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! :)