Why is the blood of the octopus blue?

The blood of a human is red as it contains haemoglobin. The haemoglobin, which carries oxygen around our body, contains iron. However, the blood of an octopus is blue as it contains the protein, haemocyanin. Haemocyanin, which carries oxygen around the octopus's body, contains copper.  

The copper-based protein is more efficient at transporting oxygen molecules in cold and low-oxygen conditions so is ideal for life in the ocean.

If the blood (called haemolymph in invertebrates) becomes deoxygenated - when the animal dies, for example - it loses its blue colour and turns clear instead.

The famous "Helen & Ivan" 2021 Math PSLE Question - We've nailed it!

At Serena's Greenhouse, the team believes that besides preparing our pupils well for the examinations, we should also impart study skills, study habits and values that will have an even more lasting impact on them.  

We always emphasise to our pupils the importance of being resilient and persevering when they face challenging questions during the classes. When the pupils first joined us, many of them would whine and give up when we assigned a challenging question. However, during their learning journey with us, they have blossomed to become confident problem solvers. We're glad that when our P6 pupils were put to the test this morning, they managed to stay calm, display resilience and perseverance during the Math PSLE paper today. 

A number of them were also very excited when they could see the similarity in concepts tested for the challenging "Helen & Ivan" question and what they had learnt in class.  They were so happy that they sent us messages after the examination. 

Teaching the Kids to "Fish" through our Writer's Craft Programme

Recently, a parent enquired about our Writer's Craft programme as a few of her friends had recommended our programme to her. She asked me, "What does the programme cover? Could you share more details with me?"

During the classes, pupils will be taught to brainstorm for ideas using a framework. Besides that, they are exposed to a wide variety of vocabulary and phrases related to the theme. Most importantly, they are taught writing skills explicitly through our in-house writing resources and writing frameworks crafted by Teacher Hayati and Teacher Serena. The pupils are taught literary devices like Magic of 3, anaphora, metaphors, alliteration, symbolism, fragmented sentences and others. We also teach writing techniques such as character description, expanding a moment and creating tension. To make learning easier for the students, we have crafted our own writing frameworks for these writing techniques. 

We also guide pupils in appreciating writing techniques and writing style adopted by accomplished writers. We do this by analysing writer's craft through the use of mentor texts during lessons. Mentor texts used are in the form of extracts from stories written by accomplished writers. Mentor texts are also in the form of model compositions crafted by Teacher Hayati and Teacher Serena. 

We're thankful that our efforts have achieved what we have set out to do - to help them blossom into more confident writers.

 

Words of appreciation from a tutee who improved from 25 marks  to 36 marks

Congratulations to K who was given a Gold Finalist Award in the 

Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition 2021

Words of affirmation from a tutee's parent

Writer's Craft: Vivid Descriptions Used in "Matilda"

Roald Dahl used imagery to describe characters in the book, "Matilda". These vivid descriptions help to bring the characters alive and readers can imagine how the characters look like or how they behave. 

1) Description of Miss Trunchball 

"She had once been a famous athlete, and even now the muscles were still clearly in evidence. You could see them in the bull-neck, in the big shoulders, in the thick arms, in the sinewy wrists and in the powerful legs." (Pg 66)

2) Description of a newt that Lavender finds in her backyard pond

"[The newt] is about six inches long and very slimy, with a greenish-grey skin on top and an orange-coloured belly underneath." (Pg 11)

3) Description of Matilda from Miss Honey's perspective

"She saw the child white in the face, as white as paper, trembling all over, the eyes glazed, staring straight ahead and seeing nothing. The whole face was transfigured, the eyes round and bright and she was sitting there speechless, quite beautiful in a blaze of silence." (Pg 144)

Writer's Craft: Creative Similes in "Matilda"

 There are many creative similes used in the book "Matilda" written by Roald Dahl. Here are some examples:

1) "The parents looked upon Matilda in particular as nothing more than a scab. A scab is something you have to put up with until the time comes when you can pick it off and flick it away." (Pg 6)

2) "Her body was so slim and fragile one got the feeling that if she fell over she would smash into a thousand pieces, like a porcelain figure." (Pg 50) 

3)"Miss Trunchbull never walked, she always marched like a storm-trooper with long strides and arms swinging." (Pg 51) 

4) "... if a group of children happened to be in her path, she ploughed through them like a tank" (Pg 51)

5) "If you get on the wrong side of Miss Trunchbull, she can liquidize you like a carrot in a kitchen blender." (Pg 69) 

6) "When at last the germ of a brilliant idea hit her, she began to expand on it and lay her plans with the same kind of care the Duke of Wellington had done before the Battle of Waterloo." (Pg 110) 

7) "The boy was now so full of cake he was like a sackful of wet cement and you couldn't have hurt him with a sledge-hammer." (Pg 133)

 

Vocabulary Building: Binomials

(1) What are binomials?

 Binomials are fixed expressions where two words are joined by a conjunction, e.g. up and down. 

(2) Examples of binomials

- give and take

- rave and rant

- in black and white

- leaps and bounds

- save and scrimp

- part and parcel

Introduce Your Child to Current Affairs

My child only reads fiction books. He is not interested in current affairs at all! Do you face this situation at home?

What can you do as a parent? 

Step 1: Cut out interesting news articles and read them together with your child

For a start, you could ignite your child's interest in the current affairs by cutting out interesting newspaper articles and reading them together with your child. For example, you could cut out news articles on how sleep deprivation could affect one's concentration or how the design of certain dinner plates with ridges can trick the mind into seeing a small portion as big and hence help cut obesity. 

In fact, many issues mentioned in the news are potential topics for Oral examinations and General Paper (A level subject). 

Step 2: Use news articles as authentic resources to share opinions on current affairs 

Elicit your child's responses and opinions on the topic or issue mentioned in the news article. Share your insight or opinion with your child too.  You can even start a mini family debate if there are both pros and cons on the topic.

Step 3: Use news articles as authentic resources to develop cloze passage skills

You could use correction tape to blank out certain words in the newspaper article for your child to fill up. 

Step 4: Use news articles as authentic resources to develop vocabulary

You could get your child to highlight new words that he does not know and look up the dictionary for the meaning of the new words.

There are many free resources on the Internet. 

https://www.nytimes.com/

https://www.theguardian.com/international

https://www.straitstimes.com