27 Feb 2015 (Friday)

Dear children,

You received your Science CA1 paper today and we went through the first half of the paper. We will finish up the second half on Monday. It was a joy to see many of you happy with what you have achieved for this test. If you have done well, keep it up! Think of how you can go further. If you did not do too well, remember that it is not the end of the world. It's time to look at where you have gone wrong. Work on those areas so that you become better at them. Keep going! :)

These are the 11 Super Spellers who earned 2 ice-cream sticks each for their groups.

Super Spellers

Chloe Lee, Samir and Theophilus from Diamond

Ethan and Jonathan from Void

Chloe Pek from Pikachu

Ranjiv from Minecraft

Conan from Ninjas

Rowena from Superstar

Jia Ning from Truth

Avery from Thundermans

We spent the rest of the time discussing the next composition -- a prank involving a catapult. You will plan and write your story in class on Monday. 

During the SDP in the afternoon, you learnt more about cyberbullying and netiquette from Mr Dan Ang at the Performance Arts Theatre. We read a comic about netiquette and cyberbullying together too, before discussing how an e-mail written by someone did not have proper netiquette. I hope you have learnt how to be a better netizen and to communicate properly on the internet! :)

Here are the announcements and reminders for this weekend:

1) Pass to your parents the letter regarding the Talent Fiesta and the information sheet on the Students Accident Protection Scheme. Your parents will need to know the important information in them.

2) The English Language CA1 paper will be held on Monday. Prepare for it by reviewing your "Fearless Phil" and "The Gruffalo" booklets again. Revise the words for Spelling (1) to Spelling (4) too. Put in hard work. You will not regret it. It is possible for you to get full marks for the test. That is my target for each one of you, and I hope you will make that target yours too.

3) I will be putting up a short revision quiz on the AskNLearn portal titled "P3/5 English Revision Quiz (28 Feb 2015)" to help you prepare for your test. It will be uploaded by 8 a.m. tomorrow (Saturday). Complete it latest by Sunday night. I will be monitoring my records online.

4) If you have received your marked composition, work on your corrections and submit them on Tuesday. Your corrected composition should be an improved piece of writing written on a new piece of SHPS foolscap. Improve it based on the detailed comments and questions I have written for you. 

5)  Remember to work on the following in 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.

Submit your Spelling Book to me on Monday.

Have a blessed weekend with your family. See you on Monday. The Group of February shall be revealed then! :)

26 Feb 2015 (Thursday)

Dear children,

Your Science CA1 papers have been marked. As a class, I think we did fine for our first ever Science test. There is much room for improvement, but I see the effort that many of you have put into your preparation. I applaud you for that. Keep it up! :)

Look at this chart to have an idea of how we have done: 

(Click on the chart if you want it to appear bigger)

We will spend some time tomorrow going through part of the paper. However, you will only be able to bring home the paper next week when you have completed all your corrections.

These are today's reminders:

1) Prepare for your Spelling Test tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day that you will be able to earn ice-cream sticks for February. ;)

2) You would have received your Times Table Sheet today. Memorise your 6 and 7 times table. The Pair Multiplication Challenge starts tomorrow. Each of you has the chance to earn ice-cream sticks for your group in the Challenge. Would you earn those ice-cream sticks, or would you give them away to your opponent? ;)

3) Tomorrow is the last day of the Hong Bao collection. If you would like to give to the needy, please bring your red packet tomorrow.

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

25 Feb 2015 (Wednesday)

Dear children,

These are today's reminders and announcements:

1) The Science CA1 Paper will be held after Assembly tomorrow from 12 to 12.50 p.m..

2) Log on to your AskNLearn Portal. I have created a science quiz titled "P3/5 Science Revision Quiz (25 Feb 2015)" to help you with your revision. There are 15 questions in it. The quiz should not take you more than 20 minutes.

3) Except for the few whom I will be meeting individually for discussion, most of you would have received your marked compositions. Submit your corrections next Tuesday. I am giving you more than enough days to complete that properly so that you can manage your time on your own. Your corrected composition should be an improved piece of writing based on the detailed comments and questions I have written for you. I expect to see improvement after you have thought about them.

