A Misunderstood Dinosaur - Matin

   It was a beautiful day in the meadow. Four animals were playing in the meadow. They were playing Blind Man’s Bluff. The four animals were a dog, cat, rabbit and goat.

   Then they heard a loud sound. A dinosaur was shouting to them. Then the dinosaur started to run towards them. The animals screamed and shouted for help but nobody came. They started to run helter-skelter. The dinosaur shouted, “Wait, come back! I just want to play with you and be your friend!” The animals stopped running away. The animals said, “A dinosaur wants to be our friend?” Out of curiosity, the animals came back. The dinosaur explained to them that he had no friends and no one wanted to play with him. The dinosaur said, “May I join you to play Blind Man’s Bluff?” The animals said, “Yes!”

   Soon the animals were playing Blind Man’s Bluff again, but they were playing with the dinosaur now. This time, the dinosaur was the one being blindfolded. He looked like he was having a great time and he was as happy as a lark! The animals promised to play with the dinosaur whenever he was lonely. The animals and the dinosaur became best friends forever.

By Matin

P2 English Creative Writing

An Unforgettable Day - Chloe Chan

An Unforgettable Day

Ring! The recess bell rang and Hilzac made a dash for the canteen. He was feeling as ravenous as a wolf. When he reached the crowded canteen, he quickly queued up at the noodles stall and purchased a bowl of piping hot noodles.

Just as Hilzac was walking to a seat, Max ran as fast as lightning past him. Max accidentally knocked into Hilzac. Hilzac fell and the bowl slipped from his hands. It hit the ground and broke into fragments. Hot soup splashed onto Hilzac and scalded him. It was so painful that Hilzac burst into tears. Shocked, Max quickly turned back and helped him up.

Mrs Chen, a teacher, had witnessed the accident. She scolded Max for running in the canteen. Max blushed and hung his head in shame. He apologised to Hilzac and promised to turn over a new leaf.


Chloe Chan
Edited by Mdm Teo

Quick Grammar Tip: 'Who' or 'Whom'

Quick answer

If the answer to the question is:

• I
• he
• she
• we
• they

the word should be 'who'.

Example:

Who kicked Benjamin?
I kicked Benjamin.

However, if the answer to the question is:

• me
• him
• her
• us
• them

the word used should be 'whom'.

Example:

Whom did Benjamin kick?
Benjamin kicked him.

Long answer

'Who' is actually a subject (the noun that does the action) and that is why it corresponds to pronouns that are subjects (I, he, she, we, they).

'Whom' is an object (the noun that the action is done to). Hence its correspondence to pronouns that are subjects (me, him, her, us, them).

'You' and 'it' are used as both subjects and objects. Thus, it is of no help to cue you in whether to use 'who' or 'whom'. Tough luck there.

However, the usage of 'whom' is slowly losing ground. It is not uncommon these days to see even published writers (especially younger writers) using 'who' when they should be using 'whom'. As the English language further evolves, it may not be surprising if one day we do away with 'whom' completely but until that day happens, it is good to know the difference between 'who' and 'whom' so that you know what the correct answer is should you encounter it in an English test.

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 - LINKING WORDS TO MAKE SENTENCE STRUCTURES MORE INTERESTING

Using the same sentence structure again and again is boring


A common problem amongst beginning writers is they tend to use the same sentence structure throughout their writing, resulting in a monotonous and boring story.


The sentence structure most commonly used is:

Subject + verb + object

This problem is easily resolved by adding some linking words/phrases in front of the sentence. Linking words/phrases are simply words and phrases that link what you want to say in the sentence to the previous sentence.

Using linking words/phrases at the start of your sentence will add some variety to your sentence structure, making your writing more interesting. Not only that, they also help your story to flow more smoothly and make your story clearer to your reader (by showing cause and effect, sequence of events, etc).

Some linking words/phrases that you can add to the front of your sentences:

To describe an unexpected happening Ø Suddenly Ø All of a ____________________ Ø Out of the blue Ø Abruptly	To describe an exact moment Ø Just at that moment Ø Just at that instant Ø Just then
Phrases to show passage of a short period of time Ø After a short while Ø Within a few minutes/A few minutes later Ø Not long later/Soon Ø In no time	Phrases to show Immediately Ø Immediately Ø Instantly/Instantaneously Ø Without further ado Ø In the nick of time
Phrases to show passage of time Ø After some time Ø Some time later Ø Later in the…, Ø Finally Ø In the end Ø At last	Using Adverbs as Linking Words Ø Unfortunately/Fortunately Ø Coincidentally Ø Quickly
Words/Phrases to show two actions going on at the same time Ø While Ø at the same time Ø as… Ø concurrently	Using Emotions as Linking Words Ø Out of curiosity Ø To my shock Ø Filled with delight
Words/Phrases to show cause/Reason Ø Due to… Ø Because… Ø As Ø Since…

Here is the story for this week. Note that linking words/phrases used at the start of the sentence are in pink.

A note about content

This story is a little outdated. I first created it for my pupils in 2008. It was very popular because at that time, Mas Selamat had just escaped from prison and was still at large.

Still I decided to use this outdated story because I want to stress a point. You know the point I keep hammering about writing an original story, a story that is different from what your friends and classmates will write?

A way to do that is to use current affairs in your news. What are the current events that have captured the public's imagination? What comes to mind: the Chinese tour guide and the rich widow, City Harvest trial, etc.

Of course, to be able to do this means that you have to keep abreast of current news, which means that you need to read the newspapers.

So please do so. Not only will you improve your English, who knows, you may be able to use the news that you've read to make your story original and entertaining.

If you want to, you can download this week's assignment and sample story here.

CALLING OUT TO GRAMMAR NERDS!

I was born in the '70s.


When I attended school (both primary and secondary) in the '80s, the focus on grammar then, I believe (I was a rather 'blur' pupil), was more of incidental learning.


Sure, the teachers taught grammar (if they knew grammar) but they spent more time drilling us on the basic things like subject-noun agreement, present tense and past tense. Nothing too fancy. Anything more advanced than subject-noun agreement or tenses were only mentioned in passing. Those who understood, good and well for them. Those who didn't -- well, it was no big deal as we were supposed to learn grammar incidentally.


I was one of those who didn't get grammar. But I was fortunate in that I was really into reading, and that helped me a lot during my examinations.


Then I became a teacher and I realised that some knowledge of grammar is necessary if I want to be able to explain to my pupils clearly and simply why certain sentence structures are acceptable and others aren't. And thus began my interest in English grammar.


After some time, I realise I'm not alone. That there are a sizeable number of people out there who are interested in this topic too. Call them grammar nazis, grammar nerds, whatever; it's good to know that I'm not alone. (It's always good to know that having a particular interest, even if it's grammar, does not make one weird.)


To my fellow grammar nerds, I came across this article on Huffington Post about a trick to analyse one's sentence structure. It gets a little complex, especially towards the end, but the overarching principle is general enough to apply to primary school English.


Click this link to read the article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/01/diagram-sentence-grammar_n_5908462.html.


I hope you find it as illuminating and interesting as I do.  :)

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