Tuesday, March 31, 2009

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!

Monday, March 30, 2009

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


Tuesday, March 17, 2009

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!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

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!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

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!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

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! =)

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

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!

English for 1B

Hello 1B!

First of all, your behaviour today during SEL was excellent! I hope to see more of that peaceful side of your class! We can all learn better when we stop and listen to the teacher and it feels so much more peaceful when it isn't noisy right? Don't be tempted to talk just because your friends are talking! If you are good, we can have more groupwork then you would be allowed to talk. =) Keep it up!

Alright. So today, we did letter writing in class. We learnt about penpals, people we communicate with through letters. I think many of you have enjoyed writing letters to your imaginary friend from Australia. Some things to take note:

Many of you were still writing the address wrongly. Keep in mind. addresses must follow the right format.

2, Jurong Drive
#02-011
Singapore 828191

The block number is with the street name. The unit number and the postal codes must be on different lines. If you're not sure of your own address, ask your parents! =)

Many of you also forgot to write the date. Remember the date has to be written after the address in the following format: 5th March 2009. NOT 5/3/09.

You will have a test on letter writing next week. I hope all of you remember the format well: Writing the address followed by the date on the top left hand corner of the letter before starting your actual letter.

In case any of you would like to watch the video i played in class again, here it is:



Hope you have enjoyed the class today and remember Mr Derek will help to get you penpals from another school! It'd be so interesting to learn about what other schools are doing wouldn't it? =) If any of you are still unclear about class, don't be shy to leave a message or ask me in school.

English for 1B

Hi 1B!

Let's review what we have done for English so far.

Last week, we looks at sentences in active and passive form. I think many of you have already understood it well. Just in case some of you forgot:

In the ACTIVE form, the SUBJECT does the action on the object. For example, Sally BROKE the chair. If the SUBJECT is not able to carry out an action, then the action word comes first. For example, ADD the sugar to the coffee. The active form is ALWAYS in the PRESENT tense.

As for the PASSIVE form, the SUBJECT is the one on which the action is carried out on. What i mean is, The chair WAS BROKEN by Sally. Sally is the one doing the action but she comes after the action. Another example: The sugar TO BE ADDED to the coffee. The passive form is ALWAYS in the PAST tense.

I hope this makes it clearer for you.

Last week, we have also learnt what are nouns. Some of you are still confused between nouns and verbs. Nouns are words which mean a place, person, thing or idea. Such as day, door, man, Sally, football. Alot of you mistake verbs for nouns. Verbs refer to action words, such as run, kick, swing, feel. To help you make things clearer, watch this very cute video:



Hope you enjoyed the video! We have also done 2 newspaper articles. One about exhuming the cemetery to make way for MRT lines and another about tough love showing that parents care. Most of you have written well and put in some effort for your work. Keep it up!

Lastly, an important thing we have learnt is the format an address is written in. We will be doing letter-writing so it is very important that all of you learn this properly. To revise:
addresses are written in the following format:

Block 500, Jurong Road
#01-0111
Singapore 889922

Many of you like to write the postal code together with the unit number. Please note that that is wrong! The postal code is always a separate line by itself. I believe this is easy enough for all of you to remember! =)

If any of you have questions, please feel free to comment or see me in school. Let's work hard together and do well!

English for 1C

Hi 1C!

Time for english!

What have we done so far in our 7 lessons together?

Firstly, I think we have achieved some improvement in our narrative compo skills! I have corrected a few of your compos and I do see some improvement or at least more effort put in! Well done people, keep it up! Give yourself a pat on the back!

Just to help you remember, here are some of the pointers i mentioned in class.
1) Narrative compos are always written in the PAST TENSE.
That is because you can only tell a story after it has happened, whether it is something real or something you made up.

2) Punctuation is very important because it will cause your language marks to be low!
Remember to write your full stops and commas clearly. One very common mistake was Once there was a little girl... There should be a comma after once. meaning, Once, there was a little girl. Also, use exclaimation marks where needed. It helps to get your readers mroe involved!

