Weekend!

Dear 3B,
I hope you had fun this week at your new Conversational Malay lessons as well as your Learning Journey to Science Centre!

Here's something for you to think about:
We learnt about some strange insects yesterday like the Katydid and leaf bugs.
So, think about it and find a strange animal that interests you and just write 2 lines about what is interesting about it .
Hope you have fun finding quirky animals!

Also, Please Bring WRITING paper on Monday ! We need it for our supplementary lesson.

Love,
Ms Priya :)

Crew Assignments for the Day (27 Mar 2012)

Dear 3B,
first let us commend the hardwork our 4 girls (Joanne, Joan, Liang Pin & Claudia) have put in the past few months working hard for the SYF Chinese Dance! Today was their SYF performance and I'm sure they have done well - so GREAT JOB GIRLS :) !!!

Crew Assignments :
1. Picture Composition ("Fire")
2. Ask parents to sign supplementary classes form (Dear parents, once again apologies on the inconvenience caused due to the transport arrangements).

Next,
here are the phrases we discussed for the composition on "Fire":

Your Contributions
- face (as white as a sheet)
-guilty
- stood rooted to the ground
- their hearts hammered under their skin
- frightened out of their wits
- panic was written all over their faces
- (the incident/the fire) scared the living daylights out of them

Other phrases we discussed:

So, hope there are some phrases here that catch your eye and you are motivated to use them in your compo. Have fun creating your stories!!!

Love,
Ms Priya :)

Crew assignments for the day- 26 Mar 2012

Dear 3B,
Please
- complete LS 4.5 ( verbs of thinking , sensing and action verbs)
- ask parents to sign spelling books and return it to school tmr

Recap: what were the 5 types of verbs we learnt and what are they used for? Share them with your family :)

Love,
Ms Priya :)

Crew Assignments for the Day - 22 Mar 2012

Dear 3B,
Please bring your
- Maths File &
- Maths workbook 3A part 2
tomorrow!

See you!

Love,
Ms Priya :)

Crew Assignments for the Day (21 March 2012)

Dear 3B,
please ask your parents to
- read the Welcome to Term 2 letter &
- fill in the feedback form!

Kindly return it to me by the end of this week (23rd March 2012).

See you tomorrow!

Love,
Ms Priya :)

Science Investigation Day 7

Dear 3B,
today marks the final day of our Science investigation. Looking at the number of queries, I can see most of you at the edge of your seats to find out what has happened to our bread.

A picture says a thousand words, so here goes...

Any changes?

The flourishing fungi (mould)!

Yep, a special close-up shot just for you!




So, what do you think? What is the conclusion you can arrive at,  at the end of the experiment?
Think about it and we'll discuss it tomorrow!

Meanwhile,
I would like to know your thoughts on this online Science investigation!
What did you think of it? Did you enioy it? Was it a hassle for you?
Share your thoughts!

Love,
Ms Priya :)

PS-  Crew Assignments for 20 Mar 2012 : Maths Unit 13 Bar Graphs Workbook Pages 66 -74

Crew Assignments for the Day - 19 March 2012 (Term 2 Day 1)

Dear 3B,
welcome back after the week long break. I was quite disappointed that I had students who forgot to bring/do assignments. Remember the P in EXPLORE - Positive & Prepared at all times! So, please check that you've done all your work and placed them in your bag before you go to sleep.
Your parents do their best to help you with school but you cannot blame them for your mistakes - BE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN LEARNING.
I expect the numbers to be drastically reduced and I trust it can be done!

Today,
1. Please remember to ask your parents to sign the consent form for the LJ to the Science Centre on the 29th of March 2012 (NEXT Thursday).

See you tomorrow!

Love,
Ms Priya :)

Science Investigation Day 5

Dear 3B,
 Patience pays off. Our blog has been abuzz with all the excitement about when our fungi friend would pop up...Lo and behold...

Nah, nothing on the toasted bread...But...



Do you see what I see? ;)

Yep! Our moist bread has mould on it!

See? Scientists must have the patience to wait for results. Sketch this in your 3rd column. We'll continue studying the growth in class and discuss this further.

