Class Activity: Mixing Colours!

Below are some of the pictures taken during our class activity on mixing colours.

Treasury of Singapore Tales by ACT 3 Theatrics

We were fortunate to watch such an interesting performance by ACT 3 on 30th July at the Esplanade.

They presented 2 local legends - Swordfish and Badang. the live drama blended with Asian-flavoured theatre elements like wayang kulit, pugilistics, puppets and gamelan to unravel these Singapore folktales.

After the play, there was a short interactive session with the audience. The actors answered many of the pupils' questions like 'How do yo make the banana trunk?' or 'what is the swordfish made of?'

After that we had a short break for lunch, followed by the tour of the Esplanade. When we went up to the top of the 'durian', it was a breathtaking sight! We took our class photos and soon it was time to go back to school.

Speak Good English Movement (SGEM) Carnival

The school conducted the SGEM Carnival last week. Our class took part in the carnival - enjoying the various booths which promises lots of prizes. tokens. I am sure they have learnt a lot from the booths that they have visited. At the Speaker's corner, Raihan and Zul received their cute tokens after they spoke for about 2 minutes about their favourite pet. Congrats!

Fruittie Veggie Bites Programme

( Nice design? I designed it together with the school's TA)

Dear parents/guardian.

Fruits and vegetables provide many essential vitamins and minerals for healthy living, and that eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables can lower the risk of and prevent a number of serious illnesses and health problems, such as cancer and high blood pressure.

As the childhood and adolescent years are imperative in the formation and inculcation of positive health and health-related habits, our school is partnering with Health Promotion Board to organize the Fruttie Veggie Bites Programme from 24 July to 26 August. This programme seeks to promote the consumption of fruit and vegetables and reinforce the importance of consuming these among the young. With this programme, students will be issued with a card each time they purchase a fruit or vegetables from the school canteen. Students then consolidate their cards as a class effort and the class with the highest fruit and vegetable intake will be rewarded. The cards also contain simple messages to reiterate the importance of eating a variety of fruit and vegetables.

Please reinforce this health message to your child by encouraging your child to include fruit and vegetables in their daily diets and also encourage them to consume 2 servings of fruit and 2 servings of vegetables every day. Do not hesitate to contact Mr Md Faizal Md Razak if you have any enquiries.

Dear pupils,

Don't forget to collect those cute small cards when you buy fruit or vegetables!

Fruity Day

As part of the school's effort to encourage the eating of fruits, the Health Education Department organised our termly Fruity Day. This term, we gave out free pears to our pupils!

Sale of Zhenghua Bears!

Thank you for those who have purchase those cute Zhenghua Bears! I have collected some more order from 2G and the distribution of the bears will be on 1st August.

Our Very First Magazine ...

We have decided to release our magazine in the second week of August. If there are no problems with printing, we can even distribute the magazine during the first week of August. So, in the meantime, inform your kids to submit any articles/drawings to our publication team!

Swimming Certificates

The office administration is preparing the swimming certificates for pupils who have attended the swimming programme.

Welcome Back! There are lots of activities coming your way...

Dear pupils/parent/guardian,

I am sure you are all energised and ready to learn more things in this term. I would like to update you on the following matters:

1) Speech & Drama
Our Speech and Drama continues this term, and it will be held every Monday after recess. I hope you will enjoy the sessions, and don't forget - you will be performing on stage in August!

2) Spelling
After conducting a short survey with the class, it was decided that spelling will be held every Friday rather than Wednesday. This is because some of the pupils complained they need more time to study their spelling list....
Well... I hope that would mean your spelling results should get better!

3) Swimming Lessons

For those who have signed up for swimming lessons, don't forget that it is held every Friday. Please bring the necessary things needed for the swimming class as communicated with your parents.Here are some of the pictures that I have taken:

4) Art & Craft - Animal Mask using paper plates

In line with our English lesson on 'sounds animals make', we have created a simple face mask to depict the faces of animals. Using this mask, pupils will be able to make the sounds of the animals which they have made, and linking again to the next topic on the homes of the animals, the pupils will recall the names of the animals' homes.




5) Open House 2008

For those who attended the Open House, I am sure you are all impressed at the wide range of activities and performances by the gallant pupils of Zhenghua. Some of our 2G pupils performed the Chinese Dance and Dare Embassadors showed us their dance skills. Congrats to the performers! We really enjoyed the show!


6) Our 2G Plants

The good news is that our plants have grown tall! As the plants have outgrown the pots, the Science Department have planted for all the P2 classes another set of seedlings. I will update all of you on the schedule of watering the plants once it is confirmed.



7) 2G Times - get ready for our very first class magazine!

The team is currently in the process of collecting articles and designs for our magazine. They will be having a few meetings to finalise the details of the magazine. For those who still wants to contribute, you still have time. Contact Terry ( our editor) and suggest of submit your articles/drawings!


Comments?

2G in Roving Eye Competition!

