Hi children of 4CH!

I'm so sorry for deserting you and this blog for such a long time. I've been tied up with a lot of things lately:

• Getting used to my new class
• Preparing for lesson to teach the P2's
• Looking for resources to put in class
• Growing fishes in the classroom
• And the list goes on and on... heheheh

Anyway, I was wondering how each and everyone of you have been doing in school. The term 3 exams are just around the corner, and before you know it, you'll be sitting for your year-end examinations!

I hope that all of you are taking good care of your health too. There's no point in studying so hard till you fall sick and can't take your exams. So study smart!

On another note, I promised to give you my e-mail address, so here it is. But I would appreciate it if you use it wisely and not forward unnecessary junk mail. I trust you to do that, ok? You need to exercise your judgement and think through if I would be interested in reading that forwarded mail. Thank you.

fadziedar@hotmail.com

p/s: All of you are invited to come into my class when you are free to have a look around or just to drop by and say "Hi".

Take care.

Mr Fadzeel

A Learning Journey

Hi 4CH,

It's been exactly one week since I last met all of you and believe me that I miss each and every one of you.

You have given me the opportunity and allowed me to be a part of your lives for a period of about ten weeks. Within that ten weeks, I realised that every body deserves a chance for change, an opportunity to express themselves, some time to share their thoughts and feelings. I do hope that this will carry on throughout the years and throughout your lives. I can safely say that it will for me.

I am now currently carrying on my learning journey at NIE (National Institute of Education) and I will be back at ADMPS on 25th May 2009. I have yet to know which class I'll be taking over but don't be discouraged if I am not with your class :) I believe that everything happens for a reason and maybe, in time, you will get to be under my guidance again :P I really hope to see all of you again very soon.

May your learning journey at ADMPS be as meaningful to you as it was (and will be) for me...

Love,
Mr Fadzeel

A Friendly Visit from C.A. Yao Dao Primary School

Hi boys and girls of 4 Challenge,

Here is the link to a short video of you and the children from C.A. Yao Dao Primary School when they visited Admiralty Primary School.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T1cuHUrZYU

I was unable to upload the video directly here on our blog. My humble apologies. :)

I will get more pictures from Ms Hazlin and upload as soon as possible.

We managed to exchange our contact details with the students from Hong Kong and are hoping to keep in touch with them, via e-mail or even snail mail. Some of them gave us their handphone numbers but we need to check with our parents before sending them an SMS! :)

Regards,

Mr Fadzeel

Writing a Letter with the help of Our Gingerbread Man

Hi boys and girls...

Today we covered writing a letter to a friend who is overseas. We wanted to invite our friend over to Singapore and visit a place that we find interesting.

But before we wrote the letter, we had some time to explore a brochure on the place of interest and we discovered new things about certain places in Singapore. Here are a few internet links about some Places of Interest right here in Singapore. It's amazing that there is so many places which have many interesting features on our small little island! :)

• The Esplanade - http://www.esplanade.com/index.jsp
• The Duck & Hippo Tours - http://www.ducktours.com.sg/
• Little India - http://www.littleindia.com.sg/
• The Malay Heritage Centre - http://www.malayheritage.org.sg/
• The Chinatown Heritage Centre - http://www.chinatownheritage.com.sg/aboutchc.htm
• Singapore Science Centre - http://www.science.edu.sg/ssc/index.jsp
• Singapore Zoological Gardens - http://www.zoo.com.sg/
• Jurong Bird Park - http://www.birdpark.com.sg/
• Orchard Road - http://www.orchardroad.org/
• Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve - http://www.sbwr.org.sg/
• Singapore Botanic Gardens - http://www.sbg.org.sg/
• and many more...

After we had gotten familiar with a particular place of interest, we worked with our Gingerbread Man (Mind Map Template) and he helped us organize our thoughts. He can actually help us in our future writing as well. Here is a picture of him...

After that we wrote a friendly letter using the content that we have consolidated from the brochures that were given to us.

There is a specific format for a friendly letter and this can be seen below...



We hope that these will help you in writing a letter to your friend overseas and entice him/her to visit Singapore soon! :D

Ms Goh & Mr Fadzeel

Making a Collage

Hi boys & girls...

A few days ago, we learnt how to make a collage. We also focused on a new topic, which is on Feelings. We listened to a few songs and managed to draw the feelings that these songs were trying to portray. These include feelings of sadness, anger, fear, excitement and even happiness.

Then we went further and discussed how colours also effect the mood of a character or a cartoon or even a movie or picture. You can find idioms using colours from this website (http://www.learn4good.com/languages/evrd_idioms/id-c.htm). An example of an idiom that uses colour would be green with envy which means someone who is full of envy or very jealous.

Here is a video of some of us in action while we were doing up our collage. Some of our collages are still under construction. Once they're done, I'll put the pictures up online.

Enjoy!

Ms Goh & Mr Fadzeel

Writing an Address on a Postcard

Hi boys and girls of 4 Challenge!

Remember our postcard writing activity that we did recently? We learnt when to use capital letters and also the proper format of writing our addresses if we were to send postcards to our friends! After looking through the postcards that you have submitted, I'm sure you had fun while getting your friend's address! Now you're all set to send your friends postcards, letters or even an invitation to celebrate your birthday party! :D

Do remember the proper format and your capitalisation rules! ;-)

Here's the format:

To: (Your friend's name),
(Blk Number), (Street Name),
(Unit Number),
Singapore (Postal Code)


For example:

To: Bernard the Polar Bear
Blk 123, Admiralty Road,
#01-10,
Singapore 730123.


Here's a compilation of the postcards that you have written.
Enjoy!