I can't wait to see you in Term 2!

Love,

Ms Priya :)

Science Investigation Day 3

Dear 3B,

I'm glad to see most of you excited about our Science investigation. Thank you Lawrence for alerting us to the show Endeavour was on- hope most of you managed to watch it!

As for our experiment, I will be posting up the pictures two days once as the growth of mould is not a very fast process. It's just like how you guys don't grow up overnight right? It takes time!
So, here are the pics for Day 3...

So...

What do you observe? If there are any changes you see, what are they?

Remember to record your observations in your Activity Book. After Day 1's entry, the next row, please fill it in as Day 3.

I would also like to share something that I read on our blog - Chloe asked a very good question:

 How long will it take for fungi to grow?

Being scientists, I want you to think about this question. If you were to guess about the time taken for fungi to grow, what are some factors you would need to think about?

When I say "factors", I'm referring to some things/conditions that will affect the time taken for the mould to grow on the bread.

For example, if I were to use a piece of wholemeal bread and a piece of white bread - would it make a difference?

Think of some other factors and SHARE what comes to your mind!

When your classmate share their thoughts, do chip in and let them know what you think as well!

Have fun exploring, my dear scientists!

Love,

Ms Priya :)

Science Investigation for the Holidays!

Dear 3B,

hope you've been enjoying your holidays!

Today is Day 1 of our Science investigation (Activity 6.2) of your Science Activity Book.

Adding moisture to the bread (Sprinkled some water!)

The "moisturised" bread

Placed the toasted bread in a Ziploc bag.

Placed the moist bread in the ziploc bag



I apologise for the orientation of the picture! I can't seem to rotate the picture.
Anyway, the stage is all set for the experiment. Do note that the tiny black speck you see on the Moist bread is not significant. It's just a speck of dirt, I guess.
So observe the bread and fill in the first row of your table in Activity 6.2 (DAY 1).

Shall update you over the next few days!

Love,

Ms Priya :)



Homework Reminders

Dear 3B,
Here are the tasks for you to complete over the holidays :
1. Maths - CA1 paper
2. EL- compre booklet exercises 2 & 3
And
Log on to LMS ( there will be 3 assignments to be completed )
3. Science: check out our blog from Wednesday onwards so that you can carry out activity 6.2 in your activity book...

Alright, I'm off for my camping trip - happy holidays my dear 3B !!!

Love,
Ms Priya :)

It's the end of Term 1!

Dear Parents,
It's been 10 weeks since your child has become a part of 3B!
So, what are the vibes you've been getting? Do they enjoy school? Have they made new friends or are they still hanging out with their P2 friends? Do they like their teachers and lessons?
These are questions that are good to reflect about at the end of the first term.
Have a brief chat with your kids over the holidays and find out how they feel so that we can be aware of how well they've settled into the class :).

Some of Our Accomplishments thus far…

·         Performed for Rainbow Day 1 (the video will be posted on the class blog soon!)

·         Served as Buddy Leaders for the Primary 1 pupils

·         Chose & settled into CCAs (for the first timers)

·         Visited Kampong Glam for a Learning Journey

·         Learnt how to add pictures, transitions and animations to PowerPoint Slides & applied this in their Writing Task for EL

·         Wrote Action Verb Poems

·         Completed a Reading Challenge

·         Completed a classification project and did a Show-and-Tell on this

·         Explored classification ideas by going on mini-exploratory trips to the canteen, Science Garden & other parts of the school during Science lesson

·         Started on knowledge-building for Science using “Post-it”s in class and

the class blog as a platform to exchange ideas

·         Attended a Knowledge Forum training session

and the list goes on… Do ask your child if you wish to find out more!

Indeed our pupils have worked really hard and I hope they enjoyed the activities and lessons in school. They deserve a pat on the back and it’ll mean a lot to them if it comes from you!

It was a pleasure to meet most of you during the Meet The Parents Session today. I was happy to see the pupils bringing some of you around the classroom, excitedly sharing with you the environment they study in.

I do apologise for the lengthy wait some of you had today. It's our first meeting for most of you and hence there was room for quite a detailed introduction/feedback session. Despite this, I'm glad that 3B parents waited very patiently - THANK YOU!

