All About Preparing For Primary One

[buds]

Dictation can be taken from phonetic words learnt or from a short story about

3 to 5 lines. Children can start with one line first for starters..

An example for phonetic words dictation can be...

\"A fat cat sat on a mat. A fat rat ran. The fat cat ran after the fat rat.\" (etc)

Teacher/Parent reads out the sentences/story to the child and they write them
down accordingly.

Dictation example taken from a story can be...

\"Daddy bought me a new bicycle. It was a blue bicycle. Blue is my favourite colour.\"

Children are taught how to draw margins.
Write the day (on the top left corner of the page)
and also the date (on the top right corner of the page).
Thankfully, i taught my girls to write full dates ie. 29th June 2010
cos their class teachers emphasized strictly no shortcuts like ie. 29-6-10
or 26/06/10...

My girls' spelling lists are given as only single words of 10 in one set per week.
But the spelling words are given in the form of sentences. For example, P1 these
days work with the Stellar English programme that uses big books (storybooks
& readers) so most of the words are taken from those stories. An example can
be taken from say... :idea: ... Dan the Flying Man. The spelling word is \"flying\"
for example... the teacher will read the spelling word once... followed by the
whole (full) sentence. The children are supposed to fill in the blank with the
spelling word given. This means that children aren't just supposed to know
how to read and write only the spelling words, but they should know how to
read all the sentences as well to know where the spelling word fits.

[janet88]

RRMummy:

janet_lee88:

For Chinese, it helps a GREAT deal to write the characters in order to remember. According to the tutor, she said it's because chinese characters originate from 'drawings', so through writing several times, the brain will remember how character is to be written. I make my son learn his Chinese spelling/dictation the same way too.


Daughter in K2 has 5 words from her Sat RC class, which is getting more difficult as well as her school spelling this term. I really don't know how to squeeze in time to coach her, on top of that, my son also demanding attention as well. Both equally important.

Same same..

My DD1 also in K2, the work load in this new CC which we just started this month is so much heavier than her ex-CCC.

Weekly: 4 words + 1 sentence weekly for spelling. 2 words + 2 sentences + 1 sentence in hanyu pinyin for Chinese. And 1 full page of Chinese writing on Tuesdays and Fridays and English and Maths homework on Thurdays. On top of all that still got Berries homework..

I am also struggling to find time to spend time and coach my DD2

BTW, how old is your son?

My son is in P4 this year. I need to accompany and coach him in his daily work...not possible to leave him on his own just yet.

I heard that children in CC have more work than those in kindy, but what you told me is scary. My son's tutor told me her daughter in CC has to learn few sentences of Chinese ting xie.
:shock:

[buds]

Oitch. :oops: Wrong number RRMummy..

I thought janet_lee88's boy was in P3..
Actually P4.. sollie.. sollie.. :salute:

[Poohbear]

Hi Buds,


Thks for your detailed explanation on Dictation practice.

Is dictation common for all P1? Or is it for selected schools only ? Honestly, this is the 1st time i hear abt dictation in P1. All the while i thot dictation is something for P3 and above... :?

I must really go catch up with the syllabus :?: Hope still in time

[janet88]

buds:

Oitch. :oops: Wrong number RRMummy..

I thought janet_lee88's boy was in P3..
Actually P4.. sollie.. sollie.. :salute:

Hey buds,
No difference, it's ok lah. We all make mistakes.
My daughter is having a hard time learning her spelling...still in holiday mood. I asked her to learn 2 words (easy ones) at one go and difficult one on one day.

[buds]

Poohbear:

Hi Buds,


Thks for your detailed explanation on Dictation practice.

You're welcome, Poohbear.

Poohbear:

Is dictation common for all P1? Or is it for selected schools only ?

Aaah.. this i am not too sure. Mebbe other parents can offer their inputs as
well with regards to this? For my DDs school, they have dictation for both
English and Mother Tongue. English so far about 1-2 sentences.. and MT
can be up to 3 sentences long.