4) Prepare for Friday's Spelling Test. Friday will be your last chance to earn ice-cream sticks for your group in February. Be a Super Speller! :)

5) As part of your revision today, finish up the mindmap on plants that you have been working on. Bring your Biology book back to school tomorrow.

6) Show your parents your English Practice Test paper and ask for a signature. Bring it back to me tomorrow for checking and marking of re-corrections.

All the best for your Science CA1 revision. See you tomorrow! :)

24 Feb 2015 (Tuesday)

Dear children,

We did not do as well as I had expected for the English Practice Test today. It was especially disappointing because many of the mistakes you made were due to carelessness. The paper was not difficult.

Enrui, Keagan, Yu Zhi and Chloe Lee were the only ones who achieved scores high enough to earn ice-cream sticks.

16 ice-cream sticks
Enrui from Pikachu
Keagan from Ninjas

4 ice-cream sticks
Yu Zhi from Mars
Chloe Lee from Diamond


There were 8 others who were quite close, scoring 12 or 12.5 marks. Unfortunately, 2 of you did not pass the Practice Test.

I think we can do better than this.

You will get back your paper tomorrow after I have marked the corrections you did today. You will then have a few days to look at where you went wrong and get yourself even more prepared for the actual English Language CA1 Paper next Monday. 

If you want to know how well you did in comparison to your classmates, clicking on this chart will give you an idea:

(Click on the chart if you want it to appear bigger)

These are today's reminders:

1) Continue with your revision for Thursday's Science CA1.

2) If you have not finished reading the article "Social Media's Wave of Kindness" on page 3 of Little Red Dot, please read it at home. We will discuss the article tomorrow. You do not have to bring the newspapers to school.

3) Start preparing for the next Spelling Test to be held on Friday.

4) I did not get to check your "The Gruffalo" booklet today for your parent's signature. Bring it tomorrow.

5) I received 11 more red packets for the Hong Bao collection today. If you would like to donate but have not given your red packet to me, you can bring it tomorrow.


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

23 Feb 2015 (Monday)

Dear children,

We started on our final maths topic for this term -- "Multiplication and Division within 10000". Although the Maths CA1 Paper in Week 10 will not be testing you on this unit, we need to start learning it now so that we will have time to finish up the unit before we go off for our March holidays. We are on track so far, but we can go much faster if all of you memorise your multiplication tables of 6, 7, 8 and 9 very well.

We started off revising the times tables of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 and the concepts of "number of groups" and "number of items" in multiplication and division. You observed, through your own drawings, how 3 groups of 10 differed from 10 groups of 3, although both give the answer of 30. You also observed through your drawings why you will always get 0 when you multiply a number by zero.

Then, we began "building" the multiplication tables of 6 and 7 by counting in steps of 6 and 7. When we looked at the multiples of 6, we observed that all of them are even numbers. Are you able to explain why that is so? What about the multiples of 7? What is special about them?  

During Science lesson, we did some revision to prepare for Thursday's test by working on a table to summarise the characteristics of the different animal groups. Then, you continued working on your mindmap on animals and started on your mindmap on plants.


These are today's reminders:

1) Show your "The Gruffalo" booklet to your parents and ask for a signature. Bring it back to me tomorrow for checking.

2) Prepare for the English Language Practice Test tomorrow by reviewing your "Fearless Phil" and "The Gruffalo" booklets. Revise the words that you have been tested for Spelling (1) to Spelling (4) too.

Like the English Language CA1 paper which will be held on next Monday, this Practice Test will only be made up of two sections -- Editing and Comprehension. The units tested will also be the same. You will be given 40 minutes to complete the 15-mark test during the first two periods tomorrow.

You can earn ice-cream sticks for your group by doing well for the paper. Work very hard! ;)

If you score...

