Your're my SUPERSTAR

Our project on a Starry Night:- we learnt about the Sun,Star,PlanetsI'm sure your child have been sharing with you about why is the sun so bright compared to many stars that are much bigger than the sun.At the same time, enjoy the artistic side of your child's creativity!I'm very impressed!

Phyllis' Riccia School Wishes all our graduates the best in their learning journey ahead

Salmon and its saga!

That is how it begins.....
After living 2 years in the river where the salmon were born, why do they take the trouble to swim to the ocean, stay for 3 years and then return back to the same river to die after laying eggs?

Min Yan, Qian Yu & Parveena guessed: To find their parents?
Cayden, Joshua, Eugene guessed: To find food?
Yu Hui guessed: To live in a bigger home with more food because they will grow very big?

-->I told the children to decide if those answers are correct by participating actively in the lesson of Salmon.

Before I could go on with my learning plans...

Cayden asked : Is the river connected to the ocean?

-->The children's perception is that river and ocean are too far apart & hence couldn't be connected!

Eugene asked: How did the salmon get out of the river to the ocean?

-->"Hire a taxi!" exclaimed the silly teacher. Everyone laughed their jaws out (children know that can't happen in reality)!

I explained with a pictorial map: River is normally at a higher level such as around the mountain compared to the ocean or sea level. The fresh water from the river will flow downstream natuarally because water flow downwards (all children know that). As it flow downstream, it will meet with the stream which is also on its way to the sea......(the children continued the inference). Please refer to your child's exercise book on their documentation of their newly acquired understanding about the world around them.

Joshua asked : Then, how do the salmon swim up the waterfall when they go back to the river?

-->Children's imagination of downstream is that there is waterfall.

--> With the aid of IT and books, children were convinced that salmon are very strong and can leap their way up a high waterfall.

With the year drawing close to an end, I'm just a little relunctant to let go of these wonderful moments experienced in my class that often enriched my lesson plans.

Metamorphosis to water creatures

Just as our curiosity on the amazing transformation of the tadpole to a frog and the pupanarium of wriggler(larva)to a mosquito reached the peak; it is my utmost pleasure to share these exciting observations with you, parents!
While we discussed that female mosquitoes need blood for it to lay eggs,
Dillon immediately responded:"So,only female mosquito will bite!".
Qian Yu, Oisin, Bryan, Parveena & Cayden spontaneously questioned:"Then, what do the male mosquitoes drink and do since they also do not take care of the eggs?!"

We then proceed to the theme on water creature. It is my habit to introduce the composition of water ie. H2O. This year, I was challenged by a child who asked without hesitation:"Are you sure?" It appeared to me that she does not believe that water is formed so easily! Neither do I?
Then again, fish will never be left out of our discussion let alone how it breathe.
As I was 'dramatizing' on how the gills act like a filter, drawing out the 'O' from
H2O and pushing the rest out of the gills;the same child paraphrased her understanding on my 'drama'. This is how it goes...:"The 'O' must be bigger that is why it is trapped by the gills where else the H2 got out of the filter."

What touches my heart is that our little young learners have the right aplitude and attitude towards learning. They think like great scienists. Keep up the good work my young scientists!

Watch us learn how to go about with seriation.

The long hurdle of human towards flying

Carrying on from the topic on birds is reptiles and amphibians. Children were asked what other animals lay eggs. Ask your child how are they same or different, they will tell it all; from physical to biological characteristics.
By the way, my students came to school happily, implicitly telling me that mom & dad learnt the difference of crocodile vs alligator, frog vs toad. Several intellectual discussion popped out during discussion about the revolution of flying birds since Jurassic era and the ability of strong leaping frog with their long hind legs.Children suggested that if we could practise very hard on speed running, we could take off like the aeroplane too(didn't all the kungfu series show that it's possible)!
To convince the children that nothing is impossible, we practised jumping like the frog to experience the used of our 'long legs'.Please remind your child not to do it alone at home nor demonstrate it to his younger sibling(s).
At the same time, we also addressed the misconception by many children that monkey & kangoroo have 2 legs & 2 arms each. Scientifically, all 4 are legs but the 2 front legs act like arms.
We will also continue to focus on problem sums for integrated mathematics lesson.
Children are also expected to confidently identify blends,digraph,word family and represent it through their writing practice. Expectations for penmanship and correct usage of grammar and punctuation will continue to be the main focus of integrated English lesson.

Check out how we learn and exchange findings

Group A: The Greenhouse effect. (left pic:3rd day of expt., right pic:8th day of expt.)
On the 3rd day of observation, a few concluded that the bean outside the green house germinated faster because it received more air. Most of others who studied carefully the bean inside the greenhouse, confidently pointed out that the bean inside germinated and grew faster because the water vapour was trapped inside giving water back to the soil. In this way,the plants get water under the scorching sun. Both hypothesis were logical. Check out the 'answer' in your child's Science exercise book.




Group B: Chlorophyll is green? (thank you Cayden,Bryan & Joshua's mother for your 10ml of nail polish removal)

The nail polish removal solution turned green instantly when we dropped fresh leaves into it. On the following day, the leaves turned pale and the solution became darker green in colour. We placed a stripe of kitchen paper into the solution. The next day,there were different spectrum of green colour. "See, the paper is filled with green colour, chlorophyll is really green!" claimed one of the interested pupil.






Group C: Do plants perspire?

Right after watering the plant,we wrapped it up in a plastic bag and placed it away from direct sunlight. The next morning, 'wow' so much 'sweat'. Children witness that respiration happened to plants too quite similar to the way our glasses/spectacles get blurred when we breathe onto it.

The Earth, I Love

Beautiful and creative creations with leaves and peas/beans/nuts/seeds.
We are entering into the amazing Amazon & Rainforest to round up the theme on plants and to start the journey on Animals.
With all the prior knowledge on grouping or patterning, measuring (height of tree, circumference of trunk, width of leaf), adding & subtracting using number bonding concept, we will next embark on multiplication.
A 2 cent worth of advice:
Please avoid the temptation to make your child memorize the time-tables. From the perspective of early childhood education, the ONLY benefit is that it may please the adult or parent 'if' the child is good in reciting it. What if he cannot remember at all or can recite well but got all the problem sums wrong? Oh, then it must be that the teacher or perhaps the school programme is no good!!!???
Nonetheless, if the child enjoys the rhythm of the time-table,it suggests that it is time to discover the child's talent in music. Ability to recite the time-table well has nothing related to mathematical reasoning at a very young age. On the otherhand, if the child understood the concept from concrete and daily useful experiences and uses that understanding in his reasoning, he will out shine many others in his application.He will be a high achiever who knows how to enjoy learning. BTW, mom & dad, can you believe that your child can tell you how many seeds they've used in the activity on the left, in less then a minute! Thanks to the array of beans that make the pupils feel easy learning multiplication!