Our class was featured in the Roving Eye Competition. Our school won the top 6 placing in this contest.

Check out this 1 min video, and our class in the ending segment of the clip!

Chronicles of Post SA1....

Latest!!(Post Exam Information)

The pupils have come out with their ideas for our upcoming project - our very own class magazine. They have suggested the following to be included in the magazine. Looks like a long list of articles to be included in the magazine!

1) games
2) crossword puzzle
3) interviews
4) selected pupil's composition
5) colouring
6) drawings by pupils
7) feelings(?) - I am still figuring out what they meant by this 'feeling'
8) health and fitness tips
9) class / individual participation in inter class/visits/tours, etc


That looks like a lot of things for a small class! However, I will try to help them to produce our very first magazine. Who knows, it might be our regular magazine for the whole class/family!

This is exciting... I can't wait...



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SA1 Exam
I have gone through all the past exam papers with the pupils, and have noted their individual mistakes. The common errors were highlighted and I wish the pupils all the best in their exams.

Carpet (donation) at our Class Library
I would like to thank Ernest's parent for donating the carpet. It sure looks great, and cosy surroundings allows the pupils to have a more conducive environment to read their books. Sometimes I have to restrict them from using the library - there are just too many requests!
SA1

Project Master
Kai Teng managed to get into the 2nd round of the Project Master. Congratulations!


Performance for DARE programme
Our class performed gracefully the fusion dance during our mini-concert in ZPS. I will try to upload the videos in the near future.

Reporters' Club
Terry
Kelly
Regine
Si Jia
Jason
Karthik


Newspaper Collection
We have collected about 28 kg of newspaper. Great job!


Whats happening in Term 3

- More games for Palm sessions
- remedial for pupils
- Swimming Lesson for P2 pupils
- teaching tips for parents
- Uploading of videos in Youtube

Welcome Back!

Welcome back!

I am sure all of you have enjoyed the 1 week holiday, and some of you have
enjoyed your visit to your relatives' house or tours to our neighbouring countries. From my 'survey', most of you visited the places of interest like Sentosa, Science Centre. Some of you went to Malaysia for holiday or visited relatives.

New Student

We have 2 new students: Muhd Rafiq and Lawson Goh. Welcome to 2G! I hope both of you will adjust well in the new term, and will enjoy the vibrant culture of Zhenghua Primary School.

Eye Care Week

Eye Care Week ended last Friday, with the finale event organised together with the NE department. The pupils had fun playing games and at the same time understand the importance of having friends, not just local friends, but also pupils from other countries.
I will post some pictures in due time.

SA1

Dear Parents, I hope you have understood the requirements for our upcoming SA1 exam. For the the Show and Tell, your child will need to prepare one of the 3 topics given in the handouts. Please assist your child in preparing them for the Show and Tell.

Other News:

Get well soon Farhana!
Farhana is currently on 2 weeks medical leave. She will be back in mid-April. I will pass the homework to her brother soon.

New Chairman of 2G
Terry is now our new chairman of 2G after Sim Shi Yun was transferred to another school.

CABS Lesson
Pupils learnt how to use Microsoft Word, with the basics of text editing as well as other features like Insert Picture, Graphics, etc. The pupils loved the lesson!

It has been a busy week. I will post more news about our class in due time.

Updates, Updates, Updates...

Meet-the-Parent Session
First of all, I would like to thank all the parents who have made the effort to come and share as well as learnt more about their child. Most of you are on time, and that helped in making the meeting an almost 'glitchless' event. For a few parents who have to wait a while before your name was called, I apologise. There are parents who needed some other information or I was trying to give them ideas to help their child.

There were some suggestions during the meet the parents session, but one of them which I will try to work on is regarding how parents can help to teach/support their child's homework. I will give an overview of the topics covered and with examples on how you can help your child in his/her homework.

If you have comments or suggestions regarding the meet the parent session. please email me.

Do enjoy your holidays, but don't forget to ensure your child reads every day!

Regarding 2G Classroom Blog
Some of the parents have expressed their gratitude to be for having this blog done. I would like to thank all of you for giving me the support and encouragement because setting this blog is above my current duty and jobscope. But since I know a little bit about blogging, I would like to give it a shot at this. So far so good, and I hope over the coming weeks I can add more information about our school/class events.

If you like the blog, email me. If you have suggestions on how I can improve the blog, email me...

Farewell to Mrs Jayaram

As you have known, our VP, Mrs Jayaram, has left us and she is now a Principal in another school. Some of our pupils cried during the farewell ceremony. We wish her all the best in her future undertakings.

Our Budding Artist


I have scanned Ting Jie's farewell card to Mrs Jayaram (see picture above). He is one of our budding artist.
Mmm.. maybe Mr Faizal might want to have a monthly art pieces by 2G... How about that?


