The Earth, I Love

Beautiful and creative creations with leaves and peas/beans/nuts/seeds.
We are entering into the amazing Amazon & Rainforest to round up the theme on plants and to start the journey on Animals.
With all the prior knowledge on grouping or patterning, measuring (height of tree, circumference of trunk, width of leaf), adding & subtracting using number bonding concept, we will next embark on multiplication.
A 2 cent worth of advice:
Please avoid the temptation to make your child memorize the time-tables. From the perspective of early childhood education, the ONLY benefit is that it may please the adult or parent 'if' the child is good in reciting it. What if he cannot remember at all or can recite well but got all the problem sums wrong? Oh, then it must be that the teacher or perhaps the school programme is no good!!!???
Nonetheless, if the child enjoys the rhythm of the time-table,it suggests that it is time to discover the child's talent in music. Ability to recite the time-table well has nothing related to mathematical reasoning at a very young age. On the otherhand, if the child understood the concept from concrete and daily useful experiences and uses that understanding in his reasoning, he will out shine many others in his application.He will be a high achiever who knows how to enjoy learning. BTW, mom & dad, can you believe that your child can tell you how many seeds they've used in the activity on the left, in less then a minute! Thanks to the array of beans that make the pupils feel easy learning multiplication!

Speech & Drama makes learning language fun & easier

Our acquisition of english language has been very exciting. We have completed has vs have, this vs that, these vs those... you name it! Now, we are into challenging dramatization on what we understood &/or imagined from the reader. You know what I mean, it is a must that T.Phyllis will ask questions, challenging questions related to the reader. She also told us that in the filming industry, 'Take 1, take 2, take 3.... imply that the performers did not do their best. We need to also practice the intonation while reciting the text.Otherwise, we will end up having 'Take 99'. Watch us doing these fun speech & drama....

Beyond the classroom

Children are doing research from the exhibits.
Thereafter, they proceed to discuss the appropriate answer to the questions.

A parent volunteer helping to vett students' work.
Walking through the banana plantation..the smell is nice!Our Botanical Garden trip was very enriching.

See how we have water-play! It's better than the water playground.

The Best Gift for our children

From simple (1 attribute)...to sophisticated(5 attributes)... mom & dad : Did you notice the patterns?
If you have been following your child's work, they have done a great deal in comprehending the basic needs for survival of living things and the phenomenon on how nature is maintained. Even children admire a brilliant sunset, breathtaking mountain vista, lovely array of spring etc. What better gift can we as parents and teachers give this precarious earth than a generation of children who have learned to know and love the natural world? That is why, every year this time when the theme of plants is delivered, various field trips are organised. The emphasis on academic is to use natural environments for learning language, spatial and mathematical relationship eg. seriation,sequencing,patterning, photosynthesis, and much more.

K2,P1-P5 field trip to Botanic Garden(Jacob Ballas)

Dear Parents,
As you're aware, your child has been talking about my plan to extend our classroom experience at the Botanic Garden since 1st Aug 09(Bird Park was not in our discussion).

Points will be awarded to each child for games and quiz before and during the trip. Children with the highest score and/or with the best attempts will be rewarded for waterplay at Jacob Ballas.

Well, the reward for those with unreasonable behaviour or are disruptive during learning will be :- Just watch the rest having waterplay! (Teacher Phyllis is so bad, shouldn't nominate her as Super Teacher huh!)

Thus, please help me to remind your child to be alert throughout the trip and to listen to clues given by their 'mentor'. Our student care pupils are highly effective leaders and proficient naturalists, hence, they will be the best mentors for the pre-school & kindergarten children. On top of that, it is also our objectives for our primary school pupils to be constantly challenged with tasks to build their leadership as well as to learn more through teaching what they have learnt.

Place: Jacob Ballas at the Botanic garden
Date / Time: 21st Aug 09, 10:15am to 3pm
Half day children may leave with the evening school bus at 5:30pm.
Things to bring: swim suit, towel, extra clothings, water, snacks
Cost per full day child = $10
Cost per half day child = $20
Children who will not join the trip will be with Long lao shi for chinese lesson.
Cost fees include : Transport + lunch + extended activities from programme *hour.
(programme hour: 8:45am to 1pm & 3pm to 5:30pm)

Homework for parents(home invovlement):
Please let your child count the money (best to be in different denominations eg. 5 $2notes, 2 $5 notes etc), and hand it over to the teacher-in-charge, Phyllis. Additional points will be awarded for children who do not need to be reminded to submit and count the money correctly in front of the teacher. Hard cash payment to be submitted on 21/08/2009.

'Hot Air Balloon I' is full of mystery!

Teacher Phyllis' magic power is thinning like her voice due to her sore throat! She let us try different ways for the hot air balloon to lift into the sky. But all of them couldn't even lift to my height!
So upon her probing, some of us guessed that there are holes on the plastic bag, that is how we learnt about the meaning of the word 'airtight'. Others said the 'fire' is not hot enough, one of them thinks that perhaps we should do the experiment outdoor. She took our suggestions seriously. She is like that, never give up and expects us to be like her!
So we tried out the 1st variable keeping the other conditions constant. She said that it is important to be fair to each factor so that we don't accuse the plastic bag nor the flame for not doing its job! Take your breath, sit back and relax!


'Hot Air Balloon II' launching soon...

Racial Harmony Day

As the children get older, they understand better the meaning of exercising tolerance and initiative in this multi-culture society to make peace.