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The posts on this now-old blog will continue to be here for archival purposes.

Di Zi Gui 《弟子規》Practices at Frontier

2014 has begun well for us and we are enjoying school. We are now in P3 and we have new uniforms! Hence, if you come to our school, you will notice some of us wearing our formal uniform and some wearing what we called the PE attire. Well, only the P3 pupils can wear the formal uniform. I think it is because we are older now and it is a privilege to wear the formal uniform. We must be good role models for our younger brothers and sisters. 

We now have 3 levels of children in our school - P1, P2 and P3. It is quite interesting to see the young ones in school! They look so angelic, just like us 3 years ago! Actually, I think we were naughtier then! I see them learning how to purchase food in the canteen. In fact, we, the seniors, also helped them when they needed help. I guess as we are older, we also have responsibility to guide our younger Frontierers. It is good that we are in a position to help, and it does feel good to help! In fact, I told the young P1 to use the Di Zi Gui 《弟子規》notices on the walls all round the school to guide their actions. 

For instance, look at this notice. The title of this notice is "CARE". It is true that if we want to show care, we should give more, and not expect to receive. However, I must say that you do receive when when you give. I was helping these 2 P1 children whom I had recently befriended. I tried to give good advice to them, like what to buy in canteen and how to buy. Their moms came to thank me for helping their children adjust to primary school life. I felt good. What we received is not a real physical object, but a simple thank you. However, do not under-estimate the value of the "thank you". I felt good! I have made a DIFFERENCE to someone. 

There are quite a few Di Zi Gui 《弟子規》notices around the school recently. They are useful and they remind us to be more disciplined. Here are some notices which I have seen pasted around the school. 

For instance, this one (entitled: RESPONSIBILITY) can be seen in the canteen. I think it is placed there deliberately. It is really good advice too! Some of us can be quite fussy in our food! We do not want to eat our veggies. I now take my veggies. I used to dislike it but my teachers tell me that it is important to have veggies in our meals. Believe it or not, I now believe veggies are really quite nice! It also tells us not to be too greedy! It is us who need to be responsible for our own health. 

We also have this notice (also entitled: RESPONSIBILITY) which tells us how to behave when we move from point to point. It tells us that we should not be running around and that we walk with a focus. It also tells us to be polite and we should greet our teachers! It is only respectful when we do that. 

That's all for now! We will come back later to share more about our school!

The Gathering of SuperParents @ Frontier

This is not a typical blog that we are used to in the Frontier Blog. Usually, the children's voice comes out. This time round, we have another voice -- that of parents'. This is also an important voice. This is their story ....

Written by our guest writer:

Mdm Ng Guat Leng                                                                                    

Parent of Royston Loh (P1 Responsibility)                                                                                                                                 

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The episode began when the PPC members received an invitation from the school to put up an item or two for the upcoming children’s day event (3 October 2013).  I brushed it aside simply because I do not know what I could do.  An easy excuse.

An email from Mr Paul Goh (the violin instructor of the school) sets me thinking.  He invited us to do a percussion ostinato using a cup.  Sounds interesting.  I read on and was impressed that it even had a link to a tutorial which was demonstrated by a P2 Frontierer.  She is also the brain-child of this idea. I clicked on the link and soon I was having fun practising!

I recalled that my child had previously expressed his interest to perform in school.  I could fulfill his wish and it would be so cool to do it together.  Now I had a purpose.  It didn’t take much from me to reply Paul saying, “I will be there!”

Rehearsal time was limited. In fact, we only met twice before the actual day. Working parents hurried home after work.  Some turned up with their other children.  We met up in a parent’s home once and the other day we asked permission to use a church.  Isn’t that troublesome?  It was. We wished we could have more support but it was only a small hurdle compared to our goal.

The rehearsals went (.. erm) well. There was a lot of laughter. There were cups flying around.  Parents and children struggled to get the sequencing right, often laughing at themselves while encouraging others.  I hope Paul wasn’t pulling out his hair! He subsequently introduced variations to the percussion.  This created more laughter and more flying cups.  It seems like mission impossible.

Practice Makes Perfect!

Mr Paul Goh looking on... 

 We took pictures and videos during these embarrassing moments of ours.  These snippets were being compiled into a video montage.  One parent stayed up to 5am to do this.  One super hero is created because of her perseverance.  Kudos!

More Practice!

Music and Bonding~!

The video was screened during the concert and it aims to convey the message that each of us can overcome our difficulties and challenges to achieve something that we can be proud of.  Just like what a Super hero will do. 

