Week 4

Dear all,

It is Wednesday and here are the important points as we reach the midweek point.

English

We concentrated on going through the comprehension MCQ using the PRTA method (What I know and What I want to Know). Comprehension mcq and open-ended have been identified as your key areas of weakness and much has to be done to improve upon answering the questions. We went through reading of the questions first and mapping out 'What I know' from the questions given to form the story. With that understanding, we then read through the passage and make greater sense of the story and its plot. Continue to use this method for both comprehension exercises.

We also started on our composition for unit 2 today. We went through the question scenario and identified the main character, other characters and the main plot in the scenario. We completed the planning sheet except for the plot. Planning is always important for your composition writing and please remember to always plan ahead first.

Some of you were asking me what is the benefits of focus writing? I will reiterate that focus writing takes on a component (introduction / plot / problem / conclusion and solution) and really focus on writing that component. What I will do is to model writing that component for you and have you copy down the model writing for that focused component so that you have additional or a model section to refer to for ideas when doing your composition. It is more effective as I am teaching you how to focus on writing a section with quality.

We have also completed situational writing for Unit 2. Remember the key skills being taught and that is to identify your role and your target audience before you start. Identify the format too. In this instance, we touched on the format of email writing, one of the simplest form. Just to recap with you:

Dear ____________,

     How are you? (State your purpose in your next sentence)


Yours sincerely/truly,
_______________

Email writing has one of the simplest format. The tip for any form of situational writing is not to overwrite, keep to simple sentences and words and follow the information quickly. Do not add in your own details and information. You must stick to the information given in the question strictly!!!! Do take note of that.

Science

We have completed the topic on forms of energy and uses and energy conversion. I have gone through the key points with you in the textbook and highlighted to you several other additional key points and a key question to be written down in your Science exercise book.

• Solar energy comes from the sun. It requires the trapping of light from the sun to convert to other forms of energy to do work. 
• Energy can never be created or destroyed. They can be converted from one form to another. 
• Sound energy works on the process of vibrations and travel of the soundwaves. 
• Energy can be converted from one form to another. You need to know the stages of energy conversions for different scenarios or objects (when  they function)
• Gravitational potential energy is present when an object is raised at a height above ground and is motionless (stationary) 

Other Matters

#1 We are a Family!

On to more positive matters and I am happy and heartened to see so many of you making the effort to contribute items to the class CNY decorations and even staying back to help decorate the class. The ownership is yours and this is your own class for the whole year. I have done up the class for the 1st week and will leave the decorations for CNY to you all! Don't worry as I will also contribute some items for you!

Your readiness in raising your hands together as a class to help your fellow classmate in need is really heart-warming. Remember that class spirit is highly important especially as you go through this stressful year of PSLE together. These are the friends that you will hold dearly for life and some of you might look back years later and still keep in contact. Help one another in need always. 

Reminders

Bring your composition tomorrow. Do not start writing yet.

Bring your science workbooks tomorrow.

Thank you,

Sincerely,

Mr Nelson Ong

End of Week 3

Dear all,

As we approach the end of week 3, lets' take a moment to reflect on the progress of our revision. From what I can observe, there seems to be an increase in motivational level in some of you. Some of you have shown improvement through handwriting and level of proficiency in your daily work. However, some of you still seem to be in the jovial and relaxed mood in terms of your work attitude and learning attitude. As I had drawn on the whiteboard today, next week is week 4. In week 8, your common test will begin. Essentially, there is only 4 weeks left and within the next 3 weeks, I will be completing the syllabus for term 1.

Dear Parents,

Here's the progress thus far

English:

• We have completed Unit 1 (Most of the students have had their files cleared and returned for your checking and signature. This year, I have added in a feedback space for parents to add in any feedback they might have. This is to also help you be part of your child's progress and learning) Students are to return their files on Monday for checking of parent's signature. 
• Unit 2's supplementary worksheet has been completed except the comprehension MCQ section. By next week, Unit 2 should be completed. I hope to finish the syllabus by week 7 and leave some time for revision. 

