Haze, School reopen and Crucial term

Dear all,

It's coming to the end of the holidays and we are finally back to school. Hope your holidays have been well. A few issues I will be addressing before school reopens.

Haze

The PSI has been in the moderate range these past few days as compared to the highs of 300s - 400s. We cannot take for granted that the conditions will remain as it is used and being your crucial term, do take good care of yourselves. Those who have sensitive nose and asthma, do drink more water and take good care of yourselves.

School will reopen as usual and there will be daily temperature taking for term 3 so do bring your thermometers EVERYDAY. Exercise self-responsibility and discipline and do not take your health for granted. :) If the PSI forecast for the next school day is over 300 and in the hazardous range, MOE will make the announcements by 6pm that day on school closures so do remain alert for the news. Outdoor activities will be suspended for the mean time with more activities to take place indoors.

Revision 

I hope you have finished your S.E.E booklets as we will be spending the first week in going through the piles of work being done in the first 2 weeks of the extra June lessons. Come prepared to go through your papers and correct your mistakes made. You should have started revising on your Science past year topics/concepts. Same goes for the rest of the other subjects. English files will be given back by the end of term 1 so that you can go back to look through your papers and notes.

PSLE booklets should also be done as I will be going through the PSLE booklets every now and then. Do bring your PSLE booklets everyday. Supplementary lessons and remedial lessons will resume from week 1 as per normal. There will be no changes. Nearer to the PSLE examinations, I will organize Saturday lessons in the morning as extra lessons. This will be updated again.

100% Effort 

Week 3 - start of Prelims Oral Exams

Week 5 - Start of Prelims written papers exams

Week 7 - Start of PSLE Oral exams

End of September: PSLE Begins!

Thus, 100% effort and concentration is essential in class. I cannot teach you how much effort you give in class. I can only motivate you to give your 100% effort. The rest is up to you and I really urge you to put away all distractions this term and give your all. The target still stands: 100% passes for English and Science and I want to extend this out to Maths and Chinese too. Many of you have made the improvements for maths and chinese and it is a waste to give up now. You may not have done well but now is the time for you to turn it around. We start from scratch again and it is your time to correct whatever mistakes in the past and do well right now. NEVER EVER GIVE UP. :)

We are all behind you!

Motivation and encouragement

This term, the focus is on motivation and encouragement. Last 2 terms, I focused alot on discipline and coming down hard on you for every small mistakes made so that you learn and you eradicate mistakes you make. This term, it is all about motivating you and encouraging you to take the step forward each day. No more looking back. It is all about going forward now. Parents, encouragement is essential for a child's growth. It is easy to pinpoint mistakes and come down hard on our kids but to praise them is something that we need to do too. You know your kid well and you know the approaches to deal with them in the best way possible but do take time to encourage and build up their self-esteem. This is key to giving them the mental aspect to do well.

To do well, a child's mental, physical and academic aspects are important.
Mental - their motivational level, their desire to take up their own discipline to strive for their targets they set themselves.
Physical - their physical well-being, exercising and health. It affects how they concentrate and work in class.
Academic - their ability to retain knowledge and internalise concepts to apply to their academics and daily lives.

We need to work hand in hand to help them for all these 3 aspects :)

As we embark on term 3, this is one BIG term that we all need to work together. I look forward to guiding you and walking with you on this last journey of your primary school life. Have a great time back at school again and endure the stress that may come your way and embrace it.

Thank you,
Sincerely,
Mr Nelson Ong

The last day of June Holidays Lessons

Dear all,

My heartfelt thanks for all who turned up. I know that it is not easy to get you to wake up early as per usual during school holidays and turn up for 5 days of lessons. We are perhaps the only class with 5 days of lessons but the main aim is to develop all of you with 5 times the effort and work dedication to prepare you harder for the PSLE. So once again, thank you for the wonderful attendance and with every hard work, comes the little food appreciation today. Here is a recap of the important points we have done today:

English

We worked on composition, finishing up the last practice on the continuous writing of queuing up to pay for items at a supermarket when a fire alarm went off. Today, I briefed you specifically on the key aspects of the situation such as the place (supermarket), characters (you and your dad as the main characters with the other characters being the people in the supermarket) and the main action of the fire alarm going off. What caused it? Who caused it? Why did it go off?