Activities in Term 2

Computer Lessons - typing skills

Parent Volunteer

Dear parents, would you want to be a parent volunteer? I was thinking of getting some parent volunteers from our class when we go out for school outings/visits. At this present moment, what I can tell you is that as a parent volunteer, you can specify your schedule (eg, off days, days when you are free, or even the certain hours which you can spare the time). I might need your help in our school's Eye Care Week programme starting from 24th March 08.

You can email me if you wish to know more about this. ( mdfaizal.2g@gmail.com )

Donations to 2G?
If you have old carpet ( not too old ) which can be used for our reading corner, do email me. I would like to decorate the reading corner so that it will be conducive for the pupils to read.

Chinese New Year Concert

Here are some of our Chinese Dance pupils in action. What a show!

Archived Photos

Since I have some of the 1G photos in my PC, I thought why not upload them to this site. The photos were taken from our trip to the Singapore Zoo last year.

Dear Parents, Do you READ to your children?

First of all I would like to thank those parents who have given me the 'thumbs up' in creating the blog. At this moment I will make general updates of things related to the class and school, as well as posting articles which parents might want to read.

I would like to share an article which I have read recently regarding reading to our children:

The sad thing is this: tragically, research in United States during 1999 indicates that better educated parents read more to their children that their lesser educated counterparts. Its particularly tragic because reading to children in an integral part of progress towards literacy.

Reading to children has two kinds of benefits: social benefits and educational benefits.

Socially, parents reading to their children helps to create and strengthen the bond between them because children realise that, for that time, they are the entire focus of their parents' attention. That attention can be a great self-esteem booster for children too.

For the young ones, being cuddled up to Mum or Dad and the end of the day for a bedtime story, and drifting off in the process can be just the right way to start a good night's sleep.

Educationally, the benefits are ENORMOUS. Reading to young children enthuses them about books and reading from a very early age. Books become part of their lives. Well, that's great for beginners but why should you read to after they can read for themselves?

One teacher I spoke too, who had obviously thought about this a lot, said that reading aloud to children exposes them to words they may not be familiar with, improves their pronunciation, helps their comprehension - especially when they can ask questions - helps with fluency and improves expression.

The question is not really whether we can afford the time to read to our children but whether we an afford NOT TO.

Article extracted from Literacy Circular, Issue 4, Oct 2006


Hence we all must make a change from today onwards - spend at least ten minutes reading to our child everyday. I am sure we can find that time.

Regards,

Mr Md Faizal

Reading With Your Child

Reading With Your Child

Be supportive
Remember how you "taught" your child to speak, and do likewise with reading.Extend, bridge, encourage your child's attempts.Praise approximations.Let your child's interests guide you.

Be positive
Prompt for success and expect it.Focus on what your child does correctly.Praise any attempt that shows good reasoning, even if the outcome is incorrect.

Be meaning-oriented
Give a verbal framework for a story in introducing a book.Read to and with your child.Read predictable books, poetry, and folktales.Read and reread books.Encourage research reading.

Be a good model
Occasionally point to the words as you read aloud.Monitor your own reading and self-correct.Reread to clarify a word or idea.Stop to discuss an interesting or surprising word or idea.Stop to anticipate an upcoming word or event.Model the joy and usefulness of reading.

Be strategic
Prompt for strategies ("What would make sense? Would would sound right? What would you expect to see...? Does that look right? Sound right? Make sense?")Resist the temptation to tell your child when he is correct. Ask "Are you right? How did you know?"Resist the temptation to supply a word immediately when you child hesitates.Allow your child time to figure things out for himself.

Be helpful
Help your child know what works for him.Ask questions to clarify his thinking. ("How did you know that? What made you think...?")Encourage your child to read books that are at a comfortable level for him. Reading does not improve when the books are at frustration level.

Be relevant
Make reading and writing relevant and useful.Play games that involve reading.Have your child help read maps, cookbooks, information from the Internet, etc.Make lists, write letters, design cards, etc.

Above all, be subtle, be supportive, be sensitive!

Taken from http://pages.us.edu/reading/suggest.htm

PALM - Play and Learn Mathematics

The school's PALM programme ( Play And Learn Mathematics ) was officially launched today, and all the pupils spent about one period playing mathematics games from the mathematics bag given to all classes. The students indeed had fun playing a variety of games which test their IQ and logical reasoning. Although I have started getting the pupils to play the games last week when they had finished their school work, this week is the start of the PALM programme.
The PALM programme is once a fortnight and we hope that this activity will spark the students' interest in mathematics.

HELLO WORLD!...I mean.. STUDENTS...AND PARENTS!

Dear students ( and parents)

I have created this blog for you and your parents to have a peek into what is going on in our class! I will post pictures of events that is happening in our school as well as any other information which your parents might want to read/see.

For the parents - I hope this will be a good avenue for us to communicate ( I have already started a mailing list for parents who wish to get more information about their child/school) and have updates on issues relating to your child.

If I have the time.... IF I have the time - I will also post articles which I have read relating to reading, writing as well as parenting.

Do support me in making this avenue of communication a success.

Regards,

Mr Md Faizal
Form Teacher 2G