Science:

•  We have completed up to activity 2.3 for our workbook, leaving us only a few more activities to complete until activity 3.2.
• We are halfway through our syllabus and on time to complete it by end of week 6 or 7, leaving us time for revision. 

But do note that I am not rushing and value the importance of quality over quantity. As such, I spent more time on going through key skills of answering questions and the content of the papers.

Thus far, there is homework every weekend of the kids for English but the homework is not too stressful for them to handle. Each week, students complete journal writing and newspaper article. I have stated the purpose and importance of these 2 homework.

Journal Writing --> Trains the students in elaborating on their main idea. As they are given a topic, they have to pen down their main idea and supporting details. What most of them lack is actually elaboration on the supporting details and as such, journal writing helps.

Newspaper Article --> Getting students to be familiarize with the newspaper structure, current affairs (and the vocabulary words and phrases associated with current affairs) and to help them with their comprehension cloze and world knowledge. It is also a good platform to learn about values in action through the news articles. That is why I have them to reflect on the article too.

Recap of today's lesson:

Science:

• We went into the theory lesson of measuring elastic potential energy. We know that the greater the elastic potential energy, the greater the kinetic energy. When an object can be stretched or pulled back and still return to its original shape, it has elasticity. 

 English:

• We covered newspaper articles and journal writing, highlighting to you about the values that we can learn. Some of the values we learn today are self-confidence, motivation, hard work and self-belief. 

Homework:

• Journal writing
• Newspaper Article

Reminders:

• Sign the english files and return on Monday for checking
• Bring CNY decorations to decorate the class
• Edusave withdrawal forms by Monday

Thank you,
Sincerely,
Mr Nelson Ong

Importance of reading the newspapers

Dear all,

As we approach the end of week 3, here's today's main learning points:

• We went through the English Supplementary Worksheet from Grammar Cloze to Comprehension Cloze.
• We learn that when we use a verb after the words 'can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might', the verb should be in the base form (present tense, plural form)
• We learn about Synthesis and Transformation, recapping about the skills on how to answer direct to indirect speeches. 
• You need to also learn skills on answering questions and not just about the model way of answering. 
• For direct speeches, we first look at the tense of the verb OUTSIDE the speech followed by the punctuation mark in the speech.
• If it is a question mark, then in your answer, the subject (main item/person) comes first followed by the verb(s).

e.g "Have you finished your work yesterday?" Mother asked Peter.

The subject here is you (Peter) and have finished is the verb group.

Present tense changed to Past Tense.
Past Tense changed to Past Perfect Tense.

Ans: Mother asked Peter if/whether he had finished his work the previous day. 

You need to pick up the newspapers and start reading. It is essential in helping you for your english, especially comprehension cloze and open ended. Most of the articles or passages in the examinations are using articles from the newspapers to set their questions. As such, you have to know the STYLE of writing, the STRUCTURE of writing and THE VOCABULARY WORDS used in newspaper articles and current affairs. Start reading today if you have not!

 Other reminders:

• Bring CNY decorations to decorate the class. Be proud of your class and take ownership in keeping it beautiful and clean. I will leave the decorations up to you. It is the ultimate effort that counts. I hope that each of you can contribute to decorating the class for CNY :)
• Filing for Unit 1 will be done tomorrow.

Sincerely,
Mr Nelson Ong

Week 3

Dear all,

Sorry for the absence in a while. It's been a busy few days. Here is a recap of everything that has happened thus far and the important reminders for you:

English

We have officially finished Unit 1 and are now moving on to Unit 2. On Monday, I gave back the composition pieces and went through your key mistakes. Generally, there is an improvement in writing with the given focus writing exercise so continue to work hard and make an effort to memorise the introduction model writing given to you so that you can apply and use for future writings.

The focus writing before writing the actual composition focused on introduction for this unit. A proper introduction is essential in composition writing and will set the tone for the story and as such, concentrate on the weather, time, place and characters.

