Monday 17/1 and Tue 18/1

On Monday

We reviewed what we learnt about Preposition last Friday….Preposition are words that tells us the position of a thing or a person…

Eg.

• In: We are in the classroom.
• On: The pen is on the table.
• Out: The butterfly flew out the room.
• Over: The bird flew over the tree.
• Up: The cat climbed up the tree.
• Under: The marker is under the whiteboard.
• Down: The boy fell down the stairs.

We also reviewed on Past tense ‘Didn’t or ‘did’.

Any action verbs immediately after the words ‘didn’t and ‘did will always be in root word where there should not be any ‘ed’, ‘es/s’ and ‘ing.

eg. The girl didn’t go to the Zoo.

As the students seem to find this rather confusing, I will be review this concept many times…

Today’s work… (18/1)

1. We reviewed yesterday’s grammar concept for the past tense word ‘didn’t’ and ‘did’.

some mistakes students made:

• Most students made the mistake of writing past tense verb after didn’t.
• Some students spelt the past tense of make as maked. However, we corrected it and realised that it should be made.

2.      Meanwhile, we learnt how to write sentences using the verbs learnt in Fearless Phil. The students had to write the sentences in both present and past tense.

eg. Present: Fearless Phil flexes his muscles and scares the lion.

      Past: Fearless Phil flexed his muscles and scared the lion.

3. Finally, we reviewed the grammar rules learnt for the past few lessons and identified the Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives in the sentences.

Homework for 18/1:

The students are given a vocabulary cloze passage on the theme of adventure and holiday. Though the words may not be the same ones from Fearless Phil, I would like to expand the children’s knowledge.

Being new in a class…

Being in a Primary 3 class is really not easy for the children…. Afterall, they had been with the same Primary 1 and 2 class for 2 years and some of them even have the same teacher for 2 years. Hence, I do hope that parents will understand that some of the children may go home feeling lost…

I have been talking to the children about being with new friends… so they are still in the process of getting used to the new class… It take probably a month or 2 before the children start to develop a sense of belonging to the class and let go of any barriers they set with their new friends.

Some children may even go home thinking that I am rather strict in class. However, I do emphasize alot on behavior as the children will learn better in an environment where there are less disruption in class. At this point of time, there aren’t any behaviorial issues in the class as the children are overall very well behaved. I would like to thank parents for helping to check your child’s work too.

I would like to ensure all parents that during lesson time (when I am teaching) and seatwork (when the children are doing their work), the class is very quiet and well behaved. At times, I do feel that they are alittle too quiet as they are worried about how the others think when they make any comments during discussions. Hence, I would also liven up the class a little with more discussions and activities so that we can have ’meaningful noises’ in our class…

Term 1 week 2′s work…

Last week, we started reading the new big book ‘Fearless Phil’. Here’s a recap on what was done from las Wed to Fri…

Wed (12/1)

• We started the lesson by reading ‘Fearless Phil’ using the Shared Book Approach (SBA). I read the book to the students and questioned them about the different parts of the story. As the story proceeds, I encouraged them to make predictions about the story.

• At the end of the story, we made a list of words that appeared in the story before we explained the meaning of the words. These are some of the important words from the book.

Grumble, jacket, mountain track, muscles, pack, stomach, fearless, menacing, quiver, shiver, flexed, bolted, bouncing, invincible.

• We also went through the 2 kinds of similes: as…as and like….

as fast as light, as fierce as lion, as timid as mouse, as hungry as a bear, as proud as a peacock,

like the rocks in the river, like a bullet, like silk, like a leaf, like a lark.

Thurs (13/1)

• We discussed about adjectives with opposite meanings.  I explained to the students that Adjectives are descriptive words. Here are some of the adjectives we went through the the opposite adjectives.

hungry/full

scared/ fearless

menacing/ harmless

tired/ rested

heavy/ light

boring/ interesting

dirty/ clean

loose/ tight

short,long/tall

fast/slow

beautiful,pretty, handsome/ugly

hardworking/lazy

rough/ smooth

early/late

Friday (14/1)

We reviewed the lesson on opposite adjectives and constructed sentences using ‘but’ that consist of the 2 opposite adjectives.

eg. I thought the book was interesting but it was so boring that I stopped reading the book.

The children also learn about new ways we expand our vocabulary: Sound web.

Sound webs allows students to make a list of words that begin, end or has the sound indicated in the middle of the paper. For instance, we went through afew sounds in class:

1. /f/: fear, famous…
2. /qu/: quake, quack…
3. ending sound /ch/: stomach, headache…
4. /ack/: track, lack…
5. /ble/: trouble, able…

The students engaged in group activities and presentation of their sound webs so as to learn about Teamwork through a vocabulary lesson.

