The long hurdle of human towards flying

Carrying on from the topic on birds is reptiles and amphibians. Children were asked what other animals lay eggs. Ask your child how are they same or different, they will tell it all; from physical to biological characteristics.
By the way, my students came to school happily, implicitly telling me that mom & dad learnt the difference of crocodile vs alligator, frog vs toad. Several intellectual discussion popped out during discussion about the revolution of flying birds since Jurassic era and the ability of strong leaping frog with their long hind legs.Children suggested that if we could practise very hard on speed running, we could take off like the aeroplane too(didn't all the kungfu series show that it's possible)!
To convince the children that nothing is impossible, we practised jumping like the frog to experience the used of our 'long legs'.Please remind your child not to do it alone at home nor demonstrate it to his younger sibling(s).
At the same time, we also addressed the misconception by many children that monkey & kangoroo have 2 legs & 2 arms each. Scientifically, all 4 are legs but the 2 front legs act like arms.
We will also continue to focus on problem sums for integrated mathematics lesson.
Children are also expected to confidently identify blends,digraph,word family and represent it through their writing practice. Expectations for penmanship and correct usage of grammar and punctuation will continue to be the main focus of integrated English lesson.

Check out how we learn and exchange findings

Group A: The Greenhouse effect. (left pic:3rd day of expt., right pic:8th day of expt.)
On the 3rd day of observation, a few concluded that the bean outside the green house germinated faster because it received more air. Most of others who studied carefully the bean inside the greenhouse, confidently pointed out that the bean inside germinated and grew faster because the water vapour was trapped inside giving water back to the soil. In this way,the plants get water under the scorching sun. Both hypothesis were logical. Check out the 'answer' in your child's Science exercise book.




Group B: Chlorophyll is green? (thank you Cayden,Bryan & Joshua's mother for your 10ml of nail polish removal)

The nail polish removal solution turned green instantly when we dropped fresh leaves into it. On the following day, the leaves turned pale and the solution became darker green in colour. We placed a stripe of kitchen paper into the solution. The next day,there were different spectrum of green colour. "See, the paper is filled with green colour, chlorophyll is really green!" claimed one of the interested pupil.






Group C: Do plants perspire?

Right after watering the plant,we wrapped it up in a plastic bag and placed it away from direct sunlight. The next morning, 'wow' so much 'sweat'. Children witness that respiration happened to plants too quite similar to the way our glasses/spectacles get blurred when we breathe onto it.

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.