All About Preparing For Primary One
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snowball2907:
if you don't think she needs it then don't waste your money or time. Send her to play in the playground instead. If you have reason for concern, talk to her teachers and ask for their feedbackRan1977:
I am also looking for P1 prepatory classes during the weekend (Sunday evenings -1x a week). I live in Marine Parade so around Parkway, thereaboutz will be ideal:)
I live in the same area too, can share if either of us found it. But PM Lee said in his rally yesterday that we shouldn't be doing this.. I don't think my daughter really needs the prep class, but being kiasu... =p -
Mine attending P1 next year too. Actually PM is right...give your child the childhood he/she deserves. When primary school starts, it may be pressure mounting all the way till University?? I've no wish to go through my schooling days all over again in today's context if you ask me...so perhaps we should give our little ones a break meanwhile. Nothing beats seeing my daughter's smiling face so I'll go easy for now. Let her enjoy & be herself
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snowball2907:
Should ask him to look at the Chinese textbook. Why can't we use back what we used last time? We turned out well right?Ran1977:
I am also looking for P1 prepatory classes during the weekend (Sunday evenings -1x a week). I live in Marine Parade so around Parkway, thereaboutz will be ideal:)
I live in the same area too, can share if either of us found it. But PM Lee said in his rally yesterday that we shouldn't be doing this.. I don't think my daughter really needs the prep class, but being kiasu... =p -
is there a difference between the Chinese text we used last time vs current one ? last time contents better ?
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Busting myths about primary education
http://www.edvantage.com.sg/edvantage/news/news/1323530/Busting_myths_about_primary_education.html -
Does your child need help in maths?
CAN your pre-school child tell how many eggs there are in the basket at one glance? Or how many Lego blocks there are in the box?
If the answer is yes, he may find primary school maths less of a struggle.
The National Institute of Education (NIE) has launched a year- long study involving six-year- olds to determine whether children’s ability to estimate the number of objects in a given set is indicative of their mathematical ability.
The aim is to identify those who may need help coping with maths - a subject many parents complain is tough - even before they enter Primary 1.
The ongoing research project, which is expected to cost $185,000, is led by cognitive psychologists Rebecca Bull, Kenneth Poon and Kerry Lee.
It involves testing 300 to 400 Kindergarten 2 children for their "approximation skills" by making them do exercises where they have to estimate the number of objects that flash for a few seconds on a computer screen.
The children will be picked from a range of pre-schools. So far, about 180 pre-schoolers have been tested.
The researchers will then compare the results with how well the test subjects do in a screening exercise all children have to go through in Primary 1 to gauge their grasp of maths.
While similar studies in the United States and Britain suggest a positive relationship between approximation skills and numeracy, this is the first such study focusing on Singapore pupils, said Dr Bull.
Thus, parents of slow learners can give extra help to their children earlier, so that primary school maths will be less of a struggle.
Dr Lee said this type of project is particularly useful because it focuses on understanding children’s cognitive capabilities, while much of other work looks at tailoring pedagogy for slower learners.
He said: "By looking at how teaching is done, and what children bring into the picture, we’re looking to tackle the problem from two perspectives."
The outcome of the NIE project will be known by the middle of next year, when all the data is collected and analysed.
Currently, all Primary 1 pupils go through a screening exercise in January when they enter school, to identify those whose level of English and maths lags behind their peers.
Those deemed weak in maths - about 5 per cent of each cohort - attend the Learning Support for Mathematics (LSM) programme.
Introduced in 2007, the LSM gives extra help to weak pupils in Primary 1 to help them catch up.
Last month, Education Minister Heng Swee Keat said that his ministry will build on existing learning support schemes to "help more learners (and) look into better ways of identifying students with other special needs".
A ministry spokesman told The Straits Times that it has previously funded research into learning support and will "continue to consult NIE" in this area.
Apart from screening tests conducted at kindergartens, the team will also collect information about whether the pupils are exposed to numbers-based activities at home, as well as their socio-economic and language backgrounds.
The researchers will then see if these factors are linked to whether a child can cope with primary school maths.
After analysing results from about 100 pupils tested so far, Dr Bull said one preliminary conclusion reached was that kids who have poorer maths skills are poorer at judging if a group has fewer or more subjects, and at making estimates.
Another early conclusion, she said, was that children with parents who said they played more numbers-based games at home tended to be better at approximation tasks.
"If we find that approximation skills measured in kindergarten can help to predict which children will need learning support for maths, we will want to try some form of early intervention."
That need not take the form of extra enrichment classes, she added, but can simply involve raising awareness among parents about informal intervention techniques.
These include everyday activities such as estimating how much shopping might cost, talking about numbers, and playing games that require children to recognise numbers and count, such as dice-based board games.
Said Dr Bull: "The long-term aim of the project is to have fewer children end up in LSM, and potentially having children who are more positive about doing mathematics and being engaged with numerical tasks."
article from The Straits Times -
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Excited. first day of school today!
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"Currently, all Primary 1 pupils go through a screening exercise in January when they enter school, to identify those whose level of English and maths lags behind their peers.". Is this true and the current way they split the classes?
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MR06,
The exercise of looking at items and estimating qty sounds like a right brain training exercise LOL
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