A Letter to My Children

Dear Children,

It's the last day of the school year. It's been a truly amazing year for me!

I've enjoyed myself tremendously in being the form teacher of this class. You have made me laugh so much throughout the year. The way you interact with one another, the way you argue with one another, the way you smile and laugh, the way you work with one another. Despite being nine, you are still oh-so-very cute!

Today, there was a mini prize-giving ceremony in the hall.

After that, we went back to class and played some games: 'Squirrel and Tree', 'Making Money' and 'Rojak'.

I could see that you enjoyed the games thoroughly, especially 'Rojak'. We had a ball of our time, laughing, laughing and laughing, totally enjoying one another's company!

Thank you so much for adding so much laughter and fond memories to my life, children. I'll always remember you. Don't ever feel hurt if I can't recall your names next time you call out to me, for I have so many names to remember every year. I'll remember your faces instead and the moments we share.

Having the opportunity to be your form teacher is one of the best things that's happened to me in my years of teaching. You've taught me many things yourselves and enlightened me in so many ways you'd never imagined. One of the more significant enlightenments is that you've made me see boys in a completely different light! I never knew boys can be adorable, endearing, diligent, committed to excellence, attentive, focused, active and yet sensible at the same time, and so many of you at that! Your parents must be really proud of you!

Thank you for the eye-opening experiences. I sincerely appreciate all that you've done to make this year such a memorable and valuable one for me. It's a shame that I didn't have the time to get you to write journals so as to know more about each and every one of you. I must admit that I've been very focused in gearing you more towards the academics. Even up till the second last day of school, we were still doing English worksheets. In fact, I was tempted to get you to write a letter to me to tell me how you've felt about me as your teacher today, even if you think I had been a witch, but I decided not to as I wanted you to play and have fun instead.

I still remember the time when you went to the computer laboratory to do an online survey on your teachers. Some of you told me you clicked 'Strongly Disagree' for every statement that was about me, your English teacher. I felt a little hurt but I told you I wasn't here to make you like me. I remembered that you were just children and tried to laugh it off.

I usually ask children not to give me Teachers' Day presents when nearing the Day because I don't want children to spend their parents' hard-earned money when they themselves have not started earning it, and I don't want any child to feel left out just because he or she doesn't give a present. But this year, I didn't tell you about it because I didn't think you liked me anyway, and I wouldn't give presents to someone I don't like. I was surprised that you heaped the teacher's table with presents on that Day. I felt touched that despite what you told me about what you did for the survey, you did seem to like me, judging from the evidence on the table. Thank you for your presents, children. Self-made cards would have done the job nicely, really.

Thank you for being a big part of my life. You'll make very fond memories for my teaching life for many years to come.

Do continue to work hard next year and strive for the best. To share one of my favourite quotes:
Reach for the moon. For even if you miss it, you'll be among the stars.

Love always,
Mrs Sam

SA2 papers

Dear children,

Please bring your English and Science SA2 papers back to school tomorrow. Yes, all of them, including the Listening Comprehension paper.

Do let your friends know if you happen to talk to them later.

I'll also inform the class about it tomorrow.

Class Photo

All children, except for those who were absent today, should have received this photograph for their keepsake.

I just want to say that I'm really happy to have all of you in the picture.

Report book, Parent Survey Form and Music Camp Form

Dear parents,

The children have received their report book and a parent survey form.

Please ensure that your child submit his or her report book tomorrow after you've endorsed it. The survey form also needs to be handed in tomorrow.

On top of those two items, there is also a Music Camp Form. If you allow your child to participate in the event, please ask your child to submit the form together with $3 by tomorrow as well.

Use Your Hand Campaign

Today, we had the Use Your Hand Campaign.

I'm very surprised and impressed that the children were just so eager to clean up the classroom.
Look at them go!

Yong Kang cleaning the windows

The back of the shelves was atrocious!

'Okay, let's push the shelves back!'

Battle with the blue-tack:

Warriors Jia Le and Amir

Female warriors Yuen Qing and Keng Yee

Warrior Jacqy

Warrior Kai Sheng

Jeeva and David sure know their stuff at sweeping

Jennifer exploring the books discovered during the spring cleaning

Leon reaching for a higher level

Zun Hong and Zafranshah cleaning the library

Betty smiling despite her 'dirty job'

Regina and Wilmer wiping the dusty shelves

Xiang Qi cleaning the windows

'Look at the amount of blue-tack we got from the wall!'

Well done, children!

Children's Blogs

I've set up a separate section for blogs of children in our class. Do check them out.