15 marks:          20 ice-cream sticks

14.5 marks:       16 ice-cream sticks

14 marks:          12 ice-cream sticks

13.5 marks:       8 ice-cream sticks 

13 marks:          4 ice-cream sticks

How many ice-cream sticks would you like to earn for your group? You decide and work towards it! ;)

3) Submit your Science Workbook to me tomorrow for marking if there are still corrections, re-corrections or work that you have just completed and is unmarked. They need to be on my table before we start the English Language Practice Test.

4) Submit your journal to me tomorrow.

5) Revise for the upcoming Science CA1 Paper on Thursday.

6) I received a few more red packets for the Hong Bao collection today. If you would like to donate but have not given your red packet to me, you can bring it tomorrow.

Have a fruitful evening. Conquer your challenge tomorrow! :)

18 Feb 2015 (Wednesday)

Dear children,

I hope you enjoyed the Chinese New Year celebration today. It was a pity that we did not have the time to take a class photograph together. So many of you were dressed so nicely in your ethnic attires! Let's aim to take one in July when we celebrate Racial Harmony Day. :)

Here are some photographs of today:

These are today's reminders:

1) You would have received your Science Workbook, Science Topical Practice Paper, and Science Topical Test Practice from me today. 

There are a few questions in your Science Workbook that I have not marked yet. Please let me mark them for you next Monday. Remember to bring it.

If you have corrections or re-corrections that have not been completed in your Workbook or the two papers, complete them. Submit them to me on Monday for marking.

Please spend some time using those, as well as your Science Textbook and chapter notes, to revise for the upcoming Science CA1 Paper.

We will continue working on mindmaps in your Biology book next Monday to help you in your revision.

2) Write an entry in your journal titled "My Long Weekend". Choose a few memorable happenings from the next four days to write about. Be as detailed as you can. Include your feelings too. Remember to leave a line after each line you write. Write at least two pages and at most five pages. If you like, you may draw or paste a picture or two in your journal after you have written your entry. Submit your journal to me on Tuesday.

3) If you are one of the nine children who did not remember to bring the signed Maths Practice Test paper for me to check today, bring it on Monday. You should know by now that I will be very displeased with you if you do not have a valid reason for not bringing an item that you are supposed to bring.

4) It is the first day of our Hong Bao collection today and I have already received 15 red packets from the class so far. I am very encouraged by your generosity, P3/5 TRUTH! :)

You can still bring your donation next week if you did not bring it today.

If you had listened to Mrs Chong's announcement this morning, you would have heard that the money collected for this Hong Bao collection will go to four organisations: 

-Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community

-St Hilda's Community Services (http://www.sthildascsc.org.sg/)

-Diamonds on the Street (http://www.diamondsonthestreet.com/about/)

-World Harvest Foundation (http://worldharvestfoundation.com/english/index.htm)

If you like, you can click on the links beside the organisation names above to find out more about what they do. Find out how your donation will help others! :)

Have an enjoyable long weekend with your family! See you on Monday! :)

_____________________________________________________________________________________

"...by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" -Acts 20:35

17 Feb 2015 (Tuesday)

Dear children,

These are today's reminders and announcements:

1) Show your parents your Maths Practice Test paper. Ask for a signature. Bring it back tomorrow for me to check.

2) By now, you should have a clear idea of how much time it would take for you to go to school every morning. From next Monday onwards, the school will be on a strict lookout for children who arrive in school late. You will be marked "late" on the attendance list if you are not yet standing with your class when the flag raising ceremony begins. "Late" markings against your name will affect your Conduct Grade. Your name will also be raised to the teachers in charge of discipline.

3) Bring a small bag or a file tomorrow. Have your pencil case with you too. As mentioned in class, I will be returning to you your Science Workbook and the practice papers we have completed so that you can have some time to prepare for your Science CA1 during the weekend.

4) You can wear your ethnic attire for the Chinese New Year celebration tomorrow.

5) Remind your parents that you will be dismissed at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

Thank you for the "Get-well-soon" card you gave me today. I am feeling better than yesterday.