Some good vocabulary words and phrases to be used:

• Arsonist - Person who commits the crime of setting properties on fire. 
• One man's actions can bring about negative impact on others.
• I survey the wreckage of the building.
• The building was burnt to the ground. 

Homework:

Continue on to complete your PSLE booklets so that we can come and discuss in term 3 and September Holidays

Science

We finished up on the workbook activities on adaptations and the main ideas for today are:

• Remember the adaptations of camels, polar bears, crabs, penguins and cactus. 
• Polar bears have sharp claws in order to catch prey and to break open the ice above the water surface to reach for water.
• Tendrils are parts of the climbers (stems that are modified) that are used to curl or twine around a support in order to reach for sunlight. E.g Passion Fruit Plant
• Clasping roots are roots in specific that helped to climb and twine around supports to obtain sunlight. One such example is the money plant.
• Roses have hooks and thorns to help it hook onto support of other trees to climb higher.

Read this article for more information.

• Most plants have leaves but for the ferns, their leaves are actually specifically known as FRONDS. Ferns reproduce from spores. 
• Water lettuce have HAIRY LEAVES but Water Hyacinth have waxy leaves.

 Water Hyacinth

Water Lettuce

• However, both of them have air spaces that enable their leaves to float on water. Water Hyacinth has swollen leave stalks that contain air sacs to trap air. Air is lighter than water and hence, the plant floats on the water.

Homework:

SEE Worksheet 

PSLE Booklet

I will update the blog every now and then for revision and to recap some of the points of this term again. Please work hard and as mentioned, we have only that limited time left to prepare for PSLE which is your end goal. Of course, lets' work together on playing hard and working hard. Take time to also recharge and relax yourself and manage your stress management. Do not tire yourself out and parents, remember to encourage while pushing your kids along. :) Work hard!

Enjoy your holidays,

Sincerely,

Mr Nelson Ong

June Holiday Supplementary Lessons

Dear all,

One more day to go and thank you for the good attendance so far. It's been 4 days of extra revision. Here is a recap of what we have done so far.

English

We have completed Supplementary Unit 9 worksheet and grammar and vocabulary practice 3. Key points that we have learnt is that for uncountable nouns, they are used in the singular form. For example, money is uncountable (we do not say one money, two money) and therefore, money is used in the singular form. The money stolen from by the robber is from the bank.

Check this list out for uncountable nouns. It will be good for you to remember.

As long as you see the word 'Every', it is used in the singular form.
Everyone,
Everything,
Everybody.

They are all used singularly.

Science

We have wrapped up on Adaptations, focusing on Adaptation for protection and reproduction. Adaptations refers to ways in which organisms survive, using their structural or behavioural adaptations.

Structural adaptations refer to the body structure or parts while behavioural adaptations refer to the actions of the organisms.

Adaptations for protections include behaviour (show of strength or dominance), body coverings (to protect oneself). Slow animals use their shells to compensate for their lack of speed like the snails or tortoise.

If you have the time, do watch the above documentaries on adaptations for protection and reproduction. Some of the videos are about 1 hour long. So do ask your parents for permission first. You can always watch them on your phone if you have 3G or wi-fi connection.

Plants adapt to their environment to survive. they use different body parts to protect themselves from unfriendly elements in the environment. 

A. Tendrils for support - tendrils of grapes are homologous to the stem regions of an inflorescence. they form adhesive disc that coil to firmly attach the plant. Other plants with tendrils are THE PASSION FRUIT PLANT, ampalaya and squash .

B. Enlarged roots for food storage - Many plants have large root storage capacities. Starch and other substances are stored for growth and food source. Examples are beets, carrots and sweet potatoes.

C. Thorns  and spines for protection - thorns protect roses form human and animal attack; Cacti have spines to protect them form harm.

D. fleshy stem for water storage - both aloe vera and cactus have big, fleshy stem. this enable tham to store enough water to endure the strong sunlight or dry season.

E. shiny  Leaves - shiny leaves to prevent damage of the inner part. 

F. Enlarged air spaces - Aquatic plants such as lotus, water lilly and kangkong have enlarged airspaces to float. it also allows oxygen to flow from the stem and leaves.

G. Flytrap leaves - some plants are insectivorous. an example is the venus-flytrap which catches a fly using its leaves. The plant secretes a fluid form the leaves and digests its prey. After the prey is digested, the trap opens again.

