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

Video Game Addiction

If your child likes to play video games, do control the amount of time he or she spends on the activity. Now the World Health Organisation recognises that players of video games can actually become addicted and will include "gaming disorder" in its new draft of the International Classification of Diseases.

You may want to read this article with your child and discuss about the pros and cons of playing video games.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/17/business/video-game-addiction.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Video - Impact of Global Warming

Watch this heart-wrenching short video clip on a starving polar bear in the Arctic with your child. You could talk about global warming and its impact after watching the video.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/12/polar-bear-starving-arctic-sea-ice-melt-climate-change-spd/?_ga=2.51405867.380859813.1529311868-629953742.1512905858

Read the article by National Geographic to find out more about the starving polar bear.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/12/starving-polar-bear-video-climate-change-spd/

How do Maglev Trains Work?

During one of the P6 Science lessons, my pupils and I were discussing how magnetic force of repulsion helped to levitate a Maglev train so that the train is "floating" on a cushion of air and is not in contact with the train. This helps to eliminate friction between the base of the train and the track hence allowing the train to travel faster.

Some pupils in the class were curious about how magnetic force is used to propel the Maglev train forward. To find out more, do click here. 

Authentic Oral Resources - Using Newspaper Articles as Thinking Prompts

Thinking is where intelligent actions begin. We pause long enough to look more carefully at a situation, to see more of its character, to think about why it’s happening, to notice how it’s affecting us and others. 

                                                                                                                       —Margaret Wheatley 

To prepare the child for the stimulus-based conversation in the Oral examination, parents can use newspaper articles as thinking prompts to engage their children in topics related to life experiences or situations around them. 

What are thinking prompts?

Thinking prompts are devices that provoke conversation dialogue and deep thought. 

Types of thinking prompts:

Video clips, newspaper articles, cartoons, photographs, works of art, artifacts

What thinking prompts accomplish?

Promote dialogue

Help the child make connections

Provide background knowledge

Engage the child

Today we will share how an interesting newspaper article on a crinkly plate can be used as a thinking prompt.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/may/20/want-to-lose-weight-eat-in-a-crinkly-plate-obesity

After reading the article together with your child, you could ask your child to summarise the article by telling you in one to three sentences what the article is about.

Next, you could engage your child in a discussion on the following questions:

1. Why is there a need to address the obesity problem in many parts of the world?

2. How can the crinkly plate help to address the obesity problem / encourage people to eat more healthily?

3. What are some other ways to address the obesity problem?

Five Tips for Helping Your Kid Adjust to Sec 1

The Sec 1 posting results were out recently. Here's an article on tips for helping your kid adjust to Secondary 1. A good read for parents with kids moving on to Sec 1.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/5-tips-for-adjusting-to-secondary-1-now-that-psle-is-over-045841685.html

2016 PSLE Question on Carrier Crab and Sea Urchin - Check out this video

In the 2016 Science PSLE, pupils were asked an open-ended question on the carrier crab and sea urchin.

Watch this video (posted on Youtube) to see the carrier crab in action.

Science Concepts:

This is an example of symbiosis or interdependence between the carrier crab and the sea urchin. The carrier crab carries the sea urchin on its back as a spiny shield to protect itself from predators. In return, the sea urchin gets a free ride to new feeding grounds in the ocean so that it can get more food.