There were pre-performance jitters.  The performance is not seamless. The tables were shaking from the stomping! We didn't expect that.   We couldn’t hear each other and the rhythm but we did the best we could out of the situation.  We successfully completed our performance with the most important little people in our lives.  

“To be in your children’s memories tomorrow, you have to be in their lives today.” – Barbara Johnson

Performing for the Children!

Ta-da ...our SuperParents in Action! Thank you !!!!!!

I did it for my child and all parents that had participated did it for theirs too.  Let’s hear from them.

“I did it for my gal. I was unwilling initially as I am rather busy with work during this period. She said that she wanted me to perform in her school children’s day concert. That melted my heart… We enjoyed singing and doing the actions so much that I suggested it to Paul” – Mary Heng;  Charlene Goh (P2 Confidence)

“My son felt great to perform together with me on stage. He liked the idea and wanted to join. It’s the first time that we perform together.” – Chloe Lau;  Enson Yip (P2 Joy)

“.. The great part is that we can perform together on stage! My boy enjoyed it greatly and felt excited after the celebration. He told me that he wanted to do it again.” – Ong Pei Pei; Stetson Tan (P2 Confidence)

“I just love the bonding between parents and definitely with our children.” – Linda; Muhammed Danish Ramli (P2 Resilience)

“I did it because I was too busy with work previously. The only time I could afford was the “coaching” time with my child. It was a great opportunity to share a memorable fun time with her. It also demonstrate, to my child, that mummy have to learn new things too. We need mental strength, perseverance and good time management to achieve our goals.” – Reena Heng; Reis Poh (P2 Respect)

“I have to take care of an eight month old baby so there is time constraint. My son hoped that I can participate and support him.  Although the result might not be as good as we expected, it is a good experience. This is also my first time performing with my darling.” – Joan;  Adrian Ow Yong (P2 Innovation)

“I decided to get involved in the performance for several reasons. 1) To support the school, teachers and students. 2) To boost confidence in my girl. She told me she has stage fear. I told her that I have stage fear too and is learning to cope with it. 3) To get to know more parents. Most of us here are from the pioneer batch. I think it’ll be great if we can build a special bond within us.”  - Dorothy;  Poon zhi Han (P2 Respect)

“The thought of having to perform on stage makes me jittery.  I got the courage from my children who love the “cup-knocking” idea. It’s our first performance together and we are looking forward to more.” – Joanna; Krystal Lim (P2 Confidence), Kevan Lim (P2 Respect)

“As we show on the stage of the cup song, every cup is very ordinary, every cup is very important, each cup is making the synthesis of rhythm and melody. In education, give each cup to realize the many possibilities. A few years later, the children will sing the song “When I’m gone” again, the school will remember their rhythm and melody.” – Sofia; Dong Yijie (P1 Care)

“I joined because I would like to take this opportunity to get to know the PPC members. Although it was only a three time practices, I could see the power and seriousness in them. We could coordinate the stomps and claps together….”– Lily Loh; Ng Jia Jun (P2 Respect)

“… My daughter is simply over the moon. This is a good opportunity to try, practice and perform new things. After this performance, my daughter learnt that practice make perfect.” – Khong Chiew Yun ; Yip Yern Teng (P2 Respect)

“… This is a good bonding time between parent and child and with other parents from the PSG.  Though the performance could be better (my personal view) if not for the tables but we had enjoyed ourselves very much. We look forward to more performance together with the parents, our kids and with the teachers too…” – Jen Yew;  Eunice Tay (P2 Innovation)

Cup song 与 Super hero

This is not a typical blog that we are used to in the Frontier Blog. Usually, it is in English but this one is written in Chinese. Usually, the children's voice comes out. This time round, we have another voice -- that of parents'. This is also an important voice. This is their story ....

Written by our guest writer:
Sofia                                   

Parent of Dong Yijie (P1 Care)                

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      本来这只是一个普通的儿童节庆祝，在我的想像中，无非就是唱歌跳舞做游戏吃冰淇淋。但当有一天，一介回家跟我说，学校要将儿童节庆祝与慈善活动结合起来、将寻找身边的 Super hero 与学校价值观教育结合起来，我还是眼睛一亮——一个普通的庆祝活动将被赋予特别的意义。