I have prepared my girls in similar ways as to how i've prepared my students.
Or perhaps a little more.. :oops: .. mebbe i'm the one who's too KS. :siam:

Poohbear:

Honestly, this is the 1st time i hear abt dictation in P1. All the while i thot dictation is something for P3 and above... :?

Really? :?

I remember having to do dictation tests when i was in Pri 1.
During my teaching days, the few centres i was attached to
started one-liner dictation practice @ K1 level. By K2, should
be able to write more.. on top of that still have to guide children
to write 10 sentences of Written Expression.. Vocabulary, Grammar,
simple Comprehension & Cloze Passages.

Poohbear:

I must really go catch up with the syllabus :?: Hope still in time

You can do networking with the school your child manage to get into after
the registration results, within the forum threads. See if you can garner more
information with regards to their P1 level/standard and also the workload... You
applying for Rulang?

[buds]

janet_lee88:

Hey buds,

No difference, it's ok lah. We all make mistakes.
My daughter is having a hard time learning her spelling...still in holiday mood. I asked her to learn 2 words (easy ones) at one go and difficult one on one day.

Tks! :oops:

Thank goodness both my girls like to learn spelling.. phew.
Especially DD2. She gets a kick out of trying her da-jie's
P3 spelling words and da-jie will be furious if mei-mei
can get it right. :lol:

[Poohbear]

buds:

I have prepared my girls in similar ways as to how i've prepared my students.
Or perhaps a little more.. :oops: .. mebbe i'm the one who's too KS. :siam:

Oops :shock: i thot this was already like a lot... n u added... \"perhaps a little more\" :!: :faint:

buds:

During my teaching days, the few centres i was attached to
started one-liner dictation practice @ K1 level.

Another heart attack :shock:
My K2 not even taught abt this, not to mention K1

buds:

By K2, should
be able to write more.. on top of that still have to guide children
to write 10 sentences of Written Expression.. Vocabulary, Grammar,
simple Comprehension & Cloze Passages.

10 sentences ?
Honestly, i thought i was over KS when i bought some of these Vocabulary, Grammar, simple Comprehension & Cloze Passages books from Popular for my gal to practice. Not regular, just on & off when i hv the time. Seem like i hv been too complacent ? :scared:

Each time PTM, teacher always say my gal ok. So I thot should be fine. The extra books i buy, is a bonus, if can do. If not, i thot she shld be ok since teacher feel my gal quite ok liao. Oh no, i m starting to be stressed :gloomy:

buds:

You can do networking with the school your child manage to get into after
the registration results, within the forum threads. See if you can garner more information with regards to their P1 level/standard and also the workload... You
applying for Rulang?

Ya, will try to find out more after my gal successfully registers. Reading this P1 preparation thread is really more stressful than the P1 registration thread :stupid: Just goes to show how unprepared i am

Nope, not applying for Rulang. We are within 1km to both Fairfield and Henry Park. C how things go

[buds]

Alamak! :slapshead: Sollie, sista.. :salute: I made you stress. :oops:


Like i said, mebbe just me that's KS lah.. and besides having an
older DD1 oredi in P3, i suppose i tend to do a wee bit more with
DD2 to ensure she is better prepared now, as compared to when
i prepared her jie-jie back in P1. (Since oredi experienced P1 with
the jie-jie).

Good thing is DD2 is almost very automatic oredi with all her work
load and assignments and she did extremely well for her recent SA1
formative assessment with very minimal help from me.

I like the formative assessment way of tabulation as it encompasses
a child's strengths as a whole and not just paper results. But we were
informed that the paper exams will be formally tested for SA2... which
again is good, for at least there won't be too much of a culture shock
come P2.

Wow! Spoilt for choice eh..
Both Fairfield and Henry Park are great school choices, Poohbear. I think
your child will thrive in either schools! :celebrate:

[RRMummy]

buds:

RRMummy... CCC doesn't give dictation practice?

Haiya buds, sorry I missed this thread. Only one-liners in both the CCCs so far.

err.. actually, I only did dictation when I was in P3.. :shock: