PRIMARY 3 & PRIMARY 4 COMPOSITION - HOT WEATHER & EUREKA!

The pictures for today's composition:

This is not a usual theme that we see in school; as such, some pupils may find it quite challenging to write such a story. Nonetheless, I believe that it is beneficial to get the pupils to do this exercise for a couple of reasons:

1. It is good to get them to write some non-examination type stories, to expand their repertoire.

2. It can get boring to write the same type of stories over and over; so writing a story that is not typical of what they usually do spices up the exercise for them.


The story is also pretty straightforward so I won't be doing a picture analysis. Instead, for the first video, I'll zoom straight into the first focus or theme for this week: How to describe hot weather.



Hot Weather


Many pupils like to begin the story by describing the weather. As the weather in Singapore is typically hot, it would be useful to know various ways of describing hot weather.


For example, instead of saying 'It was a hot day.' -- so boring! -- you could say 'It was a sweltering day.' Watch the video to find out other interesting ways of describing hot weather.






Eureka!


In many stories, there would be a point where a character gets an idea and then the story proceeds. Again, it is so dull when you just say 'I had an idea.'


Watch the video to learn 8 different ways to say 'I had an idea.' and spice up your writing.






Sample Story

PRIMARY 3 & PRIMARY 4 COMPOSITION - FOOD POISONING

This week's story is a picture-based story about food poisoning.

Video 1 - Picture Analysis

The pictures are ordered in the correct sequence (unlike the new format) but it's not a big issue because most pupils have no problems arranging the pictures in the new format.




Video 2 - Vocabulary of a Trip to the Clinic

The theme for this week is the vocabulary associated with a visit to the doctor's. This vocabulary will come in handy when you have to write a story about:

• falling ill after being drenched in the rain
• having a tummy ache after overeating
• breaking a bone from a fall; and numerous other possibilities in which a character in the story has to see the doctor.

Video 3 - Sample Story

The assignment for the composition can be downloaded from the link provided below.

Resources

Assignment

P3/4 COMPOSITION: BEWARE OF SCISSORS DURING ART & CRAFT LESSON

As the PSLE is over, the weekly stories that I post will be for P3/4 pupils who will be having their end-of-year examinations soon.


I won't go through the Picture Analysis for P3/4 picture-based compositions because they tend to be more predictable; the format is either 4 pictures or 3 pictures and one question mark.


There are two themes this week. The main theme is how to begin a story. If you've been following the blog, you would know that I've done this for P5/6 pupils. For P3/4 pupils, I cover five instead of nine methods, and it's usually okay to accept cliche introductions, because of their more tender years. The idea here is to write a competent story, not to write one that will awe the examiner into giving you as high a mark as possible.


That said, if you are an advanced writer, there's no harm showing the examiner what you're capable of.


The second theme is to how to describe bleeding, a common occurrence in many stories, so it's very useful to know this, rather than just mention in passing 'he bled a lot'.


So watch Video 1 and Video 2 below to learn the 5 ways to begin a story and how to describe and handle blood in stories.


Video 1: How to Begin a Composition



The 5 ways:
1. Describe the weather (careful)/place
2. Speech/Dialogue
3. Flashback
4. Question
5. Climax

These are the various ways. But there are some points to note and you're advised to watch the video to glean the points.  :)


Video 2: How to describe bleeding




Video 3: Sample Story




That's all for this week.


Feel free to drop me a comment if you've any query or comment about this week's story.


RESOURCES

Assignment

Samples of Introduction and Notes