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 :)