It's the holidays!! YAY!

Hey everyone!

YAY! It's the holidays! Time for a well deserved break!

It's been 10 weeks since you've "upgraded" from primary school to secondary school. Most of you seem to have adapted well! Hope that is true! Secondary school can be fun with slightly more freedom but that also means you need to be disciplined and responsible for your own work.

Anyway! I'm a little bit sick after the weeks of screaming, haha, so I might be slightly slow in updating. Sorry about that.

What to expect soon:

1) Geography topographical maps for 1/3 and 1C

2) Social studies for 1A and 1B

3) English for 1B

I'll also try to put in some interesting online quizzes or videos if i find some!

Meanwhile, here are the holiday homeworks from me:

For 1B:

Check http://www.lead.com.sg/ for your english homework.

It should be updated by monday.

For 1C: English:

1) comprehension from the blue assessment book, page 17 to 22

2) newspaper article, PRs in grassroots activity, as well as corrections for vocab

Also, remember, this time's vocab is to be done like that:

eg. This information is absolutely important!

This information is very crucial!

Copy the sentence and replace the word with another word or phrase of

similar meaning.

3) composition corrections. You may type it out, otherwise copy out the

sentences with mistakes.

For 1C: Geog:

1) http://www.lead.com.sg/ or the worksheet i gave out yesterday

2) workbook exercise 5.2

3) try to understand chapter 5: topographical maps!

For 1/3: Geography:

1) http://www.lead.com.sg/ or the worksheet i gave out yesterday

2) complete the worksheet i gave during class, on topo maps.

Also for 1/3, note that there is make up class on MONDAY, 16/3 at 8am conducted by Mrs Pathy. You are to bring your geog textbook, workbook and a protractor. This is compulsory so please make sure you attend it! Don't waste Mrs Pathy's effort!

Looks like alot of homework! But i'm sure it won't take all of you more than a few hours to complete. You can play the rest of the time! All homework should be in on monday, 23/3 when school reopens okay? I don't want to hear excuses and people telling me they didn't do! =)

To end off this post, I just want to say again, teaching you guys has been a really fun and enriching experience so far. Although we have our problems sometimes and i lose my temper at some of you, do know that I still like all of you very much and believe that all of you are smart and nice people. Be confident in yourself and i'm sure all of you can do well! I hope all of you have learnt something from my classes. I have learnt alot from all of you, like how to be patient and to handle everyone differently. Some of you need me to be fierce with you while some need me to be encouraging. Give me some feedback so I know how to improve when school reopens! =)

Remember to play hard but don't forget to study hard too! Ask where you're not sure!

Lots of love for all of you,

Miss Wu!

Hi All!

Hi 1A, 1B, 1C and 1/3!

These two weeks of teaching you guys have been a great learning experience for me and i hope that it has been so for you as well. My purpose of setting up this blog is so that you can catch up on your classes if you have missed them or was not paying attention in class. I will also list the homework you have to hand up and the deadlines here to help remind you guys. Hope this will help all of you and to make classes slightly more interesting as well! If you have any feedback, feel free to comment! =)
Love, Miss Wu

English for 1C: Vocab

Hi 1C!

As promised, here are the vocab answers for the past 2 newspaper articles we have done. Most of you have tried to find the words and gotten close to the right answer but probably put it in the wrong column. Nonetheless, it is good that you learn how to fit the meanings correctly as it's important for your vocab in comprehension questions. Please do your corrections!!

1) Teochew graveyard's buried treasures

a. Remnants: Column A: left over
Column B: a surviving, trace; a surviving group of people
b. draped: Column A: cover, dress
Column B: adjust into folds; arrange, hang
c. cheek by jowl: Column A: side by side
Column B: -
d. arduous: Column A: full of hardships, difficult
Column B: requires much energy; hard to climb
e. piecemeal: Column A: piece by piece
Column B: make into pieces/fragments
f. augur: Column A: promise of, an omen of
Column B: soothsayer; to divine
g. replicate: Column A: duplicate, reproduce exactly
Column B: bend or fold backwards
h. moonlights: Column A: work a part-time job on top of a full-time job
Column B: -

2) Tough love shows parents care

a. livid: Column A: enraged
Column B: reddish/flushed; bruise
b. perceived: Column A: recognize
Column B: -
c. withdrawn: Column A: quiet, aloof
Column B: removed from circulation
d. stemming: Column A: arise, originate
Column B: -
e. revelation: Column A: something not realized before
Column B: -
f. galvanised: Column A: startle into sudden activity
Column B: coat with zinc
g. cohesive: Column A: unified
Column B: causing cohesion

I know it has been awhile since we did the newspaper articles. But i hope that as you copy these answers, you also think about why yours were wrong okay? And try to get it right for the newspaper article you will be handing up to me on MONDAY! =) Thanks! Hope all of you are enjoying your holidays so far! I had fun at Sentosa with the bunch of you yesterday! Soaking wet fun!

