29 Jan 2015 (Thursday)

Dear children,

I will keep today's entry short as I am very busy preparing for a programme for tomorrow.

These are today's reminders and announcements:

1) Our second spelling test will be held tomorrow. Tomorrow will be the last day for you to earn ice-cream sticks for your group for January. Work hard! :)

2) If you have not bought your SHPS A5 lined exercise book for your journal, please do so by tomorrow.

3) If you have not completed the "My Learning Style" survey on the AskNLearn portal uploaded by Mrs Melissa Chew, please do so latest by next Monday.

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

28 Jan 2015 (Wednesday)

Dear children,

We read "The Gruffalo" together today and I think many of you enjoyed the story even though some had read it before. The mouse's idea was so brilliant, wasn't it?

As a class, I think your reading has improved a little since our previous reading. You sounded better varying your tone and I could see and hear that many of you really put yourselves into the shoes of the characters when you were reading aloud. Keep it up, 3/5! :)

As we read the book, we identified rhyming words and learnt new vocabulary like "logpile", "prickles", "treetop", "tusks", "underground" and "wart". On top of those, we also learnt other new words and phrases like "lure", "perch", and "the end of me" as we worked on a vocabulary exercise. You would also have learnt to use quantifiers like "much", "a few", "a lot of", and "any", and revised the use of the demonstrative pronouns "this", "that", "these", and "those". 

Did you know there is an interesting website that is all about the Gruffalo? Click here to explore it with your parents:

http://www.gruffalo.com/

During Science lesson, we made our way to the Science Laboratory for the first time. You were so excited about it that many of you could not control yourselves. I expect better behaviour for future lessons at the Science Lab. We will be working on experiments when we go there more often next term. Good scientists must practise self-discipline.

At the Science Lab, we revised the main characteristics of fish and insects before you started working in groups to create your own insect body from grapes and toothpicks. Then, you examined a real fish closely. You touched its fins, felt its scales and opened its gill covers to investigate its gills. For those who wanted to know more about the different parts of a fish, here is a more detailed diagram I would like to share with you:

I hope today's activity helped you to remember some important facts about insects and fish. Try answering these 8 questions on your own:

1) What are the three main parts of an insect?

2) How many pairs of legs does an insect have?

3) How many pairs of feelers does an insect have?

4) On which part of the insect are the legs found?

5) On which part of the insect are the feelers found?

6) What covers a fish's body?

7) Which part of a fish helps it to breathe?

8) Which parts of a fish help it to swim?

These are today's reminders:

1) Bring your "Oral and Listening Comprehension Booklet" tomorrow. We will be working on a Listening Comprehension exercise.

2) If you have not bought a third exercise book to be used for English journal writing, please do so by Friday. You will be writing your first journal entry as homework for this weekend. I will tell you more about your task on Friday.

Have an enjoyable evening with your family. See you tomorrow! :)

27 Jan 2015 (Tuesday)

Beloved children,

This morning, you put to use what you learnt from using the Story Mountain Planner yesterday and worked in your groups to write your group compositions. I was extremely pleased with the way Diamond and Truth worked in their teams. They were very focused in their discussions and made sure that they spoke at a volume that would not disturb the other groups. Well done, Diamond and Truth! I am awarding 4 ice-cream sticks to both groups. :) 

After you completed your stories, we looked at a few of them and discussed what made them good. Then, you spent an hour writing your own compositions. I am looking forward to reading and marking your stories.

These are today's reminders and announcements:

1) Please remember to show your parents the following three booklets which you received today and ask for a signature on each of them:

a) "Fearless Phil" (blue)

b) "Numbers to 10 000 - Part A" (blue)

c) "Numbers to 10 000 - Part B" (green)

I am sure your parents would want to know how your written work in class has been for the past three weeks. Please spend time sitting down with them and sharing with them how well you think you have done and how you could improve.

Bring all three booklets back for me to check tomorrow.

2) Theophilus, Yu Qi and Hayley displayed neat work in their latest Maths work, so they earned 1 ice-cream stick each for their groups.

