Teaching our students how to measure temperatures off a thermometer and how to prevent parallax error is important. With this, we took a memory lane down to P4 topic, Heat & Temperature. Our main character is our humble salt. We want to prove that salt is an impurity and is able to change the melting/freezing point and boiling point of water. Our class was amazed to see the changes. Recording observations and concluding the experiment wraps up with what they have learnt in P4.
It is pretty amusing to have a class of different gender. Last year, we also had 2 P6 classes, one for the ladies, the other for the gents. For the lesson, we had 2 activities lined up for our boys, and expected, they were really boisterous, in a positive manner. We got them to blow balloons, to connect their learning with a P5 topic – Respiratory System. We recapped the key words – contraction, expansion, increase, decrease and so on. To see the boys blowing the balloons were hilarious and they were spontaneous to co-operate as much as they could. With each increased activity to get the heartbeat moving, we got them to inflate the balloon and measure the circumference. We recapped along the way.
After resting, it was hard work, they said. We got them to do an activity on Food Web through pair work. They did not have time to complete, so we will continue for the next lesson.
We owed our girls this Sun Catcher experiment before the exam skills and drills. It was long overdue and the girls cheered when we pulled out the materials needed for the experiment. Life as a student is really stressful, and a much needed break from the exams, although briefly, can be a respite for them. We work around this and still was able to conduct a lesson around Light and Energy. Can you spot the rainbow captured by the snapshot?
Our P3/4 Science class doing an activity on insects, under Diversity. It was a form of recap for them and for us to gauge if they had recalled the characteristics of insects. We love their furry interpretations of pasting colourful pipe cleaners onto the insect templates and their mini comic sketches under CAP. We also taught on the different states of matter under Cycles, a P4 topic. For the P3s, they learn something new. For the P4s, it serves as a recap. Win-win. Check out their note takings on the topic too. Lovely!
It is good to recap and revisit previous topics. Through simple hands on activities, we are able to gauge how well a student is able to grasp what he/she has learnt previously. We love the interpretation of Z, who created a mini habitat with an ant, a grasshopper and a a worm (although this is not an insect).
We are back to craft writing. We stopped as we did exam skills and drills with the rest of the levels too. Although Primary One and Two do not have exams, but parents still request us to help them test to ensure their children are able to catch up in future.
Back to lesson, we did a musical instrument to liven up the atmosphere. It was a blast. Our class was very excited to hold the instruments and we had to keep them on track repeatedly. Once settled, they got right down to work. They decorated and spun a story about music, and even sang a song with the instrument! Check out their mini performance! We loved how they decorated their wooden crafts too, with one drawing a Math pattern! Can you spot it?
Post exam activities. We always make use of newspaper articles to teach our lessons, in an alternative way, yet able to allow our students to learn within what they need to learn. As this was a public holiday, we combined the two levels, grouped them and set tasks for them to complete. The last part is always the sharing of ideas and presentation, part of honing their oral and confidence skills.
