Fund Raising for Haiti earthquake victims

Thank you for your efforts in fund-raising. Many of you had many good ideas and came forth to ask how you could help. Well done.

The total profit is $1014 - after using the school's coin counting machine. I think this was a feat, considering that our sale was only for two hours. Thank God for the people who came forth to bless.

I hope it has been a meaningful experience for you all. Keep looking out for ways to bless others.

CA1

Summary of CA1 results:

No. of As: 23

No. of Bs: 17

Average score: 74.7%

Average for Paper 2: 69.2/95

Average for composition: 28.9/40

Average for situational writing: 13.9/15

Keep striving for excellence!

With God, nothing is impossible.

Happy Holiday

Holiday homework:

1) Vocabulary Book

(Confusing Words: Test 1-3; Word Forms Test 4-6)

2) English Practice Paper 4

3) Reflections on Term One (to be submitted on A4 paper; can present in any form - pictures, words, music, comic etc)

4) Parent's signature on CA1 Paper 1 and Paper 2 please

Use your holiday wisely! God bless you with joy, good health, discipline, wisdom and all good things!

Either....or.. / Neither....nor.... / main subject / who and whom / semicolon and colon

Grammar rules:

1) Either.....or.... / Neither......nor .....

The second noun determines the verb.

E.g.

Neither Amelia nor her friends like durians.

Neither Jayne nor Naomi has a mobile phone.

Sometimes the sentence may be in the past tense:

Neither James nor Peter watched the match.

(In this case, it does not matter if the noun is singular or plural.)

2) Main subject

Remember that the clause between commas provides extra information. The main subject determines the verb.

E.g.

Nick, as well as Matthew, is good in badminton.

Chris, together with his brothers, walks to school every day.

3) who / whom

Both of these are relative pronouns used to refer to people

who - followed by a verb

whom - followed by a noun / pronoun

exception: to whom - followed by a verb

E.g.

The lady who waved at me is a famous actress.

The boy whom I spoke to was my best friend.

To whom does this file belong?

4) Punctuations

Colon - used to introduce a list

E.g. These are some of my favourite books: Leota's Garden, Anne in Green Gables, Someone Else's Kids and Toto Chan.

Semicolon - used to separate two closely related independent clauses

E.g. Samantha was the only prefect around ; she had to settle the matter.

Note: There are many other usages of the colons and semicolons. If you are interested, take a look at

http://www.gprc.ab.ca/library/Homepage/Help%20With/LSC/LSC%20pdfs/Semicolon%20and%20Colon%20Usage.pdf

24 February

Homework:

1) Composition / SPCOC
(Practice 2 Composition B)
- Please use the words and phrases in your notes

What we did today:

Went through SPCOC (Please ensure you know what each letter stands for)
New word learnt - indelibly (What does it mean?)

23 February 2010

Homework:

1) English Practice Paper 3 (due tomorrow) - Please identify clues in cloze passage

2) Spelling and Dictation (on Friday)

3) Situational Writing 3 Corrections (due on 8 Mar together with writing file)

What we did today:

- Went through Practice Paper 2 (Identify clues in cloze passage; Synthesis and Grammar rules - Reported speech; Neither...nor and Either...or)

- Went through Situational Writing 3

Press on!

Reported Speech

3 points to note:

1) change the tenses

present tense to past tense
past tense to past perfect tense

E.g. "She is at the library now," Tim said.
Tim said she was at the library then.
E.g. "I went to the zoo yesterday," Sam announced.
Sam announced that he had gone to the zoo the day before.

2) change the pronouns

E.g. "I have eaten," Tina said.
Tina said she had eaten.

3) change the time/ place etc

now to then
today to that day etc

E.g. "I will be studying in America next year," she said.
She said she would be studying in America the following year.

TPTP
Tenses
Pronouns
Time
Place

If you are reporting a question, you need to take note of 2 additional points:

1) Switch the positions of the subject and verb
In a statement, the subject appears before the verb.
In a question, the verb appears before the subject.

E.g. "How old are you?" she asked me.
She asked me how old I was.

2) Add "if" if there is no question word.
Question words: Who, what, why, where, what, how

E.g. "Are you going to the library tomorrow?" Mandeal asked Nathan.
Mandeal asked Nathan if he was going to the library the next day.

Having mentioned the 5 golden rules for reported speech, please remember not to change the tenses for other questions on synthesis.