Happy CNY

Dear all,

First and foremost, a very Happy Chinese New Year to all pupils and parents. Have a blessed Lunar New Year. Therefore, I believe in enjoying hard and taking some time off for yourselves. The only homework for your long weekend would be:

• Finding the meaning of the words you are unsure of in the Vocabulary Practice for 1.1 and 1.2. 

Today, we focused on Comprehension Cloze. This is not an entirely easy section. Based on past experiences, this is a section in which many pupils will struggle with. However, do not think that way and practise hard on it. This being your first comprehension cloze, do not give up despite the many mistakes you might have. Believe that you will score better the next time around. Here is the recap of the key skills:

1. Read for understanding (the topic and the main idea) Every topic might have their own key words. 
2. Highlight the key words and draw the arrows.
3. Check for tenses/plural/singular
4. Check!

The reason why we do newspaper articles and read up on more information texts is because comprehension cloze passages tend to focus on these. It is no longer stories but more so on information texts or newspaper articles. Therefore, you need to read widely.

Also, I do notice that many of you have issues with the tenses. Remember to draw clues from the passage and check for tenses. If it is in the past tense, make sure you fill in your answers in the past tense. 

We also completed Synthesis and Transformation today with the focus on several key Grammar Rules like:

• Unless (Postive), (Negative)
• Unless is always followed by a positive statement and then a negative statement. The statement that comes after the word 'Unless' is always POSITIVE. 
• Example:
• Unless the students work hard (positive statement), they will not do well in their upcoming examinations. (negative statement)
• Unless we train hard, we will not do well for the tournament. 

• Neither........nor
• Either........or
• The words that come after 'Neither' and 'nor' are NOUNS
• The words that come after 'Either' and 'or' are NOUNS
• Neither (noun) nor (noun) (verb)
• Either (noun) or (noun) verb
• How do we know whether the verb should be singular or plural?
• Importantly, we look at the SECOND NOUN (the noun after the words 'nor' and 'or' to determine if the verb is singular or plural)
• Example:
• Neither Peter (Noun) nor Tim (Noun - Singular) is (Singular verb because 'Tim' is singular) going to the party.
• Either the boy or the girls (Plural) need to finish the race.
• Neither Tom nor the boys have to stay back after school today.
• Either Peter or Tim is to complete the work by today.

It has been 4 weeks and I hope that by now, you are fully adjusted to school. Some of you do need to work on your handwriting skills. Please be neat at all times. This is an important skill for life and not only for school. You guys are definitely getting more well-disciplined in doing homework and bringing homework on time. Please keep it up. My target from next week onwards is to not have anyone forgetting to do homework or not bringing. 

Keep the class spirit up and going. Remember rule #1 "We are a FAMILY!" Here's wishing you happy holidays and remember to work hard for the upcoming CA in 4 weeks' time. It will contribute to 10% of your overall marks come end of the year. Work hard together everyone! Be resilient!

Sincerely,

Mr Nelson Ong