A new beginning for 3H

Welcome back to the new school term. As this year, I will be teaching Primary 3H for English, Art and Music, the main focus of my blog this year will be on English.

Though I may be away for the first week of the school term, I would like to assure all parents that the children’s learning will not be affected. Hence, let’s work together to ensure that your child learns in a discipline yet comfortable environment.

I will be issuing a letter to all parents to let you know about our class rules, books required and to gather some information from you. This will help us communicate better and understand your child better.

For English lession this week:

I will be starting on a new big book ‘Fearless Phil’ and the routine of the big books will be the same as how the children had been doing in Primary 1 and 2. I will be puting up a post on how the Shared Book Approach (SBA) is done in class.

Meanwhile, I do need the children to purchase the student handbook so that your child can note down the important information you may need. Please do check yor child’s student handbook daily so as to keep an update on what is going on in school.

Fear for school?

Some children are beginning to adapt to the new environment and even started to help their friends. Meanwhile some children are beginning to realise that school is going to be long term. Hence, some children started to feel worried and misses home only after a few days they had started.

Moreover, we will be starting our new timetable tomorrow. Hence, the children will be going home only when the school ends at 1.30p.m. I foresee that tomorrow will be a tough day for the children as they will have to cope with longer time in the classroom.

However, I will still be emphasizing on the class routines and rules for the next few weeks while we start our lessons proper. Children who develop good routines and have a idea of what is considered good behavior tend to learn better when they go to the upper primary. So do not be afraid that your child may come home saying that the teacher raised her voice at him. Or his friends bullied him. Most of the children do not have an idea that playing rough is not right. However, I have to reinforce the importance of discipline in class so that the children can learn to work in a team rather than individuals.

We’ll be having temperature taking tomorrow at 8a.m. I’ve washed the thermometers and the children will be washing the thermometer during recess. They will bring the thermometer home and learn to be responsible for their own thermometer.

About first and second day of school…

How was first day of school for all the children and parents? I’m sure the children must be excited and school must have been quite overwhelming for some of the children.

On Monday, we had discussed about temperature taking exercise that the school will be having on Thursday. The children will be issued a personal oral digital thermometer. Rest assured that I’ll wash the thermometers before the children use them on Thursday. I’ve gone through with the children why we need to take our temperature and how they can take their temperature using the thermometer. I’ll go through the procedures tomorrow and Thursday before they take the temperature so that they will not be confused.

We’ve also discussed about the class rules we have in our class. It is important for us to have class rules so that the children learn to settle down quickly with the rules and routines set in. When children are more settled down, they will learn better as they will concentrate on learning and not on other things. Children at a young age do need some boundaries so as to understand what action is considered socially desirable. (Lee canter’s Assertive Discipline)

Today, the children complete a Math numeracy activity to find out the needs of the children and how we can help your child learn Math better. Moreover, with the Mother Tongue orientation lesson today, we had very little time to collect the books from the children. I had collect some books but due to the changes in the booklist, I sent out another letter to explain the need to collect the triple-lined ex books instead of the broad line exercise book. Some students had given their jotter books to their Mother Tongue teachers. Therefore, they need to bring another 2 more for English.

Tomorrow, we’ll be going through some class routines and select our class committee.

Beginning of a new school year

Time seems to have passed so quickly that before you knew it, the holidays are over. Soon, it will be a new school year for the new primary one in our school. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome the new children and parents to our school.

It will be an exciting year ahead as I have a lot of new teaching strategies, activities planned for my new 1A class. I hope that children will learn to love learning and enjoy coming to school.

However, let’s not forget that it is also very important for our children to learn in a safe environment with proper routines. Therefore, I do stress a lot on class rules and routines.

Here are my class rules:

1. Keep quiet, pay attention and listen while the teacher is teaching.

2. Put up your hand if you need to speak or ask a question.

3. One voice at a time.

4. Hand in completed work on time.

Meanwhile, the children will learn the importance of teamwork and working together like a family rather than an individual. This is an important 21st Century skill as children will have to cooperate with others to gain the best results rather than working alone. Children gain more from interaction with their peers than studying alone.

Some children may feel uncomfortable with so many new rules and routines set in school. Hence, they may be resistent towards the rules and routines at the beginning. However, once they are used to the rules and routines, they will be able to concentrate much better in class and focus on their lessons. Therefore, I hope that parents will understand that your  child may feel restricted. Do help to reinforce the values we instill in school even at home as it will prepare your child to learn better in school as children will learn only when they are settled down in school.