Most of you who heeded my advice and used simple vocabulary words and sentences had an improvement in your language. Unless you are very certain of being able to write the correct sentence structure using key vocabulary words, always stick to simple words and this will aid you greatly in your language component.

You still need to improve on your content in terms of elaborating on the details instead of just listing general statements. I want to know the 'how' and the 'why' aspect of your general statement. Include the feelings of the characters and portray them as detailed as possible.

One new item added in this year is to get all of you to write out your composition corrections with the words being corrected for you once again. This will help you to learn as you write and aid you in your revision. I will be attaching the two best compositions for unit 1 behind your composition corrections as your reference too.

Moving on, we completed the pre-reading thinking activity for comprehension open-ended yesterday and went through the passage. Always remember to look through the comprehension questions first. Some of you asked me if there is time for you to list down your planning first and my answer is yes. From what I have noticed, all of you had much time to spare as you do finish your English papers much earlier. Like what I have said, would you rather finish it in quick time and get back poor results or spend more time and effort in planning and get back good results? Pick the 2nd option!

Here is a sample of what you have done and in the 'What I know' column, it helps you make meaning of the story through the questions. You will be able to find out statements from the questions that will tell you more about the story. With this prior knowledge, you will find understanding of the passage much clearer when you start reading the passage. It will also help you focus on where to gather information to answer the questions.

The results do prove that most of you have made an improvement in your scores for this comprehension open-ended as compared to unit 1. Keep it up!

Science

We finished up on potential energy and the key points for potential energy and kinetic energy are:

• Potential energy can be classified into gravitational potential energy, chemical energy and elastic potential energy. 
• The higher the object, the greater the gravitational potential energy and the greater the kinetic energy.
• When we measure the amount of energy, we use the words 'greater' or 'lower'.
• The greater the gravitational potential energy, the greater the kinetic energy. 
• Chemical potential energy can be stored in food (and water), fuels and batteries. They are then converted to other forms of energy.
• Elastic potential energy is dependent on the elasticity of the object. The greater the elastic potential energy, the greater the kinetic energy.

Do not neglect the experiment type of questions. We always start a topic by looking at the theory aspect (content of your textbook and through my explanation). We learn the concepts, key words, processes and key skills. Then, we move on to doing experiments to test the concepts and whether the experiments prove that the concepts are real. As such, experiments are extremely important in Science. You need to know how experiments work and what they are testing for. Do read up on experiments and identify the scientific logic and concepts behind them if you have time.

We also went through the Science in Everyday Experience worksheet. Science is all around us and in this worksheet, it focuses on using everyday scenarios to turn it into a science question. You need to be able to link real life examples to Science questions. If I am not testing you on experiment type questions, I can use real life examples to set a Science question. Draw the link and see the relevance to life.

Q1. People spread out the carrot cake that had just been fried to cool it.

This is an everyday occurrence in which it helps to cool our food for us to eat. The topic here is on heat and the concept is about heat travels from a hotter region to a cooler region. Using this concept and identifying the topic will help me better understand and answer the question. Science is not just what we learn in textbooks but also important in explaining everyday life occurrences. You also pick up life skills through Science.

Reminders

• Wear your school uniform on 29th Jan (Tue) for your smart card photo-taking.
• Bring your CNY decorations to decorate the classroom.
• Thursday - Dictation Unit 1 test
• Meet the parents on Saturday, 26th Jan - Take note of the times given to you
• Chingay Parade for P6s on the 2 Feb, Sat
• Bring some money to donate for our Sincerity and Charity Drive (Until Friday) * I am heartened to see so many of you donating today :) GOOD JOB!*

Happy Birthday to Yan Zhe!

Thank You,
Sincerely,
Mr Nelson Ong

End of Week 2

Dear all,

It is the end of week 2. Times does fly by quickly. We are almost halfway done for our Science workbook. We have almost come to the end of Unit 1 of English with another 2 more units left. Press on always and work hard. The hard work begins this year.