For those of you who were unable to meet me today, here are some updates for you to take note of:

1. Problem : P2 - P3 - The Gap (Where are the 90s???)
  
  For both students and parents ,  this term's CA cards may seem quite different from last year's end of year assessment. Most of the 100s and 90s seemed to have left the scene and what you may be seeing are 70s and lower end of 80s. In fact, the average mark for 3B EL was 80.0 and there were only 8 Band 1s.

The main reason behind this is , as your child goes to the next level, the standards and expectations also rise. Hence, the children's writings, while excellent for P2 standards, may not score as well based on P3 standards. Comprehension questions may also seem trickier.

In terms of Science, the CA marks may not be a true indicator of how they would perform in the SA1 as it was based on a project that they did at home and presented in class. There was no formal test given as this is the term for Alternative Assessment. Based on my time spent with the children, I realise that while most of them get the basic facts, they have difficulty applying this facts to answer Science process skills questions.

2. Solution - (Teacher)  Supplementary

In Term 1 , there were no remedial classes held for 3B pupils as I needed some time to get to know them and their academic strengths and weaknesses. As a class, these are the 3 areas they tend to be weak in:

1. Comprehension
2. Composition (writing "skeleton stories" or the bare minimum , without any details/logic checks)
3. Science Process Skills

Since these are the weak areas for most , if not all pupils, I felt it'll be better for all of them to attend supplementary classes rather than I single out a small group at a time. This supplementary lessons will be more like mini-workshops, where pupils focus on 1 specific skill/week (either compo/compre/process skill)  and the activities for the lesson will all be based on that  particular skill.

Supplementary classes will tentatively be held on Mondays 1345-1545 (to be confirmed - a letter will be sent to you in Term 2, Week 1)

In addition to this, to help students to familiarise themselves with Science questions as well as to get feedback on how much they have learnt, a mini-quiz will be given out at the end of each/a few Science topics.


3. Solution - Parent (What can you do to help?)

·         Reading

         Please encourage your children to read. In school, once a week, 3B pupils have a reading period where I read a story to them and they are then given some time to read a book of their choice. The response so far has been positive and I hope that during the holidays they continue to keep up this habit!

          Another way is to give your child a copy of Today or The Straits Times and ask them to browse through it (Please do not force them to read something you choose). Give them the freedom to choose an article, be it long or short and ask them to read it first. Following that, put the paper away and ask your child to share with you what the article is about.

          If the child is able to retell what he/she has read in his/her own words, that shows that he/she is able to understand the text (comprehension skills). Moreover, reading newspaper articles exposes them to different text types and good sentence structures as well. Do remember that a longer article may not be always better than a shorter one - it's more important that the article is chosen by your child :).

·         Virtual Learning

I understand that some of you have certain rules regarding the usage of the Internet during the weekdays. While it is good that the children’s usage is being monitored, I’ll appreciate it if during the holidays, the children are able to access the class blog at least two times next week. I’ll be posting weblinks for the children so that they can explore them and reinforce what they have learnt in this term. Moreover, assignments have been posted on the LEAD portal (MConline) as part of their holiday homework.

In addition, if you would like to get a glimpse of what goes on in school, excursions, etc, you can visit the class blog as well to look at the photographs!

·         Homework

In my first letter to you, I shared some expectations with regards to the pupils’ behaviour. This term, I had pupils who forgot to bring/do their work. This was after I had checked that they had written the day’s assignments in their pupil handbook. Hence, in future, I would need your cooperation to check with your child about their daily assignments. Please check your child's handbook, Homework File and timetable daily.

      If you've been patiently reading through this long blog post - I thank you!

      I would like to end off by saying a heartfelt "Thank You " to all of you for being cooperative! I’m glad to see that whenever you have concerns, you highlight it to me via SMS or email. Just in case, for a quick reference, here’s my contact details once again :

     E-mail (preferred form of communication): priya.endeavours@gmail.com

Thank you and hope you have a wonderful time with your children these holidays!

Warmest Regards,
Ms Priya :)