Geog for 1/3, 1C: Reading Topographical Maps (Grids)

Hello 1/3 and 1C!


As promised, here's my post on how to read topographical maps. I hope it will help you understand the topic better. Allow me to nag again...this chapter is incredibly important because it is going to be a large part of your common test 2. This + longitude, latitude. *winks!*

If you recall, topographical maps refer to maps that display both physical and human features. But what does physical and human features mean?
Physical features = natural features like mountains, hills, rivers, lakes, ridges, valleys -> any feature that is NOT manmade. Human features = manmade features like schools, houses, jetties, reservoirs, plantations -> any feature that IS manmade!

To read topographical maps, we need to know how to read GRIDS, BEARINGS, DISTANCES and CONTOURS. This post will focus on grids, otherwise it will be a super long post!


1) GRIDS

First of all, a grid looks like this:



A grid divides a map into different sections that can be indicated by grid references. A grid is made up of eastings and northings, much like longitude and latitudes. Important to note: eastings are vertical lines (lines 16, 17, ..., 21) while northings are horizontal lines (42, 43, ...., 47). Don't get confused! There are 4 digit grid references and 6 digit references.


4 Digit Grid Reference


Let us look at 4 digit grid reference first. The 4 digit grid reference would be a number like that 1945. Hm! What does that mean!


A 4 digit grid reference always always refers to an area, which means an entire square in the grid. Next, the grid reference is always arranged Easting - Northing. never never Northing - Easting. This means, in 1945, 19 = Easting and 45 = Northing.


But! the 4 digit grid reference gives us the intersection point of 2 lines, not an area! so which area is it! *confused yet?*

If we look at the picture above, 1945 is the intersection point of the lines in the middle of area 1, 2, 3 and 4. So does 1945 refer to 1, 2, 3 or 4!!! HELP!

Well, some of you have already heard this.
The Elephant's Nose always points to the Broken Large Coconut. it translates to
The Easting and Northing always points to the Bottom Left Corner of the square.


Thus, 1945 refers to area 2, since the point 1945 is the bottom left corner of square 2. Hope i have made it slightly clearer instead of confusing you!

That is all for 4 digit grid reference! Must must remember that it refers to an area!


6 Digit Grid Reference

4 digit is already so confusing! why add 2 more numbers! =(

Well, 6 digit is actually slightly easier than 4 digit i feel. While 4 digit refers to an area, 6 digits refers to an exact point!

If we zoom into square 1844 from the diagrams in the 4 digit part, we'll get something like the picture above. And if we split the square equally into 10 parts between 18 - 19 and 44 to 45, we will get the diagram above!


Understanding from the diagram above, point 185443 will refer to the red dot. 185 is the easting and 443 is the northing. We read it the same way we read the 4 digit reference! It looks like an area now but imagine if we shrunk it back to the big map, it will become a single point.


I know that the maps you are given are not split into 10 parts for you! So what do we do? Very simple! We take a ruler and measure for ourselves! Then we find the point of intersection between the easting and northing and we will get the point we need! YAY!


So what is the point of having 4 digit grid reference and 6 digit reference? Why can't we just use one of them?


The 4 digit grid reference refers to an area, which is useful when we want to talk about features that occupy a large area. For example, an island, a lake, a reservoir, a plantation, forest.


The 6 digit grid reference refers to a point, which will be useful when we want to talk about a feature that occupies a small area. For example, a school, a tree, a jetty, a shopping mall!


See? It's all very simple! and really useful in everyday life too! Especially when you're reading a street directory! I couldn't find any good online quizzes for this part. Sorry! I will quiz you when school reopens though! So make sure you all know these! =))


Next up will be bearing and distances! Hopefully by wednesday! Let me know if any of you have questions about your homework!

English for 1C: Summary

Hellos 1C!

So sorry for this very late update, i've been very busy these few days.

This week, we have been looking at how to write summaries. Just to repeat myself AGAIN, summary is incredibly IMPORTANT because at O levels, it takes up 25 out of 50 marks of your comprehension score! Alot of people don't do well for compre because of summary. That's why you all must must must must learn how to write summaries well since sec 1. It's for your own good!

So how do we write summaries?! What are summaries?!

Summaries are something new to all of you since you have never done it in primary school. Basically, what a summary does is, to provide a summary of the story! Summary meaning a shortened paragraph that states all the important points of the passage while not including the details and examples.

The following steps to take note:

1) Read the question carefully! Summary questions will tell you where to find the information you need. For example "Use information from paragraph 2 to paragraph 4". That will mean that you only use the information in para 2, 3 and 4. No other information out of these paragraphs! Those points will not count! Another thing is also what the summary should be about. The question will state things like "summarize the crucial events that led to today's coca-cola". That means that you only put in the important events, nothing else.