3) If you are one of the two pupils who have been asked by me to have a second re-spelling, please stay back during recess tomorrow. Prepare well. I expect full marks from you.

Have a pleasant evening with your family. See you tomorrow for another day of learning! :)

26 Jan 2015 (Monday)

Dear children,

During English lesson today, we worked on a Story Mountain Planner and tried to break down a sample story into its different parts -- the beginning, the build-up, the problem, the resolution and the ending. From the next composition onwards, you will be using this same Story Mountain Planner as a tool to help you plan your compositions. You will get better and better at that with more practice.

During Science lesson, you learnt about the characteristics of insects. Do you remember what are they? Comment on this post to show me what you remember. Watch this video on 15 amazing facts about insects too:

I plan to take you to the Science Laboratory later this week for an activity on insects and fish. Look forward! :)

During FTGP lesson, we discussed the story of Marlar. We put ourselves into her shoes and thought about how we could make ourselves feel better even when things sometimes do not go well. We also discussed how important it is for us to believe that our brains can grow and that we can get smarter if we put in effective effort, which includes hard work and learning strategies. Here is the diagram I shared with you:

I hope you still remember our first lesson of the year after we climbed up to our fifth-floor classroom on the first day of school:

There is no elevator to success; you have to take the stairs.

Your teachers and your parents can teach you strategies, but the hard work has to come from you. Are you going to blame your bad luck, the difficult test, or how you are born? Or are you ready to get smarter?

During Maths lesson, we started on the second maths topic -- "Addition and Subtraction within 10 000". We discussed what "sum" and "difference" mean and you paired up with your partner to roll dice and work out some sums and differences. You also learnt to add 4-digit numbers within 10 000 by regrouping.

These are today's reminders:

1) There will be no remedial classes tomorrow afternoon for P3/5 as I need to attend a conference organised by the Ministry of Education. I will have to leave for the conference at 11.45 a.m. and will not be able to spend the last three periods of English with you. There will be relief teachers going into the class to take care of you. I will leave some work for you to complete. I hope to hear positive comments about you from the relief teachers.

2) Vote for your favourite Head Councillor and Vice-head Councillor candidates on the AskNLearn portal by today.

3) This is the latest ice-cream sticks update:

Diamond and Minecraft earned the most ice-cream sticks this week. Minecraft is still leading in the race! Will that change by the end of this week? ;)

4) Start preparing for this Friday's spelling test. It will be a little more challenging than the first one. Will you be a Super Speller and earn some ice-cream sticks for your group? ;)

Have a restful evening with your family. See you tomorrow!

23 Jan 2015 (Friday)

Dear children,

We had the first spelling test of the year this morning. We took some time to get you familiar with the way you should be using your Spelling Book for spelling tests and corrections before starting on it. A lot of time was spent on the spelling test itself too. We need to go faster from the next spelling test onwards. That means you need to learn the spelling items so well that the rest of your friends would not have to wait too long for you before we can continue. Everyone plays a part in this. We should not take more than 25 minutes for each spelling test. I am sure we can achieve that.

These are the 22 Super Spellers who achieved full marks for the spelling test:

Super Spellers
Avery and Richelle from Thundermans

Jing Min, Marc, and Yu Zhi from Mars
Genevieve from Universe
Joshua and Matthew from Superstar
Jonathan from Void
Olivia and Sujith from Truth
Chloe Lee, Keagan, Samir, and Sarah from Diamond
Chloe Chiang, Conan, and Enrui from Ninjas
Dyrendo, Ranjiv, Shaan, and Shineta from Minecraft

Good effort, boys and girls! :)

Did you notice that Diamond and Minecraft have got 4 Super Spellers each?

If you are one of the two pupils who have been asked by me to have a re-spelling, please stay back during recess on Monday.

