Acrostic Poem on SINGAPORE

On this coming Tuesday (3 Feb), you will be doing an acrostic poem on SINGAPORE as a group.

What is an acrostic poem?

You can read more here or here or here.

Samples of acrostic poems
1. Poems by children from From Austrailia, Hong Kong, India, Maldives, New Zealand, and Singapore.

This site even has submissions by children from Singapore and one from Pei Hwa too!
2. Poems by Cumberland Elementary School


You may want to try writing your own acrostic poem using your name or favourite food or cartoon character!

You can use the checklist below (from readwritethink.org) after creating an acrostic poem.

Acrostic Poetry Reflection Checklist

_____I used one or more words that are new to me.
_____ I used words that help the reader make a picture of me.
_____ I found words for my poem in more than one place.
_____ My illustration is colorful and shows details.
_____ My illustration matches my poem.
_____ My poem teaches people something about me.
_____ I gave suggestions to other students about their poems.
_____ I listened to other students' suggestions about my poem.
_____ When sharing, I read my poem clearly, with a strong voice.
_____ I listened while other students were sharing their poems

Parts of Speech Poem

Parts of Speech Poem
Every name is called a noun,
As field and fountain, street and town.

In place of noun the pronoun stands,
As he and she clap their hands.

The adjective describes a thing
As magic wand and bridal ring

The verb means action, something done -
To read and write, to jump and run,

How things done the adverb tells
As quickly, slowly, badly, well;

The preposition shows relation,
As in the street or at the station;

Conjunctions join, in many ways
Sentences, words, or phrase and phrase

The interjection cries out "Hark!
I need an exclamation mark."

Common and Proper Nouns

Common Nouns
A common noun is a word that names people, places, things, or ideas. They are not the names of a single person, place or thing.

A common noun begins with a lowercase letter unless it is at the beginning of a sentence.

For example:-

People:-
man, girl, boy, mother, father, child, person, teacher, student

Animals:-
cat, dog, fish, ant, snake

Things:-
book, table, chair, phone

Places:-
school, city, building, shop

Ideas:-
love, hate, idea, pride


Proper nouns ( also called proper names) are the words which name specific people, organisations or places. They always start with a capital letter.

For example:-

Each part of a person's name is a proper noun:-
Lynne Hand - Elizabeth Helen Ruth Jones ...

The names of companies, organisations or trade marks:-
Microsoft - Rolls Royce - the Round Table - WWW

Given or pet names of animals:-
Lassie Trigger Sam

The names of cities and countries and words derived from those proper nouns:-
Paris - London - New York - England - English

Geographical and Celestial Names:-
the Red Sea - Alpha Centauri - Mars

Monuments, buildings, meeting rooms:-
The Taj Mahal - The Eiffel Tower - Room 222

Historical events, documents, laws, and periods:-
the Civil War - the Industrial Revolution - World War I

Months, days of the week, holidays:-
Monday - Christmas - December

Religions, deities, scriptures:-
God - Christ - Jehovah - Christianity - Judaism - Islam - the Bible - the Koran - the Torah

Awards, vehicles, vehicle models and names, brand names:-
the Nobel Peace Prize - the Scout Movement - Ford Focus - the Bismarck - Kleenex - Hoove

Note: The above notes are from http://www.zozanga.com/grammar/

Learning what nouns are here.

GO to http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/propernoun.htm to learn about Proper Nouns and http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/commonnoun.htm for COmmon Nouns.

Play Noun Dunk Game here.

Irregular Verbs

Here are some online activities for you to learn past tense verbs.

1. Interactive Activity on Irregular Verbs

There are six online activities. Click on INTERACTIVE EXERCISE rather than handout.

Modular CCA-Robotics

[Post-dated]

Hu 3 pupils are doing Robotics for this term modular CCA. This was the second lesson they had in Computer Lab.

(above) The instructor giving instructions for the day's activities.

(above) Looking for the parts.

(Above) Let's fix it on to see if it is the correct one.

(above) Don't worry. Let's work together to look for the correct part.

(Above) Let's check the manual to see which one we are suppose to look for.

(above) Searching... ...

(Above) We shall study the illustration carefully to find out what we should do.