Have an enjoyable evening with your family. See you tomorrow for our Chinese New Year celebration! :)

16 Feb 2015 (Monday)

Dear children,

These are today's reminders:

1) Your Science CA1 Paper will be held on next Thursday, 26 February 2015. The first three units that we have covered so far will be tested. Prepare well for it! 

2) Work on the second Science Topical Test Practice given to you today as homework. Skip questions 1, 3, 8, and 16(b). The knowledge needed for these 4 questions have not been taught in the three units that we have covered so far and will not be tested in your Science CA1. This practice paper is based on last year's Science CA1 paper, which covered more topics.

As mentioned today, there will be no Science Practice Test held in class for all Primary Three classes because we do not have time for that. Therefore, please treat this piece of homework as a Practice Test on your own. Work on it seriously. Time yourself. You should not take more than 45 minutes to complete it.

Bring the paper tomorrow. I hope to go through the answers with you tomorrow.

3) If you have not submitted your SwimSafer Programme form today, bring it tomorrow.

4) If your Maths Unit 2 booklets have not been checked by me, please bring them tomorrow.

5) You can start bringing in your Hong Bao collection from Wednesday onwards if you would like to help the needy. Place the money in the red packet that you received from me today and write your name and amount donated at the back of the red packet. The last day of the collection will be next Friday, 27 February.

6) We will be using Friday's timetable tomorrow from 7.45 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.. That means you should be wearing your P.E. attire. There will be Mother Tongue remedial/enrichment classes after school.

7) I have rewarded Pikachu, Minecraft and Diamond with 2 extra ice-cream sticks each because Isaac, Ranjiv and Samir were obedient in commenting about what they learnt from reading the Padlet wall about animals. As promised, this is the ice-cream sticks update for the past week:

Thundermans is now leading in the race, with Superstar and Mars following close behind. We are in Week 3 now. There is still time for your group to catch up. :)

Have a pleasant evening with your family. I hope to be well enough to be with you tomorrow. We have a lot to learn together. If you believe in God, please pray for Him to help me recover soon. Thank you.

See you soon. :)

Maths Practice Test 1

(Click on the chart if you want it to appear bigger)

20 ice-cream sticks
Richelle from Thundermans

16 ice-cream sticks
Yu Qi from Universe
Sujith from Truth

12 ice-cream sticks
Avery, Kaedee and Lai Ye from Thundermans
Marc, Thaneeisha and Yu Zhi from Mars
Genevieve from Universe
Huda, Matthew and Rowena from Superstar
Chu Fang and Ethan from Void
Chloe Lee and Samir from Diamond
Shaan from Minecraft

8 ice-cream sticks
Alden from Universe
Enrui and Isaac from Pikachu
Joshua from Superstar
Jia Ning from Truth
Sarah from Diamond
Keagan from Ninjas 

13 Feb 2015 (Friday)

Dear children,

(Click on the picture if you want it to appear bigger)

We began our day by taking a class photograph together because Mrs David thought it was rare that I was wearing my Air Force uniform to school. I think this is our first class photograph together. :)

She said she will be posting this photograph of us on the school's citizenry website as part of her Total Defence Day collection. It is not there yet, but do take a look at the website when you are free. You can find some interesting posts related to Social Studies on it. This is the web address:

http://citizenryshps.weebly.com/

We visited the garden at St. Hilda's Secondary School in the morning to learn more about plants. I am sure you enjoyed the interesting tour by Mr Bob, the teacher who grew and tended to all the plants you saw there. He knew so much about the plants! We also have Miss Florence to thank for helping us to arrange for this garden tour. Here are some photographs of you at the tour:

I hope you enjoyed the cupcakes baked by Chloe Pek and her family to celebrate Valentine's Day in advance. It is a good day to be reminded of friendship.