If any of you would like your blog to be added and enjoyed by your friends, leave me a comment with your blog address and I'll link it up with this blog.

Jin En,
I can't seem to access your blog. The message is as below:
"Blog not found
Sorry, the blog you were looking for does not exist."

Can you email me your blog address instead? Thanks!

Admin Day

For those who might be unaware,

There is NO SCHOOL tomorrow as it is Admin Day for teachers.

Contacting me via email

Hi children,

For your convenience, I've saved my email address in my 'Profile'.

Steps:
1) Click on 'View my complete profile' on the right-hand side of the blog
2) Go to 'Contact'
3) Click on 'Email'
4) Log in to your email account and you'll see my email address there.

Social Studies Examination & Health Education Poster

Dear children,

Social Studies Examination

Only Social Studies Textbook and pencil case are allowed in the examination room tomorrow.

For those who have not tried the Quiz out, please go to Litespeed, 'Homework' and click on the 'Social Studies' link to attempt the quiz as a warm-up for tomorrow.

Health Education Poster

Children who have not submitted your 'Healthy Eating' poster, please hand it in tomorrow.

Best Group of the Month (October)

Red Clownfish!

P3 Music Day 2009 - Other Classes

3 Determination

3 Creative

3 Diligence

3 Commitment

3 Persistence

P3 Music Day 2009

Our children showcased their creative dance on 6th October 2009 during curriculum time.

Their audience, the other P3 classes, were clearly impressed. They oohed and aahed at the stunts did during the dance.

Getting ready for the dance

'Action!'

The agile Hidayat doing his floor work

Jun Wei at his cartwheel moves

Floor work 2: Zafranshah and David

Looking relieved and happy after the dance

Great moves, children!

Alert: Veronica, Vishva and Jeeva

Dear children,

I've been trying to contact Vishva and Veronica's parents in vain for the past few days.

They need to come down to school to collect their Maths file, Composition books and Composition assignments so that Vishva and Veronica can revise for their coming SA2 examinations.

Can you help me alert them about this matter if you are able to contact them via other means?

Jeeva,

If you're reading this, please ask your parent to come to the General Office to collect your Maths file and Composition book and assignments too.

I'll be in school on Thursday and Friday from 8 am onwards. Do try to come before 12 pm.

Thank you.

Composition-Writing

Today, I went through with the children the common mistakes in composition-writing.

Some key points are:

1) The beginning must be relevant to the story ie. don't start the story with a beautiful weather and have it followed by sentences like 'Mary is a playful girl'.
Weather+character description = unusual expression.
Either one of the above can be the beginning. Not both.

2) Paragraph your story.
If the scenarios take place at different places, or if the course of actions changes drastically, or if the paragraph is a long one, break it up.
Remember: it's easier for your reader to read your story if it's in smaller chunks.

3) Elaborate.
Always describe the 'how'.
eg. 1) She was over-confident.
Describe how she was over-confident.
eg. 2) She was punished.
Describe the punishment.

4) Describe.
It is not sufficient to simply describe the pictures or the events. You need to give life to the characters by describing how they feel for each event
Eg. He felt ashamed of what he had done and decided to apologise to his friends. ('The Selfish Boy')

Use adjectives to describe the characters.
Eg. She stared in horror with her big, round eyes. ('An Accident')

Use adverbs to describe the actions.
Eg. Her classmates were studying diligently. ('The Playful Girl')

5) Use better vocabulary
Instead of scolded, use 'reprimanded'.
Instead of got home, use 'reached home'.
Instead of got back, use 'received' / 'retrieved'.
Instead of told, use 'informed'.
Instead of said, use 'replied', 'answered', 'shouted', 'screamed' etc.
Instead of cried, use 'wept'.
Instead of caught, use 'apprehended'.
Instead of scared, use 'worried', 'anxious', 'nervous' or 'afraid'.
Instead of happy, use 'thrilled', 'delighted' etc.

6) Write the proper form of the word.
Eg. exam should be written as 'examination'.
Don't use words such as CA1, CA2, SA1 and SA2.
If you mean to say English CA1, simply write 'English test'.

7) Give names to the characters.
Eg. teacher - Mr Tan

8) Don't give unusual names eg. Marry, Josepher.

9) Don't go into the nitty-gritty.
Eg. 1) She scored 40/100.
You may write 'She failed her test badly.'
Eg. 2) Her test was from 7.30 am to 8.45 am.
You may write 'She would have the test in the morning.'