    之后我就收到了 P2 Resilience 班 Justus' 爸爸 Paul  的群发邮件，鼓励义工家长们为儿童节表演一个节目。Paul在邮件中推荐了 Anna Kendrick 的  When I’m Gone，他特别强调——杯子非常普通，却在生活中扮演着重要的角色，在这首歌中更是成为一个核心要素。这与学校提倡的“每个孩子都可以用自己的方式、在微小的事情上成为 Super hero”  的活动主题不谋而合。Paul同时也发来了 P2 Confidence 班 Charlene Goh 和他一起为我们做的 “杯子之歌”示范视频链接。他甚至还细心地提出，将歌词里的 “bottles of whiskey” 改成 “cans of pepsi”  （Charlene  是我们的主唱 Mary 的女儿，也是 Charlene 将这首歌介绍给了 Mary，然后 Mary 又将这首歌推荐给了 Paul）。

        “杯子之歌”让我想起几年前参加过的两次“形体创意与体能教育” 工作坊。工作坊由以色列 David Yellin Teachers’ College 的 Professor Ruth Bar-Sinai 主持，强调材料的开放性使用，鼓励最大限度地用创意挖掘出一个简单物件的多种可能性用途，以体现材料的最大使用价值。比如，一个杯子，可以有很多种玩法——“杯子之歌”就是其中的一种玩法。

         所以，我与一介商量：要不要参加“杯子之歌”？一介很兴奋，跟着示范视频练习了几次，就掌握了基本节奏，并马上当起了我的老师。

         第一次排练在 P2 Confidence 班的智升家。参加的人数完全出乎我的意料——客厅挤满了人，大家席地而坐，几十个杯子齐刷刷撞击在地，大家担心楼下的邻居能否受得了这持续1个多小时的响声，所以有意识地克制音量——但得意酣畅之余难免忘形，何况还有那么多不习惯克制的孩子。可以想像，智升的妈妈当时承受了多大的压力。谢谢你，智升妈妈，谢谢你慷慨地成全了我们的第一次排练。

         第二次排练在Lakeside一间教会，那是Paul服侍的教会。这一晚，家长和孩子进行了分组，排练了2个多小时。让我感动的是，Mary的小女儿一直坐在 baby chair 上陪我们排练到9点多。谢谢你们，Mary还有小天使。

          需要特别提到的是，P2 Creativity 班的 Zoey Chong 的妈妈 Lim Peipei 主动承担了我们排练时的影音文件的后期编辑工作。谢谢 Zoey 妈妈——演出前一晚，她为这个Video加班到凌晨5点多，几乎没怎么睡，就到学校参加演出前的排练——这是我们的第三次排练，也是唯一的一次完整排练。

         在离开校园多年之后，我们这群家长又一次体会到了演出前的一点点期待、一点点兴奋、一点点紧张。我们在参加我们孩子的儿童节，我们又何尝不是在重温我们自己的儿童节？我们在 WhatsApp 请 P1 Responsibility 智鹏的妈妈代购彩色杯子、通报服装信息——根据这些信息，我还郑重其事地跑去买了一件特大号的儿童服装给自己，只因上面 Superman 的标志。

        后来校长 Mr Koh 在庆祝活动上安慰那些穿校服的孩子们说，没穿 Super 标志的衣服也没关系，因为——每个人都可以在内心、在行为上做自己的 Super hero。当我听到这席话时，我是如此庆幸，我的女儿身处其中。这间普通的小学，关心孩子的情感体验，随时随地都在传达一种受用终身的价值观。

        这就是我们期待的教育。就像我们在舞台上呈现的杯子之歌，每一个杯子都很普通，每一个杯子都很重要，每一个杯子都在合成节奏和旋律。是教育，让每一个杯子实现它的多种可能性。几年之后，孩子们再唱起这首 When I’m Gone，学校将记住他们留下的节奏和旋律。

Mr Paul 将我们聚集在一起

         我要特别谢谢Paul 。谢谢你将我们聚集在一起，参与到孩子的快乐中去。  最后，我还要谢谢老师们为孩子们的儿童节精心安排了如此丰富、有趣的游戏活动！

                                                                                                                                                     

Aesthetics Splash...




Enjoying the Aesthetics activities!

Do you know that we celebrated the arts for a full week? We called it Aesthetics Splash Week? I am allowing you to have a glimpse of my diary so that you know what we did that week!

Monday

The Aesthetics Splash Week began from our Assembly period. We had a drawing session with an artist, Adrian Tan. He taught us how to draw cartoons using basic shapes such as circles, triangles and squares. I was so impressed and wished I could draw like him!

Soon, it was recess time. I bought my food and ate quickly. While eating, I could see my teachers setting up the station for their Percussion performance later. I was getting excited. After finishing my food, I brought my yellow card or Participation Card and managed to get my first stamp on my card. I sat down with some of my friends to watch the performance. Miss Lam and Miss Joycelyn were superb! They managed to play tunes using pots, pails and even a ladle. I enjoyed their performance tremendously and told myself that I would try this out at home!