Regards,

Ms Goh & Mr Fadzeel

Short Message Service (SMS)

Recently, we learnt about the Short Message Service (SMS). The words used by many people would be shortened and more acronyms, abbreviations and contractions would also be sent through the SMS. This is because we want to restrict ourselves to the 160-characters limit within one SMS. For some handphones, it is possible to exceed the 160-characters limit, but, it would then spill over into another SMS and we would be charged for sending the additional SMS as well.

However so, in our composition writing, we must never use the shortened forms of words such as:

• "tat" to represent "that"
• "coz" to represent "because"
• "4" to represent "for"
• "tmr" to represent "tomorrow"
• "l8r" to represent "later"

This is because only a few people will understand these shortened forms and may be misinterpreted by others.

Below is a short video of the Short Message Services that we tried sending to our friends. We had to write a poem for a friend. Enjoy!

Ms Goh & Mr Fadzeel

Designing a Scientific Investigation

Hi 4CH!

I've finally managed to upload more photos of you in action. Here's a short video clip of a recent Science Experiment that you carried out. And you came up with the instructions too! Well done everybody!

Enjoy!

Ms Goh & Mr Fadzeel

Visit to Singapore Science Centre - Human Systems

Hi 4CH!

Here are some photographs that we took when we were at the Singapore Science Centre, looking through the Human Systems Exhibition... Enjoy!

p/s: Please be patient and allow the video to completely load so that you will have an uninterrupted view of the video.
[ Remember what p/s means...? :P ]

Regards,

Ms Goh & Mr Fadzeel

The Jacket by Andrew Clements

Hi 4CH!

I'm very sorry but there seems to be an error with the webpage link that I've shared with you for the book excerpts from Andrew Clement's "The Jacket". Please follow the link below for a powerpoint slideshow that I've made based on the 2 chapters that I had highlighted in class.

After you have watched any of the videos, click on the "Back" button to get back to our blogspot!

Chapter 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fy7zVHQZTs
Chapter 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADy658b0oTw


Regards,
Mr Fadzeel

The Jacket by Andrew Clements

Dear 4CH,

I'm very sorry but there seems to be a problem with the link that I've given you in class. I will try and make Chapter 1 and 2 into a e-book which you would be able to access soon! Do keep a lookout for it! :)

Web Attack!

Don't worry, we're not under attack from aliens from other planets!!! Today, for english, we actually learnt more about Concept Maps, Mind Maps and Word Webs!

Do you remember what the differences between a Concept Map and a Word Web is?

Just recall your Science lesson and you will remember that the lines that link the points together with the main points will have words written on them. This is to enable you and also someone else to read and understand your concept map easily!

And for Word Webs, they can be used to help you structure your English composition writing so that you can stay focused on the topic and not go out-of-point. This will also help you in generating really fantastic ideas which will have a nice flow as you write your composition. Don't worry about not having enough time to write your composition. Once you are used to writing out a Word Web, writing your actual composition will be a breeze!

I have yet to scan the photos of today's group work and put it online. I will try and do it A.S.A.P. :)

Mr Fadzeel

Interesting Science Website

Hi 4CH!

Yesterday, we had a hands-on activity for Science. We had to classify materials that were given to us under 2 headings - Magnetic materials and Non-magnetic materials. We had lots of fun experiementing with the magnets and seeing how the materials interacted with the magnets!

But when handling the magnet(s) we must always be extra careful. Here are some tips to ensure that your magnets are in their optimum condition.

• Never hit or drop your magnets
• Never heat your magnets

By doing the above actions, it cause the tiny magnetized bits inside (the magnets) to lose allignment and cause the magnet to lose strength

Sadly, we didn't take any photos for this activity... :(
However, you may want to have a look at this website for some interesting activities... Have Fun!

http://www.sciberdiver.edu.sg/default.asp - You can try out the activities there, especially for P4 Interactions on Magnets. There is also a very interesting video of how to separate iron from waste!

Ms Goh & Mr Fadzeel

Our BIG 4CH Family

Taking a Message

Science - Interactions (Magnets)

For Science, we started on a new topic, which is Interactions (Magnets). We watched 2 videos which talked about magnets.

1st video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23whnt1oELM
This video talks about lodestones. Lodestones are natural rocks that have magnetic force which
a) can attract or repel magnets or
b) attract magnetic materials.
This video also showed the stroking of a nail on the lodestone. It made the nail into a temporary magnet with a weak magnetic force.



2nd video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRux43wwunU
Man-made magnets are a mixture of metals (may include non-magnetic metals like aluminium) that are melted and shaped into different shapes and sizes for different purposes. This video shows the making of a permanent magnet by passing an electromagnetic current in the hardened metal mixture.

English - Taking a Telephone Message

For English, we tried to pass a message from one person to another. Most of us missed out some important parts of the actual message. By missing out some important parts of the message, other people will get a distorted message and would interpret it differently.

Later, we took a message for Mr Matsumoto. Mr Bill Henderson from Alltec called in to talk him but he was unavailable. Mr Bill wanted Mr Matsumoto to call him back at 8pm, Japan time.

Several key important facts were highlighted when we need to take a message for someone who is unable to take a telephone call.

You can view this video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUaFgvCiaVw.

First Entry

Hi students,

I think that some of you might have trouble with access to the lead.com.sg blog tools. Therefore, I've decided to set up this blogspot to collate our resources as well as share with you useful websites that may help you in your learning journey.

Do feel free to drop your comments. I am still trying to install a tag-box so that we can chat and have mini-discussions online too...

Have fun!

Mr Fadzeel