5A's Class Blog: March 2010

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Compound Nouns, Clipped Words and Blended Words

In Unit 4, you learnt about compound nouns, clipped words and blended words.

Compound Nouns

Click on the following links to learn more about compound nouns.
What are Compound Nouns

Quiz: Compund Nouns

For the following questions, try not to look up the words in google search. Send in your own guesses first (show integrity). It will be fun to read what your friends think regarding what the words mean or how the words are formed.

Clipped Words

Clipped words are shortened forms of longer words. Here are some examples of clipped words: gym, coed, flu, dorm, auto, zoo, ad, bike, cab, lab, varsity, typo.
Do you know the long form of these words?

Blended Words
Blended words are words formed by combining two other words. Here are some examples of blended words: spork, emoticon, freeware, cineplex, Bollywood, netizen.
Do you know what words are combined to form these words?

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Spelling Quiz 7

The questions for the Spelling Quiz will be given in advance to help you prepare for the quiz.

Learning about Cells at the Science Centre

Yuan Kai...

We went to the Science Centre on Wednesday. The purpose is to help us have a better understanding of the topic on cells. I learnt about the nucleus, cell wall, cell membrane, cytoplasm and chloroplast. I am going to find out what their functions are. I have learnt many things on this trip.

Phu Eindra Ko...

On 23 March, we went on a learning journey to the science centre. We were going there to cover the topic on cells. The instructor's name was Ms Claire. She taught us how to classify cells. She also let us do a lot of fun hands-on experiments. In one of them, we used a toothpick to collect some cells from the inside of our cheek. Then we put blue dye on them so that we can see them better under the microscope. I learnt that human and animal cells do not have a cell wall while the plant cell has a cell wall. I also learnt that the humans have many cells but bacteria and yeast have only one cell. It was really fun. I hope the school will organise more trips to the Science Centre.

Leona...

The instructor, Ms Claire, taught us the five main groups of the unit of life. They are animal, plant, fungi, bacteria and protist. Then we compared the difference between a plant cell and an animal cell. My partner, Vanessa, and I learnt how to operate a microscope. We took a leaf from the hydrilla plant and placed it on a glass slide. We covered the specimen with a thin glass piece to protect it. Then we placed it under the microscope and observed its shape. We also prepared other specimens for observation, such as the cheek cell and fungi cell (yeast). These two are transparent, so we had to dye them. I freaked out when I saw a long cheek cell of mine, but the instructor told us that the reaction of the dye caused it to look like that. It was fun and interesting. I look forward to our next excursion.

Kelly...

It was my first time using a microscope. I learnt about different types of cells like diatoms, amoeba, eugiena, volvox, rotifer, yeast, bacillus and coccus. I learnt that different cells have different shapes, like a string of circles, or it could be needle-shaped. It was a memorable trip.

Looking smart in our lab coats

Plucking a leaf from the hydrilla plant

Placing the leaf on the glass slide

Here's the specimen

Learning to use the microscope

Desmond writing down his observations

Turn the nose piece to change the objective lens

Everyone knows what to do

Placing the specimen under the lens

Examining the specimen

Taking turns to use the microscope

Timothy checking out the plant cell

Shawn and Desmond are ready with their specimen too

Working together

Khee Han helps Han Chu to adjust the objective lens

Zhi Yi turning the focus knob to get a better focus of the specimen

Weng Leng gets a good look at the plant cells

Nerin using a toothpick to scrape the inside of the cheek to get some cheek cells

Scrape the cheek cells onto the glass slide

Brian adding blue dye to his cheek cells

Place the glass piece over carefully, slanting it to prevent air bubbles from being trapped

Dab around the edges to dry the specimen

Thu Ta carefully drying the glass slide

Hey presto! The cheek cell specimen is ready.

Look how professionally Qun Mei places the specimen on the stage

A close-up picture to see how it's done

It's Mavis' turn now while Qun Mei looks on

Practice makes perfect

Wilbert and Timothy examining the cheek cells

Leona claimed that she almost "freaked out" when she saw her strange-looking cheek cells

Monday, March 22, 2010

Our March Holidays

Manwin...

I went to Sunway Lagoon and had a lot of fun. At the Water Park, I went on the carnival rides. I rode the most extreme ship ride and the 'ship' swung to and forth very high. When it went up really high and then started to slide down, I was so scared that I screamed. I also rode on the bumper car. Besides the trip, I also enjoyed a movie that I watched. It was 'How to train your dragon' and it was in 3D.

