Week 2 Highlights

Dear All,

We could finally learn in our English Classrooms this week, yay! Here are this week's highlights:

• In Journeys, Class 402 read about "The Right Dog for the Job" from the Hardcover book and Class 403 read about "Monkeys." Both of this stories shined the light on cute and fuzzy animals assisting those who need a hand because they are disabled. For Class 403, we learned an important term called intelligence disobedience where the service dog must learn to disobey its owner when there's imminent danger. As for class 403, we've learned that monkeys could help us fetch and carry several objects because they have thumbs, like us, humans! There's an old saying that a dog is a man's best friend but I think that a monkey could be a man's best friend as well. What do you guys think?
• In creative writing, we started a new unit on personal narratives. A personal narrative is a story about you! I had students share and write about the bravest thing they've ever done. I loved reading about the students' stories about conquering their fear of heights, performing in front of a large audience, riding a terrifying roller coaster, and even confessing about their wrongdoings! I really hope that all of you will enjoy this unit because this is a time for you to tell YOUR story from your point of view. So, what's your story? :) 
• In math, we learned to differentiate between the 12-hour clock notation and a 24-hour clock notation. Please remember that we have to use a.m and p.m when using the 12-hour clock notation. We also started some word problems about time. These word problems could be tricky so please make sure that you review math every week so that you wouldn't have to cram all of your studying at the end before your unit exams. Be proactive!
• In science, we continued our unit that we started towards the end of last semester, which was about heat energy (Unit 19). Here are some review questions for you: What happens when there's heat applied to an object? What is an example of a good conductor of heat? (Hint: think of the type of material that your parents use for cooking)
• In grammar, we learned to differentiate between present progressive and present simple. Because Mandarin doesn't need present progressive and present simple, students often gets these tenses confused. Therefore, this is a tense where students need to be more mindful and aware when applying them. Just remember, we use present progressive to talk about actions that are happening now and at this moment. Therefore, we must use the verb to be + verb(ing). As for present simple tense, we use it with habits and permanent states. If you see adverbs of frequency such as usually, normally, every, sometimes, etc, the sentence is in the present simple tense. So, here's your review question: When do we need to add 's' to the verb in the present simple? (Hint: think about the noun)

I'd also like to give a quick shout out to my drama students who won the Great Performance Award. Again, all of you were very cooperative and did superb. I hope that you guys had as much fun as I did. Anyways, that's a wrap for this week! I hope that all of you will be proactive in reviewing what we've learned this week so that you are ready for next week's lessons.

Please check out below for next week (Week 3)'s printout:

Warmest Regards,

Ms. Wendy