I will be discussing the importance of reading and some of my English language strategies in the new few post.

reviewing of various grammar concepts

During English lesson, the children went through a few learning sheets that they had completed as homework. We discussed how to identify the clue words in the sentences so as to identify the answers for the multiple choice questions.

The children identified words to show the tenses of the sentences and whether the answer should be plural or singular. They will also link the answers to the clue words. We find this method effective as they are able to check whether their answers are right. 

Tomorrow, we review on quantifiers and tenses through learning sheets before we have our chance to act out a play in class based on the story ‘The grasshopper and the ant’.

During our Math lesson,

we completed a topical review on fractions. There are some common errors where the children made. For instance, when they are suppose to arrange from smallest to greatest, the children did it the other way round.

Moreover, when they are suppose to select the greatest, they selected the smallest.

The children also made a mistake of selecting diagrams that don’t show equal parts when they are suppose to select only diagrams that are cut into equal parts.

sorry for the long absence…

My apologies for not being able to update the blog for such a long period of time. I’ve been rather occupied with preparation of lessons, National performance and H1N1. I hope that all of you will still continue to check the blog and support us!

During English lessons:

For the past month, the children had done various books such as ‘What will the weather be like today?’, ‘A world of tools’ and now we’re reading a new book ‘The grasshopper and the ant’. As seen in the learning sheets given back to the children for revision for the previous topical review, the children had learnt quite a lot of grammar concepts. I will review on these grammar concepts again next week when the children write the notes for these grammar rules in their SBA book.

Currently, we began reading the book ‘The grasshopper and the ant’ where the children had learnt about the following grammar concepts:

1. contractions: To shorten and join 2 words using apostrophe.

eg. I will–> I’ll, he will–> he’ll, she will–> she’ll, they will–> they’ll

      It is–>it’s, There is–> there’s, he is–> he’s, what is–> what’s

      cannot–> can’t, must not–> mustn’t ,  are not–> aren’t

      he would–> he’d, I would–> I’d

Hence these are words that are ‘contracted’ so as to show as the short form.

       2.    Compound words: join 2 words to form a new word. 

This is different from contraction. It is 2 words joined to form a new word that has a different meaning.

eg. butter and fly–> butterfly.   news and paper–> newspaper

There should be no spacing between the 2 words as I realised that the children still tend to leave a spacing between the 2 words. eg. butter   fly.

      3.    vocabulary: ant, bee, butterfly, fall (autumn), grasshopper, insects,                   narrator, summer, winter, musical instrument, zest.

The children completed a class word wall before they completed an individual word wall in their word bank book.

     4.    Phonics: The children completed sound web on the sound /ng/ before they completed a puzzle on this sound.

eg. /ng/: sang, long, king, thing.

    5.    adjectives and comparative adjectives: 

expensive, more expensive and most expensive.

The first one is used to simple describe. Hence it is an adjective.

The second and third one are comparative adjectives as they needed more than 1 thing to compare. However, the last one has the word: the, before it.

eg. The most expensive.

Therefore, when the children spot the clue words, they will be able to use the comparative adjective correctly.

These are the few grammar concepts that the children had done last week. I’ll update this week’s grammar concepts tomorrow.

nouns and pronouns.

The children learnt about nouns and pronouns during term 1 and 2. Most are familiar with nouns but confused over pronouns.

There are 2 types of nouns: proper and common nouns. Proper nouns are names of specific things. eg. John, Woodlands. Hence, they are always in capital letter. Meanwhile, common nouns are names of general things. eg. tables, chairs. The children made a list of the 2 types of nouns yesterday. Using the list of nouns, the children changed them into pronouns.

Pronouns are words that we can use to replace the nouns. eg. it, they, he, she…

It would be redundant if the children write their sentences this way:

The children went to the zoo. The children saw some monkeys.

It would be better if its: The children went to the zoo. They saw some monkeys. ‘They’ is the pronoun of children.

The class completed a learning sheet before we went on to review on conjunctions.

We reviewed on the conjuncts: ‘and’ and ‘when’. We also learn about a new conjunction ‘or’. When do we use them?

‘and’: when we want to combine 2 or more things. eg. Calvin and Hobbs.

‘when’: when something happens, another thing happens.

‘or’: to choose between 2 things. eg. milk or coffee.

We also completed another learning sheet about these new grammar concepts.

For my Math class, we did a surprise class test though some are unable to finish in time. Hence, I allowed the children to complete as homework but without the help of others so that I can access their understanding.