3) Paragraphing.
Especially when it comes to conversation. Conversations should be a new paragraph. Look at the exercise we did with The Apple and The Moon for a clearer idea. Remember too that each paragraph should express a unique idea.

5) DO NOT USE SHORT FORM! and NO DIGITS!
As your compo is a formal piece of writing, you should not be using conjunctions like don't, shouldn't, haven't, 1, 2, 3, etc etc. Must must must remember this alright? We are all lazy people and tend to look for the easy way out! hehe..

6) I always comes last.
Meaning, it should be my friends and I, Susan and I, my sister and I, my mother and I. Not me and my friends, or my friends and me. Always use I in this case. and I always come last. =)

7) Details people. Details!
Remember to include more details, such as what your monster looks like, how your character feels. Your reader is only understanding your story through your words, so make sure your idea is clearly expressed.

8) Interest your reader!
It's very important to interest your reader by making your idea clear. Leave your reader in suspense at the front and excite them towards the end. Imagine yourself as painting a picture with your words! Some of you do that very well! =)

Next, we have done 2 newspaper articles. 1) the exhumation of the teochew cemetery and 2) tough love shows parents care. For those who have handed up your blue books, I have looked through your views for 1). It's mostly well thought and well written, but the vocab was quite badly done, maybe because I didn't go through them with you. I will post the vocab answers here. I hope you will take the initiative to do your corrections!

For those who have not handed me your blue books, please do so ASAP. I believe you all are young adults and don't need me to nag right??

Thirdly, the Helen Keller comprehension. I have not had time to look at them yet but this was a fairly simple comprehension and I think most of you had no problems. I will try to go through the compre next week. I hope you remember what i said from my first lesson with you about writing your comprehension answers well and not lifting directly from the passage. Again, some of you have yet to hand up your compre book to me. Please put your book in Mrs Pathy's pigeon hole by Friday. Thanks!

Lastly, Grammar! Last week we did some fairly simple exercises about present tenses. I think most of you had no problems with them. One thing i would like to clarify would be that the present perfect tense is used when you are looking at something that has past at the current moment. It is slightly confusing but if you read often, all these should come naturally to you. Here is a good website you can look at for more information on present perfect tense: http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/presentperfect.html

Phew! Hope this helps all of you recall what we have done so far instead of wasting the time that has past! Do check back regularly for updates and to copy the vocabulary for your newspaper articles! Those who have yet to hand up homework, please please please do so! =) Thanks for your cooperation! Let's work hard together and do well!

Geography for 1C and 1/3

Hihi 1C and 1/3!

Let's quickly look at what we have done for geography so far!

I have basically covered chapter 4 these two weeks. This chapter looks at MAPS. The different kinds of maps, the different uses of maps, the different elements of a map such as scales and symbols and also an introduction to atlas.

Here are the very important things to take note for this chapter: the types of map, the uses, the elements and longitude and latitude. It is of utmost importance to know how to find a location from the atlas using a location's longitude and latitude.



The world map above shows all the major continents and oceans. It is very important for all of you to memorise the locations of the continents and oceans as you have seen in your common test 1. Apart from these, the map also shows you the longitude and latitude.

Longitude are vertical and range from 180 degrees West to 180 degrees East. The 0 degree longitude is called the Prime Meridien or the Greenwich Meridien. If you look at a globe instead of a flat map, the lines will follow the curvature of the Earth. The 180 degree West Longitude will meet the 180 degrees East longtitude. Approximately along the 180 degree Longitude line is also the International Date Line. The international date line is not straight as they do not want to cut the countries up. It will be so confusing if one country had two dates on a day wouldn't it? So basically, the longitude lines help to determine the time and date at any location.

The latitudes are horizontal and range from 90 degrees North to 90 degress South. 0 degree latitude is called the equator and that's where Singapore is on! The half of the Earth above the equator is called the Northern Hemisphere and the half below is called the Southern Hemisphere. So remember: High UP in the NORTH lives 90 hammys! and DOWN SOUTH lives another 90 hammys! They can never meet because they're on two ends of Earth! How far a country is from the equator determines the weather the country experiences. So countries on the equator, such as Singapore are tropical countries while countries high up in the North and in the South are freezing cold!