Later in the day, we had our spelling test. These are the 10 Super Spellers who earned 2 ice-cream sticks each for their groups:

Shineta from Minecraft
Jonathan from Void
Chloe Chiang, Conan and Keagan from Ninjas
Chloe Lee from Diamond
Thaneeisha from Mars
Avery from Thundermans
Olivia and Sujith from Truth

The rest of our time together was spent on the Maths Practice Test. I am looking forward to marking them later so that I will know who has earned ice-cream sticks for their groups. I will update this blog tomorrow morning with the names. If you cannot wait to know, you can check back tomorrow morning after 8 a.m.. ;)

These are today's reminders and announcements:

1)  Work on the Science Topical Practice Paper as homework. Complete all the questions except for questions 2, 6, 10 and 14. The knowledge needed for these 4 questions have not been taught in the three units that we have covered so far. Bring the paper on Monday. We will go through the answers together.

2) Have a green pen in your pencil case every day from Monday onwards. You will use that for corrections when I tell you to.

3) You would have received your Spelling Book. Complete your corrections and update your contents page before showing it to your parents and asking them for a signature.

4) If you are one of the 4 pupils who need a re-spelling test during Monday's recess, remember to prepare for it.

5) There will be no spelling next week. We will postpone Spelling (5) to the Friday of Week 8 -- 27 February.

6) Pass to your parents the letter about the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) Test Dates.

7) Pass to your parents the letter about the SwimSafer Programme. Let them know that this programme is compulsory for all P3 pupils. Submit the attached form to me on Monday. If you have SwimSafer certificates or other swimming-related certificates, photocopy them and attach them to the form. If your parents have questions regarding this programme, they can e-mail Mr Vai at ernestvai@yahoo.com.

8) If your Maths Unit 2 booklets have been checked by me today, you may keep them at home for future revision. If you did not bring them today, bring them on Monday for me to check.

9) We will be using Friday's timetable for next Tuesday from 7.45 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.. There will be Mother Tongue remedial that afternoon.

10) Start memorising the multiplication tables of 6, 7, 8 and 9. It takes time for your brain to take them in. If you have already mastered the multiplication table of 6, try 7 this weekend:

7 x 1 = 7

7 x 2 = 14

7 x 3 = 21

7 x 4 = 28

7 x 5 = 35

7 x 6 = 42

7 x 7 = 49

7 x 8 = 56

7 x 9 = 63

7 x 10 = 70

Some of you might find the techniques in this video useful for helping you pick up the multiplication tables:

Have an enjoyable weekend with your family! See you on Monday! :)

12 Feb 2015 (Thursday)

Dear children,

Here are today's reminders:

1) Bring along your attire for the drama performance tomorrow for Ms Asha to check. The attire is a black T-shirt and long, dark-coloured pants. After her check, you will leave them in the classroom. Bring them in a bag and label it with your name.

2) Prepare for your Spelling Test tomorrow. Your ice-cream sticks are waiting for you.

3) Prepare for your Maths Practice Test tomorrow by reviewing your Unit 1 and Unit 2 booklets. Remember to get your Unit 2 booklets signed. If you are really hardworking, you can even use some rough paper to work on the questions in those booklets a second time. Then, check your answers against what I have marked.

You can earn ice-cream sticks for your group by doing well for the paper.
Work very hard! ;)

If you score...

30 marks:                20 ice-cream sticks

28.5 to 29.5 marks:   16 ice-cream sticks

27 to 28 marks:         12 ice-cream sticks

25.5 to 26.5 marks:   8 ice-cream sticks 

Spend your time fruitfully this evening so that you can conquer your challenges tomorrow. See you! :)

11 Feb 2015 (Wednesday)

Dear children,

We had our first fire drill together this morning. Although the timing taken for the whole school to assemble at the Assembly Point was a short one, I was not impressed at all by our class's attitude towards the fire drill. Many of you did not show an attitude of seriousness and were slow to queue up in an orderly manner. Some of you were talking and laughing. Some were even taking your time to keep your things before you started queuing up. You know very well from my instructions two days ago that that is not acceptable. I expect you to treat future fire drills seriously.

We spent more time on science today. After looking at some of the sticky notes that your friends had put up on our animals research Padlet wall, we began the next topic on plants. We discussed where plants can be found, why they are important, and how they can be classified into flowering and non-flowering plants. Then, we compared and contrasted flowering plants with non-flowering plants and looked at the similarities and differences.

