All About Preparing For Primary One

[tamarind]

Just to share my observations of my girl's academic work in P1. Throughout the year when she was in K2, I have not let her do any assessment books. All I have done is to let her read out loud consistently everyday.


Knowing how to read in English very well before entering P1 is essential. For parents using the Peter and Jane series, if the child is able to read level 5 books fluently, then it is good enough. Phonics is essential. My girl has English, Maths, and Hanyu Pinyin spelling. Thanks to her good foundation in phonics, she only needs to spend very little time to learn her spelling, there is no need to make her write the words many times.

For Maths, I find that it is not necessary to drill the child in addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. In fact, kids are tested on their understanding of the mathematical concept, it is much more important to be able to read and understand the questions very well.

Doing tons of assessment books do not guarantee that your child will do well. If the teacher re-phrase the question, and the child has never seen such a question in the assessment books before, then he/she will not be able to understand the question.

My advise is for parents to focus on teaching their kids phonics and read as many story books as possible before entering P1, instead of doing assessment books. Kids learn best from good story books written by great authors, not from assessment books.

In fact, I attended a meeting in my girl's school recently. The head of department and principal constantly remind parents to let kids read story books, and do less assessment books.

As for Chinese, the main focus is hanyu pinyin now. My girl has already learned her hanyu pinyin in her Berries K2 class. Her good foundation in phonics makes it very easy for her to learn hanyu pinyin. I believe that kids should learn to recognize as many Chinese characters as possible before learning hanyu pinyin. So my focus has been to teach my girl to read Chinese story books without hanyu pinyin before she enters P1. Reading as many good books as possible is the only way to learn how to construct good sentences in Chinese, which is an essential skill for writing Chinese compositions. Parents seem to be very worried about hanyu pinyin before entering P1, but this should be the least thing that they should worry about in the long run.

[tracy lg]

Thanks tamarind !! enlightened after reading your poster !


My girl is in K1 now. Has been hearing abt P1 expectations... not sure where to start and what to do...

after ur poster, i guess the first step for me is abt \"reading\"

by the way, where did ur girl had his phonic enrichment class? Is the school good/ effective?

Thanks!

[janet88]

Hi Tamarind,

I read your post about READING…and I believe this is actually the best way to teach. My daughter and I read 1-2 books together every day.
Although it’s repetitive, she starts to remember more words.

As for hanyu pinyin, parents worry if their kids will learn it at P1. However, I remember my son learning it only in P1 and surprisingly he picked it up fast. However, I am reminding him to read whenever he is free.

[pokemon]

hi tamarind,


i completely agree with you about having solid foundation for phonics. My ds is like your gal, dont need any coaching or drilling in spelling, it just come naturally for him. In this kindergarten days, there werent any spelling but his teacher told me he could already spell very well and often help his classmates with spelling during their creative writing session. Now in P1, he has no problem with his sch spelling list. i tink besides phonics, by reading widely, it helps in their spelling as well. Mine used to like only non-fiction but now he is okay with storybooks, it helps on his vocab.

[tamarind]

:oops:

I missed out this thread. Just saw the above posts today.

My boy, who is one year younger, can also spell most of the words in the P1 spelling lists without the need to practice.

For those who have not read my blog, here is the page about teaching phonics at home :
http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-teach-phonics.html

[tamarind]

Dear all,

I have written a page about the standards of English in my girl's primary school, including photos of her English and Maths worksheets :

http://tamarindphonics.blogspot.com/2010/04/what-to-expect-in-primary-one.html

The key is to teach the child to read independently, as early as possible, and let him/her read as many good books as possible. A child who has been reading a lot, will have no problems with grammar, vocabulary, comprehension, composition, cloze, etc. They naturally know what is correct

I attended a class about how to teach students to write good English. The lecturer is an English Native speaker with almost 30 years of teaching experience. He has one great advise : \"Read as many books as possible\". Reading is the best way for a child to learn.

[tamarind]

For kids who do not like to read on their own, parents can establish a routine and ask them to read out loud for 15 minutes every day. It is also important to find good books with interesting story lines to develop a love for reading.

[blur mother]

Hi, is it necessary to send my child to pri 1 preparation class she starts next year? If so, which school is good? Oh dear Oh dear!!!!!

[tankee]

hi


is she attending kindergarten and doing ok there?

if yes, then no need.

[janet88]

My daughter is attending Maths & Eng preparatory classes every Sat at RC. She has spelling every week, alternate either Eng or Math for words like ‘bear’, ‘zebra’ and ‘eighty’, ‘one hundred’ etc.