Vanessa...

It was just great... other than doing homework, I went to the Bottle Tree Park with my mom, her friend and her friend's children, who are great friends of mine. We rented prawn fishing rods and a fishing net. At first, I thought we would not be able to catch any prawns as we have never tried fishing before. Fortunately, we managed to catch 5 prawns. Can you believe that? We barbecued the prawns and ate them. It was awful but my mom said it was wonderful. We also caught a lot of fish which we brought home. It was a really memorable day for me!

Zhi Yi...

The F1 Design Workshop was absolutely fun! On the first day, we in school to go to the workshop. Our team consisted of Sherman, Victor, Shawn Goh, Desmond, Kai Boon, Sabrina, Wei Xin, Leona, Vanessa and me. Kai Boon could not come on that day.

We arrived at Woodgrove Secondary School soon after. In the morning, we learnt about how F1 came about and how to make the car that we would design go fast. It was about drag, aerodynamics, etc. The afternoon brought more fun. We got to design the car on the computer. I made mine colourful.

The next day, Sabrina did not come. We started by sandpapering the car. Then, we used varnish to make it look nicer. Then we sandpapered it again. After that, we painted it. I helped Sabrina to paint hers. It was green with white stripes at the edges and, on the top, there was a checker board!

Shawn Goh...

On Wednesday early morning, at about 2.25 a.m., we received a call from TTS Hospital saying that my grandma's heartbeat was irregular and the outlook was bleak. My parents and aunt rushed to the hospital. Later, my father returned home to look after my brother and me. At about 3.45 a.m. that morning, my mother called home and told my father that our grandmother was pronounced dead. When we woke up in the morning, our father told us the news. We were shocked.

During my grandmother's funeral, my brother and I helped to serve drinks to the guests. On the last night of the wake, I could not sleep, so I spent the last moments with my grandma. It was only at 5.30 a.m. on Sunday that I went to bed. Two hours later, I woke up and prepared to leave for the burial ceremony. Two buses took us to the Christian Cemetery at 8.45 a.m. Our grandma was buried there. I saw my grandma's coffin slowly lowered into the opening in the ground. The pastor said some prayers and we dropped flowers onto the coffin before the opening was filled up.

My aunt spent the past ten years of her life taking care of my grandma. I hope that she will be strong enough to cope with the changes and face the life ahead with confidence.

Weng Leng...

I went to Sentosa Resort World during the holidays. However, it kept raining and I did not get to play as much as I wanted. I did go swimming anyway. I also went on the Luge ride and Skyride. They were amazing!

During the rest of the holiday, I skated with my friend in the basketball court near my block. I also made some mango-flavoured jelly.

Victor...

I enjoyed the Fi Design Workshop. We went to Woodgrove Secondary School for the course. All of us had to draw the chassis (the bottom part of the car). It was difficult. Next, we went to the computer lab to design a model of the car. The next day, we went to the art room. There, we put on a mask and we got a wooden car shaped like the one on our computer design. We sandpapered the car until the surface is smooth. It was hard work and our arms were sore. The room was full of sawdust. We had a break. After the break, we put a layer of varnish on the car model to prevent the air holes from absorbing the paint. After the varnish had dried, we sandpapered the car again. We had to do it thirty times on each surface. I did it a hundred times for all the three surfaces. Then, we painted our cars and left them in the store room for the paint to dry. We were told that we would have a 'car race' some time in May.

For the rest of the holidays, I was cooped up at home with only two books to read. I am happy now that the school holidays are over and am going back to school.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Holiday Homework

Glad to have a break at last? During the holidays, do keep your mind stimulated...

(1) Read at least 3 story books (at least 1 non-fiction book on explorers).
(2) Write journal reflections on your March holidays (e.g. holiday trip, F1 design course, etc.) You can type it out and add photographs or illustrations; or write it on foolscap paper.
(3) Spelling and dictation tests will start on Week 2, so the spelling/dictation list will be given to you in Term 2 Week 1.
(4) Read pages 58-74 of your English Textbook.
(5) Gather more interesting facts on the famous explorer your group has selected so that you can complete your 'Famous Explorer' chart when you return to school.

Enjoy your holidays!