Learning points of the day:

English

We went through the weaknesses and things to note for Situational Writing. Remember to always read the questions carefully. A letter or a word may be a difference to your marks and will change the meaning of the phrase. For e.g Hougang Supermarket (specific name of a supermarket) vs A supermarket in Hougang (not sure of the name but we know that it is one supermarket in Hougang).
Take note of the format of Situational writing and for report, lets' do a recap.

Date: __________

Title (Underline the title and only capitalize the first letter of the words for Nouns and Verbs)

Start off with where and when the incident/accident took place. Continue and answer the other points (Points 1 - 3 in the first paragraph)

Points 4 - 6 in the second paragraph (No 2 finger spacing needed. Leave a line in between to indicate a new paragraph)

Reported by: ____________
(Position if any)

Homework:

• Newspaper Article Review (5 Vocabulary Words and Reflection) Take articles that talk about current affairs and relevant to our lives and meaningful.
• Journal Writing with the topic of "My best friend in class" Answer these points 

- Describe the person
- Why is he/she your best friend
- How he/she has helped you
- What good values does he/she have that you can learn from

Science

I went through with you the common mistakes of your activity book answers today. Remember that you need to be very specific with your words especially when it comes to experiment type of questions. Today's example given was: "Number of bubble produced" vs "Number of bubbles produced within 1 minute". Look at the question and read through first. You need to use the key words and concepts and apply to the given scenario.

We also went through the reading of graphs and how to interpret the reading of graphs. Today's main concept is that if an object contains more gravitational potential energy, it will also possess more kinetic energy when it moves.

Happy Birthday to Felicia and Samuel :)

Next week, we will begin supplementary lessons. Do not forget about it.

Happy weekend,
Sincerely,
Mr Nelson Ong

Energy

Dear all,

You would have gotten your supplementary forms. Please look through and get your parents to acknowledge the letter. One important point to note is that Tuesday's lesson would be until 3.30pm as English and Science is merged into one day.

Thursdays are set aside for selected pupils for remedial (based on their SA2 results and daily work assessment). I will also open it to students who wish to stay back and want to participate in revising through basic concepts too. Priority will still be given to the remedial pupils. Pupils who wish to stay back must not disrupt the lesson and learning of the remedial pupils and must also inform their parents.

Here is a recap of today's learning:

Science

We learnt about the different types of energy yesterday, namely gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy. Today, we applied these two terms into an experiment to show that energy can be transferred and that when an object has more gravitational potential energy, it will also lead to an increase in its kinetic energy.

Today's experiment of increasing the height of the ramp and releasing a toy car down the ramp showed that the higher the ramp (the more the gravitational potential energy), the faster the car moves (increase in kinetic energy).

This proves that energy can be transferred too from gravitational potential energy (at the starting poin before moving down) to kinetic energy (when the car moves) and back to gravitational potential energy (when the car comes to a stop).

I also went through another key concept of friction (defined as resistance when one object come into contact/ rubs against/ moves against a surface or another object. Friction opposes motion and slows down movement. But friction is important as it allows us to carry out simple things in life like moving and stopping, holding a pen and running.

Deeper teaching and learning of this concept will be done when we move into the 2nd term theme of interactions.

Today we also learn about the skill of answering relationship type of questions. When a question asks about the relationship between an item and another, we are essentially using the skills of linking and comparing. For example, "what is the relationship between the brightness of light and the rate of photosynthesis?"

1st step: Highlight the two items involved in the relationship.

2nd step: Compare the two items (when one is lower (decreases) / higher (increases)), what happens to the other item?

Answer: The brighter the light, the higher the rate of photosynthesis.
*Use of adjectives is very important in answering questions on relationship

This was one type of questions in which most of you had difficulties answering last year, so I taught that it is important for you to know and learn.

The key to answering open ended Science questions is to always identify the concept and topic behind the question, use key words and elaborate with details the given scenario.

