Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary

[php]

Trapwithin:

E3:

Hope I am not too late in sharing this...


Below is a list of tips from my dd's teacher today for writing composition:

1. Break your paragraphs by picture
2. Write in past tense only!
3. Have a meaningful concluding paragraph
4. Don't start/end with a question
5. Use adjectives/ adverbs to describe your character/ action
6. Restrict to 2 dialogues
7. Don't end with dialogue
8. Don't begin with outdoor setting if it's indoor setting
9. Use linking words to connect ideas
10. No contractions (except in dialogues)
11. No excessive use of punctuation eg. Ahhhh!!!

All the best for Paper 1 tomorrow!!

This year P1 will also start to write comp instead of just structure writing.
PhPPS standard moving upwards every year.

well, almost quarrel with my dd's mummy regarding this issue. dd was taught in her creative writing class to SHOW and not to TELL in her writing. for eg. instead of \"it was a sunny day.\", my dd will write \"the sun shore brightly and fleecy white clouds floated in the sky.\"

However, her EL teacher seems not to like her style and her mummy getting panic. but you can't change that overnight and it will confuse her further which is right and which is wrong. I believe her teacher still wants to see safe writing which is boring. Anyway, i asked dd to stick to her style and well, the most she will lose 1 or 2 marks...but for long term, that is the direction to follow and i would prefer she starts early...

[php]

E3:

Hope I am not too late in sharing this...


Below is a list of tips from my dd's teacher today for writing composition:

1. Break your paragraphs by picture
2. Write in past tense only!
3. Have a meaningful concluding paragraph
4. Don't start/end with a question
5. Use adjectives/ adverbs to describe your character/ action
6. Restrict to 2 dialogues
7. Don't end with dialogue
8. Don't begin with outdoor setting if it's indoor setting
9. Use linking words to connect ideas
10. No contractions (except in dialogues)
11. No excessive use of punctuation eg. Ahhhh!!!

All the best for Paper 1 tomorrow!!

Can't sleep in the middle of the night, so just post the following info which i took from another site which may help your kids' writing in future. dd started one month ago and she is enjoying the class so far.

The Alternative Story wrote:


Hi GilTang,

For reading, you can get your daughters to have an exercise
book with them when they read. As they read, when they come
across good phrases that they can use for their compositions, they
can put a coloured tag on that page and continue reading.
When they have finished reading the whole book, they can go back
to where the tags are and copy down the good phrases from the
storybook into their exercise book. They would also need to
categorize these phrases. For example, if there is
a phrase that described a drowning scene, they can write it down
and put in under the heading 'Drowning'. They would need to
leave a few pages for that category (so that when they come
across more drowning phrases in the future, they can then add
them in).

You can then get them to use these phrases in their writing but they
must apply them to their writing and not copy the phrase word for
word as sometimes the phrases might not totally suit what they
are writing.

Example:
(This is taken from Hostage by Chris Ryan)

Category: Reaction to danger
Amber stared back, frozen with fear. Up close, the size of
the creature was overwhelming. With huge effort, Amber controlled
her terror. Her brain started to work again and she realized that
she was staring death in the face. A second later, her body jerked
into action. – pg 13

This phrase can be used to describe a reaction to seeing a panther
on the loose. It can also be used to describe seeing a car coming
close. For the car scene, they woud need to apply this phrase:

Application:

I stared, frozen with fear, at the car careening down the road. Up
close, the vibrations on the road as the car came closer were
overwhelming. With huge effort, I controlled my terror. My brain
started to work again and I realized I was staring death in the face.
A second later, my body jerked to action and I started running.

In order for children to apply what they have read to their writing,
a concerted effort must be made. If your child balks at the
thought of copying down these phrases, then perhaps you could
get the books from us. Our books do come with creative
writing phrases that have been extracted from the books and they
are already in categories and hence, your children can file these
phrases up and look at them when they are writing their compositions.

Example of our creative writing extracts:

Monster Republic by Ben Horton

Chase (adapted)

Rora had summoned an extra burst of speed from somewhere and
was already way ahead of him. There was no catching up with her.
– pg 33

Shouts and splashing footsteps suddenly sounded in the distance.
A searching torch beam probed the gloom. Cameron flinched at
the intrusion of the bright light. – pg 58

Late night walk home (adapted)

The journey took a dark and lonely hour, interrupted only by the
passage of a car or the footsteps of pedestrians. The wind howled
and the leaves rustled as he made his way home. –pg 62

Burglary (adapted)
Cameron took a deep breath and crept along the side of the house.
As he rounded the corner, his heart jumped into his mouth. There
was somebody in the garden! Waiting, silhouetted against the night
sky. The person stood in the shadows. Suddenly, he stood and made
his way stealthily to the Lim’s house and began to pry open the door.
A burglar. Cameron was seeing a burglary take place before him.
– pg 64

TAS

[BraisedPorkBelly]

Thanks php for the sharing. Will keep this tip in mind next time when guiding my dd in reading more chim story books & to pick up phrases for composition.


Cant help but get kan chiong whenever I check out this forum .. but always try to control myself from getting all panicky & worried.

Husband & I decided we probably wont push dd too hard for a start. Prefer to see how well she settle down & hopefully she will enjoy school. So long as she puts in decent effort, we have mentally prepared ourselves that even if she ends up in last class, we are fine with it. Just have to keep praying for good teachers & friends.