During Science lesson, we learnt about how animals are classified and some kinds of animals such as amphibians, birds, and fish. After learning about the characteristics of those kinds of animals, we watched some videos of them. For some reason unknown to me, YouTube does not allow me to embed the 4 videos here, so you will have to click on these links if you want to watch them again:

On Amphibians
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRVns0STtZk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdelWdbrwww

On Birds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5m4NnbPksc

On Fish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjXFcixCptQ

I could not be around with you during your Speech and Drama class with Ms Asha this afternoon because I was conducting another programme for the Primary Six pupils. I hope you had a time of fruitful and fun learning with her and your classmates though! We have got 3 more sessions before you put up your performance. Put in your best! :)

Here are some photographs that Mr Vai helped to take of you:

These are today's reminders:

1) Remember the 3 things you have to do whenever you get back your Spelling Book:

-Complete your corrections if you have any.

-Update your contents page.

-Show your completed work to your parents and ask for a signature.

Bring your Spelling Book back on the next school day -- Monday.

2) Complete the Maths AskNLearn package "P3/5 Maths E-Homework: Numbers to 10000" by 11 p.m. today. I noticed from my records that there are a few of you who have not completed it yet. If you are one of these people, this reminder is for you.

3) Remember to vote for your favourite Head Councillor and Vice-head Councillor candidates on the AskNLearn portal this weekend.

Have a restful weekend with your family! See you on Monday!

22 Jan 2015 (Thursday)

Dear children,

I hope you learnt more about self-worth during Assembly today as we watched the video of Nick Vujicic. What did you remember most about Nick? Share with your parents! :)

During English lesson, we started working on the first composition for this year -- a prank involving a lost wallet. We first talked about the new composition format and how we should be writing our stories to make sure they would not be out of point. Then, we had a class discussion with a lot of plot ideas coming from you. Some ideas were logical and flowed well, while others needed some correction to make them better. We also dug through the spelling list for words and phrases that we could use to make the story better. A few of you were really good at that -- I guess you must have started preparing for your second spelling test too. ;)

These are today's reminders:

1) We will have our first spelling test tomorrow morning. Make sure you are well-prepared. Ice-cream sticks await the Super Spellers! I hope you remember how you will be tested. Don't forget your spelling book too.

2) The deadline for you to complete the Maths AskNLearn package "P3/5 Maths E-Homework: Numbers to 10000" is 11 p.m. tomorrow. If, for some reason, you cannot log in to the AskNLearn portal and complete your tasks, you must tell me by tonight. Comment on this post or ask your parents for help.

3) Submit the exercise book containing your thirty copied sentences to your Group Leader tomorrow morning. Group Leaders are to submit the exercise books to the English Leader, Hayley. Hayley, please count them and submit them to me after that.

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

21 Jan 2015 (Wednesday)

Dear children,

I will keep today's entry short as I am extremely busy.

1) We are celebrating Fruits and Vegetables Day tomorrow. Remember to bring a fruit to eat during recess.

2) You would have received from me the letter titled "Assessment Information To All P3 Parents". Pass it to your parents. It contains very important information about how and when you will be assessed this year. I spent quite some time today explaining the letter to you and answering your questions. Your task today is to explain it to your parents. Tell them about how you will be given marks for daily work too -- this is something new. 

3) You would have completed pages 44, 45, 49 and 50 of the orange "Revised Primary English" book today. These are the exercises: 

Exercise 40

Exercise 41

Exercise 42

Exercise 42a

Exercise 42b

Exercise 42c

Exercise 46

Exercise 47

Exercise 48 

Exercise 48a

For homework, choose 3 sentences from each of the ten exercises and write them out in an SHPS A5 lined exercise book. You should have a total of thirty sentences. Submit the exercise book to me on Friday.

This is how you should write out the sentences:

4) I have created a Maths AskNLearn package for you to complete as E-homework. Log on to the AskNLearn portal and click on the package "P3/5 Maths E-Homework: Numbers to 10000". You have today, tomorrow, and Friday to complete everything in the package. The deadline is 11 p.m. on Friday (23 Jan 2015). I will be looking at the AskNLearn records so that I know whether or not you have completed the whole package.

5) I have appointed Jonathan and Matthew as the IT monitors for our class. They will help to serve the class in the areas of handling AV equipment and laptops.

6) Prepare for Friday's spelling test.