Homework Reminders

- Spelling test unit 1 tomorrow

- Unit 1 composition to be handed in tomorrow

- Submit your money for PSLE books by Friday

- Submit your acknowledgement forms for Supplementary tomorrow

Last Words

It is important to always seek feedback from all of you and today I seek the class's feedback on my teaching speed and level of understanding. Speed could be a little slower for Science but level of understanding is good. When in doubt, always ask your questions. I am always willing to answer your assessment worksheets or tuition questions which some of you have been asking me. Also, I will be replying the answers to some of the questions you have dropped into the question hat. Even if your question may be out of our syllabus and textbook, feel free to ask because that will only increase your thinking and passion for learning. It is not all about PSLE. It is also about asking questions that help you in life and additional knowledge you can pick up along the way.

This year, the focus is on quality teaching and in depth teaching. As such, some of you felt that we are going too slow for English. Do not worry as we are not behind time. The focus is on helping you pick up key skills and not just doing work after work. You need to be able to master techniques to answer comprehension open ended, comprehension cloze and composition writing and as such, I have taught you the pre-reading thinking activity for comprehension open ended, understanding and highlighting key words for comprehension cloze and also, we have gone through planning and focus writing for composition. Planning and teaching you 'why' and 'how' is much more important than feeding you the answers. Teaching you techniques will enable you to approach future questions with confidence rather than just practising blindly. As such, really enhance and work on your strategies learnt and apply them to your daily work.

Thank you,
Sincerely,
Mr Nelson Ong

Composition Writing & Types of Energy

Dear all,

As we reflect on today's topics being taught, here are some of the important points:

English

We have begun on the first unit of composition writing (Picture Composition). This year, I have added one pre-writing component of focus writing. In this exercise, a model part of the composition is being written down for you so that you can memorise the key phrases and use them for future writing. In focus writing, we focus on one aspect of the composition (for example, introduction). Instead of drafting the whole composition, we spent time going through the introduction and have an ideal introduction being written down for you. In future, I will just be providing you with the starting few words and you will be continuing the rest of the paragraph and I will mark through.

In this way, focus writing helps to place greater focus on the different components (introduction, plot, problem/solution and conclusion) bit by bit rather than to focus on everything at one go. In this way, by the end of the year, we would have focus writing for each component at least twice.

Remember the key points for picture composition:

• Look at the picture first and identify the main characters and other important characters
• Identify the main plot of the story (main event happening) Why is he doing this? What/how did this main event happen? How are the people feeling?
• Describe and elaborate what happens next (solution)
• Give a conclusion.

Finish up your conclusion and try to make use of the five phrases given to you. Dateline is Thursday, 17/1/2013.

Science

We have started on the second chapter of different types of energy. There are 6 main types of energy in the syllabus:

1. Kinetic
2. Potential (Gravitational, elastic & chemical)
3. Light
4. Sound
5. Heat
6. Electrical

In order to focus and really go through the topic, we have touched on kinetic and potential energy for today. Kinetic energy is movement energy. Any item that moves has kinetic energy. Kinetic energy depends on the speed and mass of an item. The faster the speed, the more kinetic energy the object has. For mass, if two items are similar (e.g toy car) and we give the same force to them except that toy car A is heavier than B, toy car B will have more kinetic energy when it moves because it does not need to overcome as much resistance as A.

Gravitational potential energy is the stored energy from a high place away from the ground. The higher an object, the more gravitational potential energy it has.

Chemical potential energy is found in food / fuels or battery cells. The energy stored is used later for conversion to other energies.

Elastic potential energy is stored energy in elastic items. It is at its maximum when you stretch an object to its furthest point without breaking.

Tomorrow, we will be doing an experiment on kinetic and gravitational potential energy!

Remember to pay for your PSLE books and study for your spelling unit 1 for Thursday.

Sincerely,
Mr Nelson Ong

New Timetable

Dear all,

Attached is the new timetable (should be confirmed for the term). Do take note.

Happy Birthday to Liying!