Basic Rules for Primary School English [Apostrophes, Contractions and Tenses]

How to use apostrophes?

I have summarized some basic rules for using apostrophes to help Natalie clear up some confusion over the usage of apostrophes.  There are also some resources that I found online.  Hope that they are useful to you too. 

1.  Using apostrophes to show possession. Add ’s [an apostrophe and the letter s ]to a singular noun or irregular plural noun to show possession.

    Examples:

Singular noun

            a) A creature’s body

            b) The girl’s dress

            c) Miss Ng’s book

Irregular plural noun

           a) Children’s

           b) Teeth’s

2. Using apostrophes to show possession. Add s’ [an apostrophe after the s] to plural nouns which are regular.

    Examples:

           a) other creatures’ shells

           b)the boys’ bags

3. Add ’s [an apostrophe and the letter s ] to the second name only, if there are 2 people that possess the same item.

    Example: Natalie and Emmanuel’s house

4.Apostrophes are used for contractions.

   Examples:

         a) I’m

         b) Don’t

         c) I’ll

Click to see a list of contractions.

There is also a useful table to help kids understand English tenses.  

Usually, I would print them out these tables or rules and laminate them to put up around the house so that the children can look at them regularly. Visual learning is important because children tend to forget what they have learnt unless they constantly see it and revise them.

I hope this is useful. Do share these resources with your friends.

Alphabets and Phonics for my 3 year old [G - P]

Alphabets and Phonics for my 3 year old [G - P]

In term 2, we are revising letters A to F and learning letters G to P. In fact, this is the second round of learning alphabets and phonics. Faith have done a round of recognizing letters and their sound last year. But this year, she is learning more vocabulary for each alphabet. 

Here are some of the activities we have done for each letter.

Letter G

Learning new vocabulary and the sound of letter G.

Learning the shape of letter G and our button craft giraffe.

Faith was asked to point out words starting with letter G from the newspaper.

Faith identified these G words from the 'Today' newspaper. 

Colouring small letter g. 

Letter H

Activities for letter H. 

Making a Hippopotamus: Sponge painting 

Letter I

I for ice-cream. Painting and colouring ice-cream. 

Letter J

For sensory play, Faith made the planet- Jupiter out of play dough.

I use this chance for Faith to explore colour mixture and taught her about different shades of brown.

Rolling it out.

Using the different shades to make Jupiter. 

Just practicing rolling.

Letter K

Letter L

Creating a ladybug.

Making an attractive lollipop. 

Tracing the leaves.

Letter M

Letter N

Creating our very own "The Starry Night" with oil pastels.

Faith learns more about "The Starry Night" by Vincent van Gogh. 

Letter O

O for Octopus. An octopus made of plastic plate and some straws. 

Tracing activity. 

Tracing.

Tracing, then learning to 'copy' the drawing. 

Not bad for her first attempt at 'copying' the images. 

Letter P

 Literature Based Learning 

This book was a gift by my lovely friend , Jacqueline.

Activity 1: Identifying words in the book that starts with letter P. 

 Faith seems to like identifying words and she is getting faster and more accurate. 

Activity 2: Identifying some animals that are pink. 

I'm actually quite surprised that she could come out with pig and pink dolphin. I added the naked mole- rat for her. 

Activity 3: How am I different?

I wanted her to think about how different she is from the others. She gave me quite a few physical difference about herself and others, However, I chose to focus on her personality rather than appearance and she could only come out with 2. 

Activity 4: Learning about acceptance.

The moral of the story is that family and real friends will accept you for who you are. Hence, I spent some time talking to her about how much we love her and about our  unconditional love. 

Activity 5: Learnt about the sequence of events. 

This is the first time I'm introducing the sequence of events to her. I printed out some of the main events of the story and got Faith to sequence them according. She has to narrate the story while pasting the pictures into the boxes. She seems to enjoy this activity a lot. 

Visual Learning 

This alphabet train corner is made up of materials that I previously made for my boy. 

 Recognizing letters and their sound.

Other topics that you might be interested in.