Have a fruitful evening completing your first homework from me. See you tomorrow! :)

20 Jan 2015 (Tuesday)

Dear children,

We learnt about gerunds today during English lesson. An example of a gerund is the word "swimming" in the sentence  "Alvan loves swimming." What are the three criteria that make the word "swimming" a gerund and not a verb? Share with your parents and try to give more examples! Comment on this post with an example of a sentence using a gerund.

We also practised annotating on passages when we worked on two comprehension exercises. Completely understanding a short passage from its beginning to its end is very important. That is what drawing arrows, underlining key words and phrases, and writing down notes by the side of a passage can help us to do.

During our Maths lesson, we spent most of our time getting better at forming greatest/smallest/ odd/even four-digit numbers with different sets of digits. Your work from yesterday showed that many of you are really not too strong in this area yet. We will have to put in more effort in this. Number patterns were not too difficult for most of you, but some of you were careless when adding or subtracting. Watch out for that.

You spent some time working on word problems involving part-whole models too. I hope drawing part-whole models is still familiar to you -- the problems given are very similar to what you could solve last year! :)

These are today's reminders:

1) Prepare for Friday's spelling test. If you have not placed your Spelling Book in the classroom, do so tomorrow.

2) We will postpone our science period tomorrow to Friday so that we can have a two-period science lesson on Friday. You do not need to bring science materials tomorrow. We will use tomorrow's science period for English instead.

3) If you have not submitted the envelope with $2.30 in it to me, please do so by tomorrow. Make sure your name and your class are written on the envelope.

4) These are the children who have put in their best effort for yesterday's Maths work to earn ice-cream sticks for their groups:

Perfect Maths Work

Marc from Mars (1 ice-cream stick, because he forgot to write the date)

Christian from Truth (5 ice-cream sticks)

Sarah from Diamond (5 ice-cream sticks)

Shaan from Minecraft (5 ice-cream sticks)

Neat Maths Work (1 ice-cream stick each)

Rowena from Superstar

Hayley from Void

Christian from Truth

I hope you can be like those children in the list above too! Aim to submit perfect and neat work. Pay attention when I am teaching, ask when you have questions, focus when you are doing your written work, and check your work once you have completed it.

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

19 Jan 2015 (Monday)

Dear children,

We began our day discussing about how you should go about voting for the school's Head Councillors and the Vice Head Councillors. For more information about the candidates in addition to what I have shown you, please click on this link to go to the Hildan Student Council website: http://hildanstudentcouncil.weebly.com/

Your vote matters. Please spend time listening to the various candidates when they speak so that when the time comes for you to vote on AskNLearn this weekend, you will be able to make the best choice for our school.

During Maths lesson, we revised how to identify odd numbers and even numbers and learnt to complete number patterns involving numbers within 10 000. After that, you completed 3 exercises in Booklet B of "Numbers to 10 000" on your own as a mini-test. Some of you took way too long to complete them. I think our class needs a lot more practice in this area. Get ready to conquer some math quizzes on AskNLearn this week. It is Week 3 -- time for us to start going a little faster and do a little more now that you are well settled. :) 

English lesson was spent going through corrections from the previous exercises. Some of you were not too good at spelling adjectives like "courageous", "dangerous", "disastrous" and "mysterious". If you are still not too confident at spelling them, ask your parents or your older siblings for help to test you. These are important words that you must pick up now. 

During our FTGP period, you worked in groups to come up with class cheers that we could use to motivate ourselves. Here are the cheers Pikachu and Universe made up:

We went through a voting session before deciding that we will use Minecraft's cheer as our class cheer. We will practise it as a class during the next FTGP session so that we can perfect it. Then, we will be ready to use it.

These are today's announcements and reminders:

1) If you have not started preparing for Friday's spelling test, start now!

2) You should be packing your own bag by now. Refer to your timetable so that you do not miss out important items to bring.

3) Please ask your parents for $2.30 as additional payment for your English STELLAR booklets. The print vendor made a mistake in the price given earlier. The money should be placed in an envelope with your name and class written on it. Submit it to me tomorrow.