Yesterday we went to West mall sportslink to check out the white adidas shoes which someone mentioned earlier in the forum. For whoever is interested, it costs like 35 or 38 I forgotten.. but we found a much lighter shoe selling for 25 at Bata (the brand is Power). We decided to buy this instead after considering the weight & price difference

Also bought a school bag for her. So now only left with the booklist items & we are all set for P1 :celebrate:

[Jennifer]

php:

well, almost quarrel with my dd's mummy regarding this issue. dd was taught in her creative writing class to SHOW and not to TELL in her writing. for eg. instead of \"it was a sunny day.\", my dd will write \"the sun shore brightly and fleecy white clouds floated in the sky.\"


However, her EL teacher seems not to like her style and her mummy getting panic. but you can't change that overnight and it will confuse her further which is right and which is wrong. I believe her teacher still wants to see safe writing which is boring. Anyway, i asked dd to stick to her style and well, the most she will lose 1 or 2 marks...but for long term, that is the direction to follow and i would prefer she starts early...

That's very unusual. It is encouraged to SHOW, not TELL in my elder boy's case since P5. IN P6, there is a 3rd party coming in to teach creative writing (I know why P6? Shld start earlier) that emphasize this as well. Can tell us who is the teacher? Or maybe that particular phrase did not reflect the scene appropriately?

My boy learnt this in P2 \"the sun inched its way up to the clear blue sky\", till now he still uses it in every compo he writes. I hv banned him as it is getting boring :lol: and he is not making an effort to learn other ones.

[Jennifer]

BraisedPorkBelly:

For whoever is interested, it costs like 35 or 38 I forgotten.. but we found a much lighter shoe selling for 25 at Bata (the brand is Power). We decided to buy this instead after considering the weight & price difference

We tried POWER this year too. Becos my boy plays soccer during recess, his shoes gets very dirty and poor me got to scrub the shoes. The front of the shoes peels off easily and we change shoes almost every 3 mths.

The adidas we tried last year lasted for more than 3 mths before my boy outgrew them. But then he had not played soccer.

Now we are using another brand from a sports shop in Queensway. Cost less than $30 and so far no peeling yet becos I hv switched to the magic sponge (more gentle cleaning).

[Jennifer]

php:

Personally, i don't think transfering school is a good solution unless the kid is totally cannot manage the school work himself. No matter where you go, ultimately the kid will still be taking the same examination. Rather than wasting time putting the kid in an unknown environment (actually no school will guarantee you that your kid will get a good and committed teacher, it still depends on your luck), it might be better to find ways to help the kid in those areas that he is weak in.


Let assume that you have a 1000cc car. You know that it can't match the power of Ferrari. If you try very hard to match the speed of that red car, your engine will catch fire one day. However, if you are the mechanic, you work on your car, upgrade the components day-by-day, work on your kid's weakness day-by-day, even your kid can't match the power of the red car in the competition, but i believe your upgraded 1000cc car will be able to match the power of a BMW 7series....Teacher is there to impart knowledge but the kid's attitude toward learning and parents involvement are equally important. Correct me if i am wrong.

I know my boy is capable of getting better grades. It's a matter of whether we want to get into the rat race competitively or not at the expense of a childhood with less play. He's unlike my elder boy who though is also not competitive knows what he wants to attain.

You will be surprised to know that the two teachers my boy is having this year do not impart knowledge, either not doing it the right way or not bothered to find out which is the right way for the pupils in this very varied ability class. I am not generalising. My boy's classmate's mum feels the most impact on her son and told me these. All along I thought the teachers were doing their jobs and my boy was too easily distracted in class to pay attention.

Now I am doing damage control by sending my boy for 2 days of Chinese tuition, coaching him on EL grammar rules n compos, giving him more challenging MA prob sums and revising Sci with him.

PH is a sch with longer hours, he comes back home ard 2.20pm and I send him to sleep by 9.30pm. The whole day could be consumed by work.

Maybe becos of my elder boy's experience with the sch system- having more teachers who know how to teach, I needed only to revise Sci & MT with him. He was left so much time to play, read his fav story books, etc.

I also know it is no guarantee we will get better teachers elsewhere. But the time saved on travelling is a big bonus in our case. I could keep to the current work schedule n he gets to play with this pocket of time saved.

[BraisedPorkBelly]

Hmm.. hope hers will last longer considering she shouldnt or probably wont be interested in soccer


Ya we bought the sneakers shampoo on standby already too. Lol

[BraisedPorkBelly]

BTW can anyone share a bit more details on the school bus schedule, price, pros & cons?


We are thinking of going for school bus but worried if its too young to start her on it at P1. Thanks!

[Jennifer]

BraisedPorkBelly:

Hmm.. hope hers will last longer considering she shouldnt or probably wont be interested in soccer


Ya we bought the sneakers shampoo on standby already too. Lol

I hv also the sneakers shampoo in the past. It leaves a soapy feeling on the cushion parts. To me, very hard to rid of unless I scrub with water. Then got to sun the shoes. Heng if it is a sunny day.

I strongly recommend the magic sponge. Now my elder boy who is boarding in sch uses it to clean his sch shoes too. Wld be getting my P3 boy to clean his sch shoes this way too. A way to impart responsibility

[Jennifer]

BraisedPorkBelly:

BTW can anyone share a bit more details on the school bus schedule, price, pros & cons?


We are thinking of going for school bus but worried if its too young to start her on it at P1. Thanks!

We got the list of sch bus operators on the orientation day. Just go to the sch bus booth to register your child. Someone will call you to confirm the pickup pt and time.

I believe there will be a bus fare hike next year.

So far, the bus servicing our route is a middle-sized one with no aunt to supervise the children.

When are you staying? Maybe some other parents who stay in the same area as you would be able to give more info.