 H. Bulbs - they are cone-shaped stems surrounded by scale-like leaves used for storage. Onions amd daffodils are examples. The food storage of the onion is the edible part. 

See you all tomorrow,

Homework for the day:

Science topical worksheet on adaptations.

Thank you,

Sincerely,

Mr Nelson Ong

More adaptations

Dear all,

Here is a recap of what we have done today, with the main content on Science.

We studied about sloths as a mammal and how they are adapted to living in the jungles and protecting themselves from predators. Sloths are herbivores and mainly feast on leaves and plants. They contain a layer of algae on their fur which actually attracts fungi, moths and many more. The sloth is a slow creature which spends most of its time hiding up on top of the tree. '

You can click on this link for more details about the SLOTH

We also talked about the last part to adapting to living in extreme temperatures. Today, the concepts you need to know are:

• Polar bears have layers of black fur (good conductor of heat) under their white fur to trap sunlight and keep warm.
• Animals hibernate during winter to conserve energy.
• Animals can also migrate to other warmer places.
• Pine trees have tiny needle-like leaves to prevent water loss.
• Trees shed their leaves during winter to prevent water loss.

This process of this leaf loss is done to conserve the trees energy and prevent damage over the upcoming winter. Because of the large surface area of the trees leaves the cold and dry winds over the winter months would strip all the moisture from the tree. Therefore by losing its leaves the tree can conserve all its moisture in the trunk and branches. The lack of leaves also means that the tree needs less energy to stay alive and healthy.

As the days get shorter and the nights start to get longer, trees will make arrangements to lose their leaves by releasing a chemical which ultimately causes the leaf to die and fall off its branch. When the leaves fall onto the ground below it causes a layer of protective mulch that not only insulates its roots but also gives it nutrients to feed off.

See you all on Monday,

Thank You,

Sincerely,

Mr Nelson Ong

June holidays extra lessons

Dear all,

Today, we begin our June holiday extra lessons. Here is a recap of the important learning points of today:

English

• We went through the answers for unit 8 supplementary worksheet.
• In some instances, the word 'how' is followed by an adjective to describe an object or action. example: Mother told me how happy she was after hearing the good news.
• Words like every, either of, neither of, no one, not one of, each are in the singular form.
• Loss (noun) Lost (verb) Pass (verb) Past (adverb)

We also went through the PSLE booklet sections of grammar cloze, synthesis and vocabulary cloze. 

Science

• We started on the topic of adaptations for living in extreme temperatures which can be either too hot or too cold.
• We focused on extremely hot temperatures and climate such as the desert.
• Concepts to remember include 'Cacti have structural adaptations like wide roots, thick, juicy stem and tiny needle-like leaves to reduce water loss. 
• Wide roots spread out over a large area to absorb as much water as possible when it rains.
• Tiny-needle like leaves reduce the surface area for transpiration and loss of water.
• Thick, juicy stems store water and food. Also, the stems have chloroplast to photosynthesize!!!
• Animals have also special structural adaptations to survive in hot climates like the desert.
• Camels have humps to store fats for energy. 
• Camels have long eyelashes to prevent the sand and dust particles from entering their eyes.
• They have hoof-like, broad and wide feet to walk in the sand and not sink in.
• Some animals urinate and swear very little so as to prevent water loss in the hot climates.

Homework:

Situational writing for unit 8 (format on note)

On a side note, congratulations to all the winners for term 2. 

Groups of the term:

1st - Team Cordelia (Cordelia, Felicia, Yi Lin and Brendon Ting)

2nd - Team Yan Zhe (Yan Zhe and Wee Si Jie)

3rd - Team Guan Yu (Guan Yu, Kai Bin, Kenneth and Anselm)

4th - Team Li Ying (Li Ying, Joshua, Hui Ying and Philip)

Student of the term 

Terry Chan

Terry displayed great improvement and persistence in striving hard for his results. He is able to consistently display neat work and a positive attitude towards learning. Do learn from him and he is one of the few that believes that even though he may not do well, he does not give up and tries his best to make sure he passes all his subjects. For that, he is the student of the term. 

Next term, lets' strive for the top 5 groups. Lets' work hard together then!

Thank you,

Sincerely,

Mr Nelson Ong