Term 2 Week 3

Dear all,

As we approach the midweek of term 2 week 3, let us recap on what we have done so far in our classroom learning:

English

We went through your composition corrections and the mark range for this unit's composition writing is average and lower than the last one.

Strengths:

• Able to apply the focus writing introduction and conclusion.
• Able to use the helping words given to you appropriately.

Weakness:

• Spelling and tenses 
• Not able to elaborate on the story such as describing why the two men were speeding and what had caused the crash
• Not able to describe the injuries the two men suffered and what the passers-by did to help them
• Fail to include the other characters in the story and elaborate on them

We also went through the new format of situational writing which is a write-up. A write-up is essentially about writing an information on a subject/event. The tone is usually formal. You have to take a look at the role and audience too! If you are writing to someone of a higher authority, you definitely need to be formal and polite in your language.

Structure of write-up

Dear _________________,

     State the purpose. Points 1 - 3 in the first paragraph.

     Points 4 - 6 in the next paragraph.

Name

Position if any. 

Skills to take note when doing your situational writing.

1. Read the question first
2. Identify the format of the situational writing and note the structure you should use!
3. Identify and write down your role and who you are writing as.
4. Identify your audience and the tone of language you should use.
5. Read the passage/note/advertisement

Science

We started on the topic of 'Living Together' and talked about the importance of living organisms, population, habitat and community. We built a terrarium to have a look at the topic of living together. A terrarium is useful as it is a representation of real life natural habitats.

We also talked briefly about the food chain.

Sun --> Plants --> Deers --> Lion

We talked about the first item of the food chain being the most importance. Without it, there will be a chain effect in which it affects the rest of the items. For example, when the plants all die, the deers will have no food and source of energy and they will die over time. Likewise, the lions will also die over time. This living community will not be able to function or survive.

Today, we examined the pond community in which the habitat is the pond. The living organisms that could be found are the water hyacinth, duckweed, hydrilla, cattail, elodea (PLANTS), guppies and tadpoles (ANIMALS). They all are living organisms coming together to live in the pond community.

We talked about how the water hyacinth and duckweed can survive and float above the water. The roots are submerged in the water to absorb water. For the duckweed, the leaves are waxy and this enables water to run off the leaves completely so that it is kept dry and will not cause the plant to sink. For the water hyacinth, it has swollen leaf stalks which contain air. The trapped air enables to plant to float on the water and not sink.

We also talked about the rotting log community and leaf litter community.

Other matters

Don't forget to bring your newspapers and tie them up for the recycling competition. We will have group points awarded for the groups with the most newspapers in our own class too!

Have you started revising on your oral?

Today, we celebrated International Friendship Day. Are you accepting of other races and religion? Let us remember that all men are equal and we should not discriminate others.

Have a good week ahead,
Sincerely,
Mr Nelson Ong