So why are longitudes and latitudes so important! Because! Every location on Earth has a unique longitude and latitude. That means that by giving you the longitude and latitude of a place, you would be able to exactly locate the place on the atlas! I have demonstrated to you in class how to go about finding the location of a place given the longitude and latitude. Hope you still remember how! Besides knowing how to read the location of a place, you also have to be able to label the world map clearly given the lines!

To give you a little bit more practice, try the quizzes on these websites:

1) http://www.mcwdn.org/MAPS&GLOBES/LatitudeQuiz.html
2) http://www.mapsofworld.com/utilities/world-latitude-longitude.htm

Hope the quizzes will help you make all of you less confused! If anyone still has problems, feel free to ask me either in school or comment here! I hope all of you learn well and do well for your common test 2, which will be on the 2nd week of term 2! =)

Next week, we will be doing something more interesting! We will learn how to read a topographical map and that involves plenty of hand-on! See you then!

Homework for 1/3 this week: Ideabank Worksheet on Longitude Latitude due on Monday, 9/3
Homework for 1/2 this week: Workbook to be due on Thursday, 5/3

Social Studies for 1A and 1B

Hi 1A and 1B!

What have we done so far for social studies?

Last week, we looked at how Singapore was occupied by the Japanese during World War II, from 1942 to 1945. During this period of time, the Singaporeans were tortured and treated badly. Life was very hard and Singaporeans became very unhappy.

The Japanese left Singapore in 1945 and the British returned. Before the Japanese Occupation, the British promised to protect Singapore at all costs but the British eventually abandoned Singapore. Therefore, while the people are happy that the British returned and the Japanese have left, they wanted to govern Singapore for themselves.

These information can be found in page 19 to 24 of your textbook.

Here is a video that shows how hard life was during the Japanese Occupation. Watch it from 5.20minutes onwards.



This next video is the next part of the show and shows you how the Singaporeans celebrated when the British came back. It also shows the strikes and protests and explains well why the Chinese School Students were unhappy.



This leads us to what we have done today. Refer to page 25 to 30 of your textbook for today's unit. Today, we looked at how the Singaporeans tried to take over control of Singapore from the British. Before we think of how they tried to take over control, we should consider why they want to take over Singapore. After the Japanese have left Singapore, the problems that were created during the war remains. There was a lack of food, housing, jobs and schools. The people in Singapore felt they will be able to help themselves more by forming their own government.

Some groups of people used violence to try to gain control of Singapore while some used peaceful methods. The Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Party (MPAJA) was a group which used violence. The MPAJA was formed during the Japanese Occupation, by the Communists, to fight against the Japanese. After the Japanese left Singapore, the MPAJA turned their attention to chasing the British out of Singapore. To do so, they organised strikes and protests by stirring up unhappy feelings amongst the workers and the Chinese school students. These protests and strikes often ended badly with people getting injured or killed. One example was the Hock Lee Bus Riots in 1955. A curfew was implemented by the British after that to maintain control.

Other groups tried to gain control through peaceful methods. They formed political parties and negotiated with the British the terms for self-government. Political parties are groups of people who share the same beliefs and aims. The British thus realized that they could no longer control Singapore and decided to let Singapore hold elections to choose our own leaders.

To gain support, these groups had to carry out door-to-door visits and rallies. This is in hope that the people vote for them on election day. Two main political parties at that time were the Labour Front Party and the People's Action Party. The Labour Front Party was first headed by Mr David Marshall who left Singapore after failing to convince the British. Mr Lim Yew Hock then took over leadership of the Labour Front Party. The People's Action Party was headed by Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

Next week, we will look at the results of the elections and also Singapore's progress after the elections. Please feel free to comment if you have any questions to clarify with me. Hope this helps! =)