• My Simple Philosophy about Raising Children
• Art and Craft
• Cooking adventure
• Learn Thru Play
• Literature Based Learning
• Parenting  and Motherhood

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A Review and Giveaway of 'A Night of Magic at Raffles ' by Joe Labero.

A Review and Giveaway of  'A Night of Magic at Raffles ' by Joe Labero. Last Saturday, my family and I had a magical night watching 'A Night of Magic at Raffles' by Joe Labero. It is indeed rare to find a show which my family of 3 generations( my kids, my husband and I, and my parents) really enjoyed. Well, I was always very fascinated with the idea of 'magic' since young. The 'mysterious' and what seems to be a 'supernatural force' never fails to arouse my curiosity as a child.  It was only when I grow up that I learnt that magic equals science and illusion. But I want my kids to discover this on their own. I want them to enjoy the wonder of magic as I did as a child. This was why I brought them to 'A Night of Magic at Raffles'. The performance totally exceeds my expectation. It not only arouse the curiosity of my children but it got my parents, my hubby and especially me fascinated once again. I thought I have outgrown the fascination ever since I watched 'breaking the magician's code', but the performance by Mr Joe Labero was outstanding and got me curious again. We were so full of wonder that my hubby and I went home and searched online for some time to try and "break his magician's code'. As for my father, he is still talking about the performance days after watching it.  What my family says about the performance:  " The performance was so amazing. There is magic everywhere. I love the whole show. Before the show, I wasn't sure if I would like the show, but after the first act, I was excited to keep on watching the rest of the magic tricks. I definitely would go for more magic shows in the future."                                                                                                                                                     Natalie [ age 8]  " I love the part where the magician walked into the mirror and disappeared. It's like the Phantom."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Emmanuel [age 6]  "The most unforgettable part of the show was when the magician chained 3 rings taken from 3 random audience together. How is that possible? That really left me thinking for quite a long time."                                                                                                                                  Mr Ho [my father age 55] "The words dexterity and control sum up the performance perfectly. From the fire juggling and acrobatics by the co-performers to the sleigh of hand performed by Joe Labero himself, it was an entertaining one and a half hour experience performed by highly trained professionals"                                                                                                                        Augustine [ my husband age 38]   As for me, I really enjoyed the atmosphere created in the Jubilee Hall. It was as if, I was transported to a magical world. The music and the lighting were very well coordinated and complemented the performance, adding to the magical and mysterious atmosphere.   Moreover, I took this opportunity to show my children around the colonial styled- Raffles Hotel and shared with them about the History of the hotel. The Raffles Hotel was opened in Singapore in 1887 and named after Sir Stamford Raffles, founder of modern Singapore. However, it was not always a hotel but was previously a private house.This hotel was built during the colonial era and hence, I got the children to walk around and observe the architecture. The two children even took the lift several times and talked about 'how special the lift was'.  Another highlight of the night was interacting with the magician and the rest of the performers. The kids enthusiastically went to take picture with Mr Joe Labero.  During the performance, the two children managed to pick up the special poker cards which Mr Joe Labero threw to the audience. Hence, when they met Mr Joe Labero, they requested for his autograph.  After getting the autograph of the magician, we walked around to talk to the other performers. We thanked them for their wonderful performance and took pictures with them as well.  Overall, we really enjoyed ourselves and had a truly wonderful night. 'A Night of Magic at Raffles' by Joe Labero is a show for people of all ages, from young to old.   Now, there is an opportunity for you to win a set of 4 tickets to bring your family to watch this performance on 2 May 7.30pm.  So don't miss the chance to catch the show.  Enter the giveaway now. The giveaway will start on 20 April and will end on 23 April. Simply follow these steps: 1) Like my facebook page, Raising Our Successful Children  2) Tag 3 people under the comments. 3) Enter the Giveaway  There are 3 sets of 4 tickets for 'A Night of Magic at Raffles' by Joe Labero in Singapore on 2 May 2015 at 7.30pm to be won.  Enter the giveaway now. You maybe the lucky winner to bring your family for the wonderful performance.