week 3....

Day 4 and 5

Pupils were given 15 seconds to complete this activity. They needed to place the word cards and match the halves to the correct pics. Pupils are awarded with stars to successfully finish them within the time given and to correctly spell and pronounce the words ; ). On day 5, pupils had to complete tasksheets given.

Day 3

So, today's lesson is carried out by recalling mono-syllable words learned yesterday and completing tasksheets given.

Lesson is continued with the introduction of 2-syllable words as below:

Looking at the above pics, some might say "What? within one hour she only did these?"

Oh well, the kids are new to school and they are adapting themselves with learning environment. So, giving less is better than cramping everything into their heads. Plus, they are not familiar with the language and not exposed to it in their daily lives. They had a hard time pronouncing and reading two-syllable words. Writing is harder. They needed longer time to complete the worksheets.

P. A. T. S

P.A.T. S

These are the letters that are introduced to the pupils in Unit 2. For two days, I've been drilling kids with these letters, its sounds, and its shapes. Mono-syllable words are given to allow them to recognise letters in words and to enable them to produce the respective sounds. Teaching in a small school is an advantage to me, as I only have nine pupils in Year 1 to focus on. Everyone receives my attention and they are given the opportunities to participate in all activities conducted. Here are the examples:

(Description:  Matching initial letters to words)

(Description: The result for the above activity. Pupils were given 15 seconds to match the letters to its respective words)

Unit 2 Yearly scheme of work

The result of teaching unit 1

Unit 1 is successfully taught in week 2 of schooling. In the lessons, pupils were given exposure to the penmanship techniques, singing songs and producing environmental sounds. 

Assessments for this unit include:

1. Performing two songs during the assembly.

    a) "Red River Valley" 

    b) "The snake in the bush"

2. Tracing lines and letters 

3. Matching sounds to letter cards.

4. Matching sounds to objects/ people/ animals.

-The wheels on the bus-

"The wheels on the bus go round and round, 

round and round, 

round and round,

The wheels on the bus go round and round
All through the town"

Have you heard this song before? If yes, this is the song which the tune is adapted for teaching sounds to Year 1 KSSR new education system in Unit 1.The lyric is provided in the textbook (only until monkey). I made up the rest of the song. You can use this song to teach sounds.

 (pic description: masks-materials for The snake in the bush song)

The snake in the bush

The snake in the bush 

goes ss...ss...ss...

ss...ss...ss...

ss...ss...ss...

The snake in the bush 

goes ss...ss..ss...

All day long

The monkey on the tree 

goes oo..oo..oo..

oo...oo...oo...

oo...oo...oo...

The monkey on the tree 

goes oo...oo..oo..

All day long

The cow on the grass

goes moo...moo...moo..

moo...moo...moo...

moo...moo...moo...

The cow on the grass

goes moo...moo...moo..

All day long

The bee in the hive 

goes zz...zz...zz..

zz....zz....zz...

zz....zz....zz....

The bee in the hive 

goes zz...zz..zz

All day long..

The bird on the tree

goes tt..tt..tt

tt...tt...tt...

tt...tt...tt...

The bird on the tree

goes tt...tt..tt..

All day long

The girl in the garden

goes wow and wow

wow and wow

wow and wow

The girl in the garden 

goes wow and wow

looking at the butterfly

The boy in the class

goes ha!..ha!..ha!..

ha!...ha!...ha!...

ha!...ha!...ha!...

The boy in the class

goes ha! ha! ha!

laughing at his friend...

*p/s: don't forget the actions ;) Kids love to follow any kind of movement you teach them and they remember the sounds as they do the actions. It's great to see that my kids learn and memorize this song for only 3 days and managed to perform to other students during school assembly ;).

Unit 1 Yearly scheme of work

So, here's the year 1 YSOW for my school.

KSSR. What is it about?

KSSR- Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah

That's the new term for the current curriculum for teaching year 1 start 2011.The curriculum is modular in design and it is reflected in the organisation of the content and learning standards. For English curriculum, it emphasizes onn the development of basic language skills to enable pupils to have a strong foundation to build their proficiency in the language.

Those language skills are divided into four learning standards, which are:

1. Listening and speaking

2. Reading

3. Writing

4. Language arts.

The modular approach is to allow pupils to acquire the basic skills of language through purposeful activities in meaningful language. Hence, teaching year 1 this year is a new challenge that we teachers are facing. Proper planning and material preparation is required daily before entering the class. Teaching year 1 is about exposing these kids to fun learning environment and interactive materials to 'play' with. The assessment of each skill should be an on-going process where progress is regularly recorded and monitored.

An intro to my new blog

 It has been this place known as Ulu Yam Lama, a rural area that I spent 4 years teaching in a small primary school that consists not more than a hundred kids every year since it 's  1st operation back in 1914. I never loved kids before, and I never thought I could work well with them. However, this is the job that I think suits me best. I eventually love to see them growing up, having fun in class, as well as learning and acquiring knowledge thats imparted to them. In this blog, I am about to compile materials, thoughts, experiences,  information and news about school, education and issues from now on. I have found that after years of teaching, its best to have things put together and shared with others.Teaching is not as easy as what most people think. It requires a deep passion and high patience to deal with kids, paper works and admins.