Without looking at your notes, try testing yourself with the following 10 questions to see if you can recall some of the important facts that we discussed:

1) What do plants need to stay alive?
2) Where can we find plants?
3) Why are plants important for other living things?
4) What are flowering plants? What are non-flowering plants? Can you give an example for each of them?
5) How do flowering plants reproduce? What about non-flowering plants?
6) What are the 5 parts of a flowering plant that we talked about?
7) What plant parts do flowering plants have but non-flowering plants do not?
8) Can you give an example of a plant with its roots found above ground?
9) Can you give an example of a plant with its stem found underground?
10) Do non-flowering plants bear fruits?

(You can refer to your notes to check your answers after you have tested yourself.)

I have made arrangements for us to visit the garden at St. Hilda's Secondary School on Friday morning to observe some of the plants there. We will spend our first two periods doing that.

During English lesson, we had an enriching discussion about the article that you read in Little Red Dot yesterday. I was very impressed that some of you had discussed your reading with your parents at home and that they had shared with you their experiences during the SARS period. Because of that, we had such a fruitful discussion today! I am looking forward to our future N.I.C.E discussions.

These are today's reminders:

1) Complete the following exercises in your orange "Revised Primary English" book.

Pages 11 and 12

-Exercises 8f, 8g and 8h

Pages 32 and 33

-Exercises 28, 29, 30, 31

Pages 78 and 79

-Exercises 74, 75 and 76

Pages 89 and 90

-Exercises 83a and 83b

You do not have to write out the sentences. Simply fill in the blanks or circle the answers in your book.

Bring the book tomorrow.

2) If you or your parents would like to make some Chinese New Year decorations to add to those already put up in our classroom, please bring them tomorrow or on Friday. Mdm Liew, the Chinese teacher in charge of decorating our classroom, is requesting for contributions from you. So far, I have received two decoration pieces from Kaedee. Since the classroom is ours to enjoy, I think it would be good if you could contribute too.

3) Prepare for Friday's Spelling Test. We will have it after your Mother Tongue period on Friday at 11.45 a.m..

4) Review your Maths Unit 1 booklets. We will be having the Maths Practice Test on Friday.

5) It was very disappointing that more than half the class had to spend time working on re-corrections in your Unit 2 Maths booklets today. Please put in more effort in your corrections and check before submitting.

6) Learn from one another's research about different animals by visiting the Padlet wall that our class has put together:

http://padlet.com/wongbengyu/i8ls7zp6fq9i

Write a comment on this post to share with me three interesting things that you have learnt from your friend's sharing.

7) One of the grasshoppers that Matthew brought to our classroom moulted today. If you are interested to watch again the 38-second video about grasshoppers moulting, click on this link:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/18448/A-grasshopper-molts-shedding-its-outer-layer-and-leaving-a


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

10 Feb 2015 (Tuesday)

Dear children,

These are today's reminders and announcements:

1) Pass to your parents the subscription form and Edusave form for the National Geographic magazine. Let them know that they can use your Edusave funds to pay for the magazine if they would like to subscribe to it for you. If you will be subscribing, bring the filled-up forms tomorrow and pass them to me. I will help you to pass them to the vendor at the canteen. If your parents would prefer to pay by cheque or cash, they should place the payment in an envelope with your name and class written on it.

2) If you have not finished reading the article "Growing Up in Singapore" on pages 18 and 19 of Little Red Dot, please read it at home. We will discuss the article tomorrow. You do not have to bring the newspapers to school.

3) Complete pages 124 and 125 of your orange "Revised Primary English" book. These are the exercises you should complete:

Exercise 104

Exercise 105

Exercise 106

Exercise 107

Exercise 108

Bring the book tomorrow.

4) If you have not posted your sticky note on the Padlet wall, do it by today. The web address is: http://padlet.com/wongbengyu/i8ls7zp6fq9i

5) Start preparing for the next Spelling Test to be held on Friday.

6) Start reviewing your two Unit 1 Maths booklets. 

