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.

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.

Admin Day

For those who might be unaware,

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

Class photograph

Dear children,

We will have our class photograph taken on 15 October 2009 (Thursday) by a professional photographer.

Please come to school on that day, neatly and proudly dressed in school uniform and ensure that your hair is neat or short if need be.

No charges or payment will be collected from you as it is part of the $12 collected at the beginning of the year.

Do turn up in school for that day as it is my first professionally-taken class photograph with my form class. It'll be a shame if any one of you is missing from the picture.

Thank You, 'Be Yourself Day' & Children's Day Matter

Thanks to the children who responded to the previous post 'Shhhhh ...'.

I appreciate your effort in checking the blog - some do it daily while others do it intermittenly within a week.

The reason for me to do a survey on the number of students reading the blog is to gather feedback on the usefulness of the blog, so those who have not discovered the 'secret' in the last one week need not worry that I will punish you for not checking the blog.

Alright, children. You may let the secret out the next time you see your friends!

For the Children's Day Celebration this Friday, do come in your sports attire. It's 'Be Yourself Day' so you may wear sports attire that you fancy to school. However, you need to be in your school shoes for whichever attire you're in.

For those who do not have any sports attire, especially those who prefer indoor activities, do feel free to put on your PE attire.

Children's Day concert will start at 11.30am and will last till 12.30pm. After that, we'll return to our classroom to prepare to go home. So you'll still need to bring your books for lessons from 7.30am to 11.30am.

This is the way we brush our teeth

The children are given a notification letter indicating that they are going to the dentist on 22nd September 2009, Tuesday.

The aim of the trip down to the dentist is mainly to ensure that the children are brushing their teeth the correct way.

Please help to ensure that the children bring their toothbrush to school next Tuesday.

Temperature-taking tomorrow

Dear children,

Due to the one-week break, the school will conduct 1 temperature-taking exercise tomorrow, Monday 14th September 2009, on the first period of the day only.

Please bring your thermometer tomorrow.

For Muslim students who are fasting and may not be able to use your thermometers to take temperature, Mr Rudy will help take your temperature by using a thermoscan (gun).

Holiday Homework

Dear children,

Just to clarify: the homework that I've given you today is meant for the one-week holiday.

Do not complete them all in one day and hand in tomorrow. They are too much to do within one day!

For those who did not write them down in your student handbook, the homework is as below:

1) Unit 14 Worksheet
2) Composition
3) Spelling (Unit 14) No. 1 to 10, with Dictation

Spelling will be conducted in the first week of next term on Thursday, 17th September 2009.

And bring back your English CA2 Paper on Monday, 14th September 2009, when school reopens, after your parent have signed it.

If you're unsure about anything, do email me at lim_lui_yen@moe.edu.sg.

Maths Trail

There will be a Maths Trail tomorrow from 10am to 1pm.

Please be in your PE attire as one of the activities requires you to throw some beanbags.

You will move from station to station to complete the activities. No assessment or testing is involved, although it will be greater fun if your multiplication tables are at your fingertips.

Clarifying an issue: Files

A parent has given me the feedback that files should not be brought home considering their weight.

I would like to clarify that the files are meant for revision.

Considering the needs of the majority of the students, I feel that I need to return the files to the students so that they may revise for the CAs and SAs. However, I need the students to bring the files back to school on a daily basis while they are holding onto the files, as I would be using worksheets and practice papers for revision purposes and students are required to file the worksheets and papers periodically. From my experience, students who do not bring their files to school tend to lose their worksheets after school if I return them their worksheets.

If there's any parent who feels that files are not needed for any reason, especially when CA or SA is approaching, do write me a note stating that you would like the files to be kept in school. I've nothing against this wish and will be happy to assist you in lightening the weight of your child's schoolbag.

No more temperature-taking!

Good news, children and parents alike!

As of today, we will cease (stop) taking temperature.

No more twice-a-week temperature-taking!

MOE has issued a circular saying that the spread of H1N1 is well-contained or controlled in schools and the number of students getting infected with H1N1 in schools is relatively small.

So you may leave your thermometers at home now! :)

SA2 Dates

A parent has enquired about the dates for SA2 exams, so here goes:

7 - 8 Oct 09 - English Oral Exam
9, 12 - 13 Oct 09 - Mother Tongue Oral Exam
14 Oct 09 - English Paper 1
15 Oct 09 - Mother Tongue Paper 1
26 Oct 09 - English Paper 2
27 Oct 09 - Maths
28 Oct 09 - Mother Tongue Paper 2
29 Oct 09 - Science
2 Nov - Health Ed and Social Studies

This week's homework

Homework for the long weekend:

1) Science Tests Book pp 99 - 117
2) Comprehension Booklet Worksheets 5 - 9 (1 worksheet per day)

Today's Homework

Homework for the weekend include:

1. Spelling Corrections
2. Comprehension Booklet - Worksheet 1 and 2 only
3. Stellar Worksheet Unit 13 - Designing a Strange-Food Restaurant Menu
Please remember that this menu is an unusual one ie. 'snailburger', 'skeletonporridge'.
4. Science 'True' or 'False' Worksheet

They may seem a load, but rest assured that they are manageable and quite easy to do. You may want to spread the homework out over the weekend and not cram them all in one day.

5. Please ask your parent to indicate that they have seen the English file and Spelling book by signing on them.

We do not have a pre-prepared content page for Science file yet, so signing off on the Science file is not necessary. However, please let your parents have a look at the file as well so that they may know what you've done in class.