2) Highlight the points in the passage. Very very important step for summary! Make sure you highlight the points in the passage that are important to the summary. Keep in mind, only highlight the main points, DO NOT include details and examples!! When highlighting, number the points so that you know how many points you have for your summary. The number of points are normally at least 10 or 15 points. Please remember to count! Each point will give you 1 out of 15 marks for the content of the summary portion!

3) Use your own words. Although for now, i did not require you to put the summary in your own words, in future, you will have to change the important words and replace them with your own. This will guarantee you a better language mark, which is upon 10!

4) Write it in paragraph form. Summaries are always presented in 1 paragraph. Not point form, not more than 1 paragraph. The sentences must make sense and flow from one to another, not just random sentences copied from the passage. So please make sure you read through after you finish writing to check that the language flows well!

5) Last but not least, count the number of words you used! The word limit is very important for summaries! So make sure you count the number of words after you finish writing and if you have too many words, cancel unimportant points. Then, write the number of words you used!

Just to make my point clearer, this is how I would write the summary for the coca-cola article we did.

At the beginning, Coca-cola was just a caramel coloured syrup. It was invented in 1886 in America. It was named after the coca leaves and kola nuts used in its production. It was sold in the pharmacies as a brain tonic and a cure for headaches. Later, a man mixed the syrup with carbonated water instead of cold tap water, producing its carbonated form. It became sold at drugstore soda fountains. Coca-cola was then widely advertised. A candy store in Mississippi started bottling the drinks and they eventually became sold in cans which were originally used in the military. (99 words)

And that's all for writing summaries! I hope i have helped to make things a little bit clearer! I understand that it is not easy but you will learn with enough practice, so please take your work seriously! Learning how to write summaries is one of your tasks for the holiday okay? Remember it will be included in the common test in term 2 week 2! If you are still not sure of how to do a good summary, come and ask me! I'll be more than glad to help you out. =)

I will post the vocab for the last two newspaper articles by next week. Remember to do your corrections then! Thank you for your cooperation!

English for 1B: Past Tense

Hello 1B!

You were excellent in class today and i really enjoyed today's class! Please keep it up! I hope you had fun watching the videos too! =)

Just a quick recap on what we did today:

1) Nouns.
This time around, most of you have understood what nouns are! Very good! If you recall from the video, a noun is a person, place or thing. Nouns are also the subjects of sentences. You cannot have a sentence that does not have a noun. If any of you would like to watch the video again, here it is, again.



2) Verbs.
After revising nouns, we looked at verbs. Verbs are "action words". That means that they describe an action, for example, ms wu is TYPING. "ms wu" is a noun and the subject of the sentence, while TYPING is the action and the verb. There are some nouns that can be changed into verbs by adding -ing. For example, games -> gaming, cart -> carting, place -> placing.
Here is the video we watched in class.



3) Lastly, the star of today's class was "Simple Past Tense".
I believe all of you know what past tense is. Past tense refers to an action that has already been carried out. For example, I am typing now -> I typed just now. While past tense may seem simple and unimportant, that is because most of us have already taken it for granted! Past tense is very important! Without it, we would not be able to tell if an action has been done or not. Just like if i asked you:"Have you finished your homework?", most of you would answer "Yes! I finished the work!" and some of you would say "No, I never finish." Without past tense, i would not have been able to tell who had finished and who had not.

To change a verb from present tense to past tense, we normally add -ed to the word, like pull -> pulled. We call these words regular verbs. There are also words that we have the change the spelling of in order to change it to past tense, like write -> wrote. These are irregular verbs. It is not very necessary for you to remember regular verbs and irregular verbs as there are too many words out there for you to memorise. It is however, important that you read often so that words come to you naturally.

And lastly, as requested by many of you, here is the absolutely cute roadrunner video again! Enjoy!



Do tag so that i know that you have been here! Keep up the good behaviour 1B! =)

English for 1C

Hi 1C!

Today, we did a worksheet about the different types of comprehension questions. It is important to identify the type of questions as only then would we be able to give the right type of answers. It's like fitting the right key into the correct lock. Only then will the door open right? So a wrong answer would be like a wrong key and the door to your marks will remain locked!

There are 2 main type of questions. Factual questions which only require you to answer with answers that can be found directly in the passages and Inferential questions which require you to think deeper into the meaning of the passage.

Under the giant umbrella of Factual and Inferential questions, the questions come in a large variety. Who, where, when, why, what, which and how. We must be able to identify these keywords in the questions to be able to give the right kind of answers.

There are also questions which require you to use your own words. As i have mentioned in class, these questions are important as it helps to tell the difference between a good student and a normal one. To be able to use your own words means that your command of the English language is very strong.

I hope all of you do learn and remember these points. Those who did not fill in the worksheet promptly because you were not paying attention, please do copy the answers from your friends as this is good for your own study. So, remember all these skills when you're doing comprehension and you'll score well! Don't throw your own marks out of the window!