4) These are the children who have put in hard work to earn ice-cream sticks for their groups in the past week:

Near Perfect Maths Work

Jing Min from Mars
Isaac from Pikachu
Matthew from Superstar

Christian and Sujith from Truth

Shaan and Shineta from Minecraft

Perfect English Work

Samir from Diamond

Shaan from Minecraft

Neat Maths Work

Jing Min from Mars
Hoi Yung from Universe
Rowena from Superstar
Hayley from Void
Christian from Truth

Shineta from Minecraft

5) I have put up a birthday chart on the wall beside our noticeboard at the back of the classroom. Take a look at it tomorrow to find out when your friends' birthdays are! :)

6) This is the ice-cream sticks update for Week 2:

Minecraft is still leading! Will they really win this month? ;)

Have an enjoyable evening with your family. See you tomorrow! :)

16 Jan 2015 (Friday)

Dear children,

Twenty-three of you would have received letters regarding the Tuesday enrichment and remedial programme from me today. We spent some time talking about why you were selected or not selected for the programme, and how you should read the information on your letter. Your task is to carefully explain the letter to your parents so that they know:

1) Which Tuesdays you have to stay back in school for Term 1 and Term 2

2) What enrichment or remedial classes you will be attending

3) Where they will be held

4) When they will have to pick you up from school if you are not taking the school bus

Remember to ask them to fill in the bottom part of the letter and staple it on the last page of your Student Handbook. I will be checking your handbook on Monday to see whether you have done your part.

After we got all of you clear about the remedial and enrichment classes, we spent our time together completing the remaining science activities on the topic of classification. You discussed what living things need to stay alive and worked in groups to share with one another how we should take care of animals and plants. We also looked at some photographs of places and classified the things in them as living or non-living things based on their characteristics. By now, all of you should be experts on the topic of classification! ;)

As part of the School Distinctive Programmes, you had your first Speech and Drama class with Ms Asha in the afternoon. I am sure you enjoyed yourself with her! After some warm-up activities, you revisited tableaux (frozen human pictures), discussed the fable that you will be performing and tried out some actions of the characters you will be portraying.

Here are some photographs and videos I took of you:

The Rhinoceroses

 The Foxes

The Zebras

The Rabbits

The Giraffes

The Lions

The Deers

The Narrators

We have 4 more sessions to go with Ms Asha before you perform your fable in front of an audience. A lot of effort and teamwork need to go into those sessions. I expect you to put in your best. :)

These are today's announcements and reminders:

1) Remedial and enrichment classes begin on 27 January, Tuesday. However, please note that I will be cancelling my English and Maths remedial classes on 27 January afternoon as I have been informed that I need to attend a conference organised by the Ministry of Education on that afternoon. Mother Tongue remedial and enrichment classes will still carry on.

2) Pass to your parents the Term 1 Newsletter. The information in it is meant for them. 

3) Pass to your parents the subscription form for the "+venture in Maths!" magazine. If your parents would like to subscribe to the magazine for you, remember to inform them that they will have to submit the form and payment directly to the company. The school will not be collecting any subscription form or money for this.

4) Remind your parents that there will be a Parent-Teacher Meeting on next Friday, 23 January, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m..

5) Your first spelling test will be on this Friday. Make yourself smarter by putting in hard work. Excelling at anything takes time, so do not start too late. Start today!

6) Bring your science notes on Monday. I want to check them.

7) If you have not put your orange "Revised Primary English" book in the classroom, please do so soon. We will be using it next week.

Have a restful weekend with your family! :)

15 Jan 2015 (Thursday)

Dear children,

We spent the Assembly period in the Hildan Ark learning about how uniquely God has created each one of us and how we should be using our unique talents wisely. Never forget that we can all excel in our own ways! While learning this, we watched a video about a cracked pot. Here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaP75-e64lM

I am like the cracked pot. Are you like it too? 

I hope you can spend some time reflecting on the video. You can share your reflection by commenting below. :)

During Science lesson today, we observed the terrapin that I borrowed from Mrs Agnes Poh. All of you were so excited because of it! We compared the terrapin to its "brother" -- a toy terrapin -- and discussed how one is a living thing and the other is not. Can you already make a list of characteristics on your own to tell apart a living thing from a non-living thing? :)

We completed our topic on classification and moved on to the exercises in the Activity Book. We observed the diversity of things around the school and classified eight things we observed by drawing tables.