10) Don't write in numbers if they are one- or two-word numbers.
Eg. 1) 1 page should be 'one page'.
Eg. 2) 100 should be 'one hundred'.

11) Always write in past tense (except for the flashback beginning).

12) After writing, read your own composition as if you are a new reader and:
- check for spelling and grammatical mistakes eg. are all the verbs in past tense?
- see if you would understand what you mean for each sentence or word.

Reading your own composition is as important as writing it. Most people, including famous authors, do not publish their first piece of writing. They do many self-corrections or editing on their own writing before they publish it.

Beginnings of a story
I've given the children a list on ways to begin a story. These are the few methods I've taught the children as starters of a story:

1) Sound
2) Flashback (Reminder from the present)
3) Setting/Weather

Homework for the week:
i) Composition 'An Accident'
ii) Composition 'Lost in a Shopping Centre'

The two tasks are meant to allow children to have more practices on composition-writing as the first day of school is also their Paper One Examination. I've gone through a model composition on another 'accident' with them for more helping words, and to show them how a good piece of writing looks like.

All the best, children!

GEP Selection Test (Round 2)

Congratulations to Min Yi who got into the second round of the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) Selection Test! Well done!

Besides her, 2 other children from 3 Persistence and 3 Diligence are going for the Selection Test next week.

Let's wish Min Yi all the best.

Dress Code for Class Photography

Dear children,

Please be in your smart and clean school uniform on Thursday, 15 October 2009, for the class photography.

I understand that you have PE lesson on Thursday. Up till now, no clear instructions have been given on the dress code. My suggestion is:

Come to school in your school uniform and keep a set of PE attire in your bag.

I've informed Mr Ashari that you'll be in your school uniform and he understands the rationale behind it.

So don't worry unduly.

Jack and the Beanstalk & Oral Examination

Each RT group gets better as the children view and provide constructive feedback on their friends' performance. It is my wish that with Readers' Theatre, the awareness of an audience will be instilled in children whenever they read aloud - an important oral communication skill.

Oral Examination matter:

Oral Examination will be conducted over this Tuesday and Wednesday.

Reading

When going through Oral practices, I have informed the children the need to 'dramatise' a little ie. the rising tone for questions, the stress on significant words, the tones for different types of sentences or characters. Children are asked to read a passage and the rest of the class would give comments on how their friends perform. From the way I see it, more and more children are starting to have an awareness of their audience and are more conscious of their reading, rather than just getting all the words in the passage correctly read.

It will do the children good if their parents could get the children to read to them and give them feedback on their reading.

Picture Conversation

These are the steps in which children are taught to follow:

1. Start the conversation with 'This picture depicts a scenario in the (place).'

2. Mention that there are many people/children in that particular place.

3. Find a person in the picture to start with, preferably someone on the bottom-left corner of the picture, then move on to the nearest person next to the first person mentioned, until the whole picture is covered.

4. For each person, describe the action and give personal comments such as 'It is very inconsiderate/impolite/kind/helpful' etc and back them up with reasons eg. 'as it will pollute the environment/it is very dangerous/he might injure himself and the others'.

5. At the end of the conversation, wrap it up with 'In a nutshell, this picture shows the behaviour of some people in a (place)'.

Some children have difficulty giving comment for every person in the picture. I suggest children to target giving comment for at least 3 persons if it is not possible to give comment for all.

At the end of it all, it still depends very much on the picture given. I have shown children various pictures. Some pictures do not allow children to describe a lot ie. only one character is acting inconsiderately. My suggestion is to focus on the inconsiderate act and describe how the other characters are reacting, feeling and what they think.

Please remind your child:

1. NOT TO 'look into the future' and say what the character is going to do. FOCUS ON THE GIVEN PICTURE and the currect scenario.

2. NOT TO tell a story. The task is to describe what the people are doing in the picture, not to let the imagination go wild.

Children's Day

Our children were mesmerised by the Children's Day Concert on their Day, the yoyo performance especially. It was a pity I didn't have my camera with me that day. The whole hall of children were totally captivated by the yoyo 'professionals'. Their eyes were fixed, faces fascinated. If any parent is wondering what the hype is about, yoyo is all the fad now!

Some pictures of the children in the classroom showing their excitement when they received their gifts:

Best Group of the Month (September)

Blue Pufferfish!

P3 Music Day

Dear children,

We are going to have our Music Day which will showcase your Creative Dance on Tuesday, 6 October 2009.

Please be in your PE attire for the Dance.

I haven't seen your Dance and am looking forward to it! Be excited and dance your best!