A Good Read - Where the Wild Things Are

Where the Wild Things Are is one of those books that can be enjoyed equally by a child as well as a grown-up. The main character, Max, dons his wolf suit in pursuit of some mischief and gets sent to bed without supper. A forest grows in his room, allowing his wild rampage to continue. 


Sendak's colour illustrations are awesome. With mismatched parts & giant eyes, the wild things manage somehow to be scary-looking without ever really being scary. A note of caution: Sendak uses some defiantly run-on sentences. A great read for pre-school kids. There's an audio book version available too.  

How lightning is formed

We have just started our lessons on Electricity for the P5 kids. Last evening, the Monday P5 group was excited when they were given light bulbs, dry cells and crocodile clips to explore. They were given drawings of different set-ups and were told to investigate in which set-ups would the bulb light up. After that, they would make their inferences and conclusions based on the results. 

Here's a video that explains how lightning is formed. Many pupils in previous batches asked me this question before. Have fun watching the video.

Updates

Some parents asked us if there are regular classes for P5 and P6 English and Science classes. We did not post them on the blog as most of the classes have no vacancies. In fact, we have stopped taking in P6 pupils since early part of the year. Most of the classes are full and there are only a few classes with limited vacancies (1 or 2 pupils). If you are keen to find out, please feel free to send us an email (serenagreenhouse@gmail.com) or send us an sms at 98736115.

A Good Read - Always Wear Clean Underwear

There's a great book, "Always wear clean underwear!" written by Marc Gellman. It is a wonderful resource for parents to read with kids and to instill values in them. I used some stories from the book during the Orientation Week when I was teaching in my ex-school. When I first saw this book, the title caught my attention. It is written in a conversational, easy to understand and humourous manner. Even my upper primary kids loved the stories. An AWESOME read!

For kids and parents who are interested to read this book, here's a piece of good news. You can find it in the National Library.

Here's an extract adapted from one of the stories:

Why do your parents care about your underwear? Nobody sees your underwear, and yet parents always tell kids to wear clean underwear.

Answer #1: Dirty underwear is full of germs and we don't want those germs jumping off your underwear and onto you.

Answer #2: You should always wear clean underwear because if you ever get into an accident on the way to school or on the way home from school and an ambulance has to take you to the hospital and the doctors in the emergency room have to take your pants off, if they see that you're wearing dirty underwear then they'll think that we're bad parents because we don't wash your underwear. (Take note that this is a run-on sentence from the book. A chance to incorporate the usage of appropriate punctation. Heehee.)

Apart from these answers, there must be some big deep reason behind this. I think I figured it out. The big reason for wearing clean underwear is to teach you this: What people don't see about you should be just as good as what people do see about you. 


We all try to look good outside. The hard part is to look good inside. 

If you pretend to be somebody's friend but say bad things about him or her to other people, then it's a lot like wearing dirty underwear. If you are nice to your brothers or sisters when your parents are around but hit them and make them miserable when your parents are gone, then you're wearing dirty underwear.


The hardest thing in life is to be the same way deep down as you are on top. If you are always pretending to be something you aren't, if you never say what you mean, if you never do what you say, then you'll be unhappy and people will stay away from you because they don't want to have a friend who is clean only on the outside.

Interdependence - Shrimp and Goby Fish

Very informative video found on Youtube on the symbiotic relationship between the shrimp and the goby fish. A top school has set a question on this symbiotic relationship in its P6 Science Examination Paper.

Hi, we're back

Hi, we're back. We have been busy conducting the P5 and P6 Math Holiday Programmes and a Writing Programme (for existing pupils who have joined us in the later part of the year). 

Thank you for the positive and encouraging comments and feedback. Many of the kids who have joined the holiday programmes have enjoyed the sessions and pupils and parents have even approached us to start regular classesfor them. However, due to time constraint, we are still considering if we should start a high-ability P5 Math class. We are sorry to inform the P6 pupils that we are not starting another regular Math class due to time constraint.

It is gratifying to see that the kids have gained more confidence in solving some of the questions posed. There are requests to conduct more of such holiday workshops for those who are not able to attend our regular classes due to distance. We are in the midst of discussion and will inform interested parents should we plan to organise such programmes.

Food for thought - Teaching a child "how to fish"

We are in the midst of conducting our Math Holiday Programmes for the P5 and P6 kiddos. Hence we will post and share more on educational issues after the June holidays.

We are glad to see that after a few days of lessons, the kiddos have shared with us that they are clearer in the Maths concepts involved in the questions that they encounter. Some of the kiddos find the challenging questions that we pose daunting at first. However, after our explanations, they see the light. We reiterate to them that they will need to practise the questions again and ensure that they understand the concepts and heuristics involved.

Some of the kiddos are very candid when they share with us that they have not been taught to identify the Maths concepts involved in many of the questions. Our advice to these kids is: Don't feel disheartened. Make sure you revise the concepts thoroughly after the intensive holiday programme. Otherwise, you will forget what you have learnt.

We have always believed in teaching the kids "how to fish". It is crucial for them to be aware of and identify the Maths and Science concepts and the heuristics or answering techniques involved before they can apply them. It is the same for English. They have to be taught the grammatical rules, the comprehension strategies and the writing techniques explicitly before they can apply them.

As parents and educators, here is some food for thought. Does doing practice paper after practice paper definitely translate into results? For pupils who have grasped the concepts, it will definitely help as they are exposed to a wide variety of questions. For pupils who have not fully grasped the concepts, it is vital that they are exposed to the thought processes, concepts, skills and answering techniques involved during their learning. Only then will we see results when we supplement their learning with assessment books and practice papers.

What does teaching entail?  Is it going through the model answers in the revision papers and books? I think it is more important to go through with the kids the thought processes, concepts, skills and answering techniques. As the saying goes, "Teaching is an art." It entails a lot of preparation and reflection. What is best for the kids? What works for the kids? If this strategy does not work, can we use another strategy?