billy Goat Gruff and Little Billy Goat Gruff. Very cute indeed!

The children worked very well together. Although there's only one role each for the Bridge and Narrator, the two pairs (Min Yi and Yuen Qing; David and Jennifer) came to an agreement on how they would take turn to read out the lines, without my intervention. And fights over the roles - a common scenario among little children - are totally unheard of. I'm impressed that these children display a level of maturity that's beyond their physical age. I hope that the rest of the performing groups will model after them when they are selected to do Readers' Theatre in the following months.

After the performance, the audience was asked to comment on 3 things that they find commendable and 3 things that the group could improve on.

Generally, the children adored the masks and Zafranshah's dramatisation of the troll falling into the river. Although they thought the group's volume on the whole was quite soft and more dramatic voices and actions could be incorporated, most of the students were of the opinion that the RT was well done.


Some children have approached me regarding the next Readers' Theatre. I will most likely make it a fortnightly affair so that it doesn't take up too much curriculum time and the participating children will have sufficient time to mull over their roles and create resources for their performances.

Best Group of the Month for March

Purple Octopus

They are awarded 'Best Group of the Month' title after a month of collection of points based on behaviour and the ability to answer questions correctly during quizzes.

Below is a picture of the group icons and their points for the month of March. We'll start afresh on every 1st of the month. Below the icons is the Homework column. I'll write down the homework for the day or important things to bring the next day so that the children can jot them down in their Student Handbook.

'My Favourite Thing' 4

We present ... ... Zafranshah and Betty!

"CJ-7 and Kitty are a family."

"My mother bought this sticker collection book for me because I like Manchester United."

It's been fun listening to the children telling us about their favourite things. I believe their friends get to know them better as well. Although some of the children tend to trail off or become soft in their volume during Show & Tell, they are generally prepared for the session. After the Show & Tell, the audience get to ask 3 questions about the items during the Q&A session. The questions show that the audience were listening, and listening very well at that.

Well done, children!