Friends - Koh Tze Mo

There were two friends, Jack and Peter. On Halloween Day, Jack dressed like a pirate and Peter dressed like an Egyptian mummy.

When they started trick-or-treating, they were over the moon. They knocked on their neighbours' doors and asked fir a candy and their neighbours gave them sweets. After they trick-or-treated for an hour, their pumpkin baskets were half-full. There were Mentos, gummies and marshmallows. Suddenly, disaster struck. Peter's costume was too loose so one of the long strips covered his eyes and he accidentally tripped over a stone and fell. All his candies fell into a dirty drain.

Peter was very sad but Jack comforted him and told him that he could share his pumpkin basket with him. Peter was happy to have a considerate friend like Jack, and they went trick-or-treating together happily.

Friends - Mikaela Valya Skate

There were two best friends called Nicki and Jack. On Halloween Day, they decided to go for trick-or-treat. Nicki was dressed as a pirate. Jack was dressed as a mummy. They each brought along a Halloween basket.

They went knocking on every door in their neighbourhood. Suddenly, one of the long strips covered Jack's eyes. He could not see and he tripped over a stone. His basket dropped on the floor and broke. All the sweets dropped in a wet drain.

Jack was sad that his sweets were in the drain. He could not pick up the sweets. Nicki had an idea. He could share his sweets with Jack. So they continued to trick-or-treat.

Joining the Choir - Matin

One sunny at school, Tom was sitting at his table while his teacher, Mrs Teo, was giving out fliers. Tom received a flier and saw that it was about CCAs. There were all kinds of CCAs. There were soccer, basketball, choir, swimming and writing. Tom wanted to wanted to see how the choir felt like, so he joined the choir.

It was the first session of his choir practice. His choir teacher was Mdm Lissa. Mdm Lissa brought the children to the music room. Tom saw lots of musical instruments like a guitar, drums, a cello and a violin. Tom stared in wide-eyed wonder at all of the musical instruments. He and his fellow choir members discussed about the musical instruments they would want to play when they grew up.

Tom and his friends sang beautifully. Their teacher played songs on the grand piano. Tom tried hard to get every note right. After Tom's choir session, he walked home with a spring in his step. He was sure he had joined the right CCA.


By Matin
P2 Creative Writing

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