7) I am still waiting for 6 spelling books to be submitted to me. If you are one of the 6 children who have not submitted, do so tomorrow.

8) We will be starting on the topic of multiplication soon. You should start memorising the multiplication tables of 6, 7, 8 and 9 soon. It takes time for your brain to take them in. You can start with the multiplication table of 6 today:

6 x 1 = 6

6 x 2 = 12

6 x 3 = 18

6 x 4 = 24

6 x 5 = 30

6 x 6 = 36

6 x 7 = 42

6 x 8 = 48

6 x 9 = 54

6 x 10 = 60

Have a fruitful evening. See you tomorrow.

9 Feb 2015 (Monday)

Dear children,

During English lesson, we went through the remaining corrections in the "The Gruffalo" booklet before completing the last comprehension exercise in it. We spent quite some time focusing on the editing and comprehension passages because those two items will be tested in your English Language Test in Week 9. I hope you paid your fullest attention.

While working on the comprehension passage, you practised your annotation skills again by underlining key words, drawing arrows to connect different parts of the passage, and writing short notes beside the passage. The "True/False" type of question was new to you, but I am confident that you now know how to answer it. Keep in mind that comprehension exercises this year will be a little more challenging. You have to understand the whole passage, not just parts of it. If you cannot understand a passage after reading it once, you might need to read it a few times. Annotating a passage will definitely help you understand it better.

During FTGP, you worked in your groups to come up with phrases to encourage, praise and motivate one another. Then, group by group, member by member, you took turns to share with your friends the phrases that your group came up with. I hope that this "Ring of Encouragement" activity will not just be an activity that we do for FTGP. It would be great if you could use some of the phrases that you learnt today to encourage, praise and motivate your friends when they are not feeling too good. We all need encouragement every now and then. Be an encourager to your friends!

During science lesson, we worked on some questions in your workbook which required us to know how animals are similar or different from one another because of their characteristics. You also learnt to read a flow chart and identify animals based on "Yes/No" questions asked in the flow chart. Then, you started working on your first mindmap in your Biology book to summarise what we have learnt about animals so far.

As promised, here is the ice-cream sticks update for the first week of February:

Mars is leading, with Minecraft closely following behind. Week 1 has passed, and we are in Week 2 of the month now. There is still time for all the other groups to catch up, isn't there? :)

These are today's reminders and announcements:

1) If you are holding on to your group's work for FTGP, please type out the words and phrases  in one comment on this post. Type your group's name at the top of your comment.

2) If you have not completed the science research task, please do it soon. Post your sticky note on this Padlet wall latest by tomorrow: http://padlet.com/wongbengyu/i8ls7zp6fq9i

I am very impressed by some of the sticky notes put up so far! :)

3) Start preparing for the next Spelling Test to be held on this Friday. 21 Super Spellers is too few for us. I am waiting for the day when we can have 40 Super Spellers and celebrate that together. Please make it happen soon. :)

4) We will be having a 45-minute Maths Practice Test later this week to help you review the 2 maths topics that we have completed. That will also help to prepare you for the upcoming Maths Test in Week 10. Your task over the next two days is to start reviewing your two Unit 1 booklets. Your Unit 2 booklets will be returned to you for revision once we finish going through the remaining corrections in class. You can start on those after that. Start revision early.

5) Your first issue of "Little Red Dot" newspapers will be arriving tomorrow morning. I have appointed Alden and Richelle to be the N.I.C.E. Monitors. Every Tuesday, they will reach school early at about 7 a.m. to help carry our class's newspapers from the foyer to the Parade Square. Once Alden and Richelle have placed our newspapers at the Parade Square, you may take a copy each and start reading it silently. Little Red Dot will be your silent reading material on Tuesdays.

6) There will be Maths Remedial class (2 p.m. to 3 p.m.) and English Remedial class (3 p.m. to 4 p.m.) tomorrow. If you are one of the pupils selected to attend these classes with me, please turn up on time at our classroom.

7) If you did not submit your Spelling Book to me today, do so tomorrow. Your corrections should have been completed and your contents page updated. I should see your parent's signature too.