These are today's reminders and announcements:

1) Today is the deadline for you to choose your CCA on the AskNLearn portal. If you have not done so, please do it.

2) If you have not completed Page 3 of your Science Activity Book (Diversity), complete it at home. Bring the book tomorrow so that we can continue with the remaining exercises on this topic.

3) Bring the orange "Revised Primary English" book tomorrow.

4) School Distinctive Programme tomorrow is compulsory. Your lunch break will be from 1.30 p.m. to 1.55 p.m. Please gather at the foyer by 1.55 p.m.. Your Speech and Drama class will end at 4 p.m.. Please remind your parents about the pick-up time if you are not taking the school bus.

5) We are celebrating Fruits and Vegetables Day on 22 January, Thursday. Remember to bring a fruit on that day.

Have an enjoyable evening with your family. See you tomorrow! :)

____________________________________________________________________________
"We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves."
-2Corinthians 4:7

14 Jan 2015 (Wednesday)

Dear children,

It was good to be back with you again today for a fruitful day of learning. 

We started off the day by going through some words and phrases in your Spelling List for Term 1. You also heard from me about the new format for your weekly spelling tests. Does spelling sound more challenging this year? I hope you will put in all your effort to conquer it! Let's see how many Super Spellers we can have next Friday. :)

During Maths lesson, you learnt to order numbers within 10 000 and learnt how to find a number that is 1 more, 1 less, 10 more, 10 less, 100 more, 100 less, 1000 more or 1000 less than a given 4-digit number. If your parents are free, try asking them to test you with the following questions:

-What's 1 more than 3692?

-What's 1 less than 4502?

-What's 10 more than 2690?

-What's 10 less than 9589?

-What's 100 more than 8888?

-What's 100 less than 3100?

-What's 1000 more than 899? 

-What's 1000 less than 1001?

You also completed 4 exercises in Booklet B of "Numbers to 10 000" on your own as a mini-test. I am looking forward to marking them so that I can know who among you have perfectly mastered the skills needed to earn 5 ice-cream sticks for your group. :)

During English lesson, we played a short game of "Simon Says" as we learnt more about different prepositions of place, such as "in", "under", "above", "on" and "off". Do you remember what you learnt about using "off"? Can we say "Please off the fan"? Why or why not?

We also learnt more about using simple past tense before working on a comprehension exercise. By looking at some sentences, we noticed the rule that when "didn't" comes right before a verb, there should be no "-ed" ending. The verb should then remain in its present tense form.

He didn't shiver. She shivered.

He didn't shake. She shook.

He didn't quiver. She quivered.

He didn't quake. She quaked.

Try the following:

-"Didn't screamed" or "Didn't scream"?

-"Didn't bolted" or "Didn't bolt"?

-"Didn't flexed" or "Didn't flex"?

-"Didn't shouted" or "Didn't shout"?

The correct ones are in orange. I hope you got them right! :)

These are today's reminders:

1) Please complete the Maths homework that you have been assigned in Booklet A of "Numbers to 10 000" by visiting this website: 

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/frames_asid_152_g_2_t_1.html?from=category_g_2_t_1.html

Bring your booklet tomorrow.

2) Spelling tests will be held on Fridays. Please start preparing for your first spelling test which will be held on next Friday, 23 January. Besides knowing how to spell the words and phrases, you should also know how to use them. Make sure your Spelling Book is ready for next Friday too. You may keep it in the classroom if you have not done so.

3) We did not have our Science lesson today because quite a number of you did not bring your Science Activity Book. Please bring your Science Activity Book (Diversity) tomorrow for a postponed science lesson. You should also bring along the notes you took down from the previous lesson. For all future science lessons, please do not forget to bring your Science Textbook and Science Activity Book again.

4) It is Thursday tomorrow. Remember to bring your S.M.I.L.E Booklet to the Hildan Ark after recess for assembly. 

Have a fruitful evening. See you tomorrow! :)