SS Chapter 1-Our Country, Singapore

Get to know more about Singapore by clicking on the tab on the left "About Singapore" or here.

This is a fantastic website to learn about the location of different countires in the world (map). You can choose to play Asia map or other maps.

This website has games such as Online Interactive Maps to learn more about the countries in the world, Online Altas, and Map Puzzles. Do take time to learn through play.

Online Audio Stories

This is a fabulous website with audio stories. You can choose the different category on the right side of the page.



Another fantastic website with stories and animation.

Comic-Best Dad ever!

To read the comic, click here.


To download this poster in pdf (so that you can read the texts) here.

Past Tense

(A) SIMPLE PAST TENSE - The simple past is used to describe an action that occurred in the past, sometime before the moment of speaking. The regular past tense verb is marked with the [ed] ending as in (walk - walked). There are different ways to mark the irregular past tense verb. The most common is to change the vowel as in (sing - sang). Another is a total new spelling of the word as in (buy-bought), which we called as irregular verbs.

*(Above definition is from http://newton.uor.edu/facultyfolder/rider/verbtenses.htm)

(B) Forming the simple past tense

With most verbs, the simple past is created simply by adding -ED. However, with some verbs, you need to add -ES or change the ending a little. Here are the rules:

Verb ending in...	How to make the simple past	Examples
e	Add -D	live - lived date - dated
Consonant + y	Change y to i, then add -ED	try - tried cry - cried
One vowel + one consonant (but NOT w or y)	Double the consonant, then add -ED	tap - tapped commit - committed
[anything else]	Add -ED	boil - boiled fill - filled hand - handed

*Above is from this website. Go to the link or here for the online exercises.

(C) Other irregular verbs

Other irregular verbs fall into three main categories:

Category	Examples
Verbs which don't change	cut - cut hit - hit fit - fit
Verbs which change their vowel	get - got sit - sat drink - drank
Verbs which change completely	catch - caught bring - brought teach - taught

*Above is from this website. Click here for online exercises.


**For more information on tenses, click here.


Learning PAST TENSE through GAMES

1. SpeedWord on Past Tense

Past Tense of Irregular Verbs--1

Past Tense of Irregular Verbs--2

Past Tense of Irregular Verbs--3

Past Tense of Irregular Verbs--4

Past Tense of Irregular Verbs--5

Past Tense of Irregular Verbs--6

Past Tense of Irregular Verbs--7

This should be quite easy for you as a warm-up. Re-try for each exercise has the same list of words so make sure you play it well for the first time round.



2. This game tests you on your understanding of the context (sentences) and also the correct past tense to use. For each question (see below), you can choose to answer question that is the easiest (1 point) till the most difficult (3 points). If you answered correctly, you can shoot the ball into the net.


3. Match the Past tense with Simple tense here with seven versions.

Version one,Version two,Version three,Version four,Version five,Version six,Version seven

4. Ten questions to test your knowledge of irregular past tense here.

5. BBC Starship here.

6. Cloze passage with simple present and past tense here.

7. This game Verb Power tests you on what is main and helping verb.
Examples: will (helping verb) eat (main verb); should (helping verb) rush (main verb); is (helping verb) going (main verb).

8. English Irregular Game allows two players. If you are doing this at home, you can simply type in any two names to start the game. The questions with the highest point are the more challenging ones.

English English, what are thou?

Hello Humility 3

This is the first post on English and on the first day of school.

Hence, I thought of sharing some thought-provoking quotes on English language.

Ask yourself or discuss among your classmates what each quote means to you.

Compare and contrast the different definition each of you have.

To have another language is to possess a second soul.
Charlemagne

If you describe things as better than they are, you are thought a romantic; if you describe things as worse than they are, you are thought a realist; if you describe things as exactly as they are, then you are thought a satirist.
Quentin Crisp

The individual's whole experience is built upon the plan of his language.
Henri Delacroix

Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs.
Jack Lynch

For me, words are a form of action, capable of influencing change.

Ingrid Bengis

I understand a fury in your words,
But not the words.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "Othello", Act 4 scene 2

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), "Hamlet", Act 3 scene 3

Language is the source of misunderstandings.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900 - 1944)