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

6 Feb 2015 (Friday)

Dear children,

We have 21 Super Spellers for today's spelling test. These children earned 2 ice-cream sticks each for their groups:

Avery and Kaedee from Thundermans
Jing Min, Marc, Thaneeisha and Yu Zhi from Mars
Alden and Hoi Yung from Universe
Enrui and Isaac from Pikachu
Huda and Joshua from Superstar
Jonathan from Void
Dyrendo, Ranjiv, Shaan and Shineta from Minecraft
Sujith from Truth
Chloe Chiang from Ninjas
Chloe Lee and Sarah from Diamond

Mars and Minecraft have got 4 Super Spellers each. Both groups earned an additional 3 ice-cream sticks for that!

If your name is here, keep up the good work. If it is not, try harder for the next spelling test! You have got many more chances to help your group get closer to becoming the Group of February. The most important thing is this: Don't give up. Keep striving for excellence!

After the spelling test, we continued working on word problems involving comparison models for maths.

During science lesson, we learnt more about the characteristics of mammals and reptiles before working on an exercise in your workbook. By studying the pictures of some animals and looking closely at their characteristics, we classified them into different groups. We also observed their outer covering and discussed their different ways of reproducing. Do you remember which is the only group of animals out of the six which gives birth to their young?  

You had your fourth session of speech and drama class with Ms Asha in the afternoon. As I watched your rehearsal, I could see that you have improved since the last time I watched you. Here are some photographs and a video I took of you:

Ms Asha and I think that you can do even better than this. Here are four ways I think you can improve:

1) Memorise your lines. You need to know your lines perfectly well, because in two weeks' time, you will be standing on the stage and performing without anyone telling you what to say or when to say them! Before you meet Ms Asha next Friday, make sure you know every single line that you are supposed to say.

2) Project your voice. This is for everyone here - whether you are saying certain lines on your own or with a group. The audience need to hear clearly what you are saying. Then, the show will be a good one. You are not loud enough yet.

3) Big actions. Some of you are not bold enough with your actions. You are afraid to act. Don't be! Next lesson, watch carefully how Ms Asha does each action and follow her closely. If your role needs you to act angry, be very angry! If it requires you to sway your body, sway it fully! If your actions are not big enough, your audience will not be able to see anything from where they are seated.

4) Posture and position. Remember where you are supposed to put your hands and how you are supposed to stand as you say your lines. Some of you have no problems remembering your lines, but you freeze or put your hands in your pockets once you start speaking.  To make sure you are good at this, practise your actions and lines in front of your mirror. 

These are today's reminders:

1) For homework, click on the following links to watch two YouTube videos on mammals and reptiles:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_bETB8LXRk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBz00-Go3qg

There are also a few other videos on animals uploaded by Mrs Sarah Low on AskNLearn. If you have not watched them, please do so. They have been uploaded under the username "Tay Siew Hoon" and should be on your AskNLearn task list.

2) Research on an animal that you like. Find out about its animal group, its habitat (where it lives), how it breathes, how it reproduces, and 3 interesting facts about it. Then, click on the following link to go to a Padlet wall and paste a sticky note to share what you have found out:

http://padlet.com/wongbengyu/i8ls7zp6fq9i

I have shown you how to do this in class today. Complete this task by Tuesday. Do not worry if your sticky note covers another person's. I will move the notes around at a later time.

3)  You should try to complete the activities and reflections in your S.M.I.L.E booklet when you can. The S.M.I.L.E corner is ready for you to get your activities endorsed. In case you still do not know where it is, look at this picture:

4) If your blue Biology book is not yet in the classroom, please make sure you bring it in on Monday. We will be creating mindmaps on animals on Monday to summarise the chapter. 

5) The attire for the drama performance is a black T-shirt and long, dark-coloured pants. Get these ready. You will need to bring them next Friday for Ms Asha to check. After her checking, you will leave them in the classroom. 

Have an enjoyable weekend with your family. See you on Monday! :)