Making music using ordinary items such as bottles, pots and footballs

Tuesday

Today was another day of fun especially during recess time. I had Fingerprinting Art and I loved it! We were seated in neat rows and there were fingerpainting ink pads and markers for us to decorate our art work. I had fun creating ladybugs, butterflies and even cute little animals such as dogs, frogs and cats just by using my fingers.

We make music with ordinary objects!

Trying my hand at fingerprinting art

Wednesday

It was Violin time during recess today. I seated myself on the floor with so many of my friends. We were so impressed with Mr Paul Goh. He was the Violin Instructor and he was very good at playing the violin. He taught us how to create happy, sad and angry sounds by playing the violin in different ways. I watched his performance in awe and wished I could play the violin like him.



Listening to a Parent who is a great musician!

Thursday

I was so excited today! It was Percussion Fun during recess time and I saw many teachers preparing to perform for us. Miss Lam, Miss Nurul, Miss Chua and Mdm Soh sang songs for us while Mr Yang, Miss Ong and Mr Chon played instruments such as the piano, cajon and guitar.

I was impressed as I didn’t know that my teachers were so musically inclined.

Our Teacher -- Singers!

Is that my Chinese Teacher!?!

Thank you for the Music!

Friday

Today was the day that I have been waiting for! I woke up in anticipation. I knew that today was going to be a great day. Recess time was another performance by my teachers. I was in great awe at their skills and talents. I wished that they could perform for us everyday.  

Soon, we had our lunch and it was time to go to the respective venues to have some fun. I heard from my Primary 2 Kor-Kor that he went through a similar experience when he was in Primary 1 last year.

My class started with percussion in the School Hall. We heard the sounds made by many different instruments.

After that, my class went into the Dance Studio. We learnt to do some special dance movements and I listened intently and tried my best to do the moves.

Percussion! We make music!

Dancing in the studio.

Learning the violin from the P2s!

We then proceeded to the Music Room where we tried playing the violins. Some of the primary 2 pupils were helping us. They were so good at it! Our last station was the PAL room where we were given crayons to do drawing.

Finally, we proceeded back to the school hall where we watched some performances by other schools. We managed to catch a dance put up by Zhenghua Primary School. The dancers had such beautiful costumes and they were dancing so gracefully. We also had a

Wow! WHat great Dancers!

group of NIE trainee teachers dancing to a groovy hip-hop tune. We enjoyed their high energy dance too. Finally, we had a performance from our own violinists from Primary 2. They were so professional and played very well!

I had a truly enriching week and I knew exactly what I would be doing this weekend…Singing, dancing and drawing to my heart’s content! J

Trying my hand at fingerprinting art



The Day Total Defence Came Alive in Frontier



Our Teacher is explaining to us what Total Defence means! Don't we look engaged?



In the last entry, I spoke about fire drills in school. It means to be prepared. Today, I am going to share with you more about Total Defence Day. Firstly, do you know when Total Defence Day falls on? Let me tell you. J

Total Defence Day falls on 15^th February every year. It marks the British surrender of Singapore to the Japanese during World War II many years ago. It was a horrible period in our Singapore history and there was much suffering. This annual event reminds us that we should all continue to work together to keep Singapore safe and peaceful for everyone to live in. We should never take for granted the present stability and prosperity of our country.

This was shared with us during the assembly talk on Monday. Look at how engaged we were!

During our Art and Craft lesson, we drew a fire engine and coloured it. It was very fun because I have not drawn a fire engine before! It was actually difficult to draw a fire engine but I tried my best to do it. Luckily, my teacher helped us by showing us some pictures of a fire engine. It was certainly useful!  

Look at my fire engine, isn’t it beautiful?

Full concentration ...

My Fire Engine...

After that, we made a real fire engine using shoe boxes! We did this in groups so that we can get more ideas from our group mates and complete our work quickly. By working together in groups, I also learnt the importance of teamwork and respect. 

Teamwork is key!

Final touches ...



I am proud of my work ...



Together, we can create anything

To begin, some of the groups pasted red coloured papers on the shoe boxes while some of us pasted red packets on it. Then, we added in the wheels and windows to our fire engine. We enjoyed ourselves very much making our own fire-engine!

My friends in the Primary 1 classes did something different. Instead of drawing, they did colouring! They coloured pictures of fire fighters, nurse, police officer and doctor!

This is how I learn Total Defence

I think that their artwork is amazing! Look at the police car that he has coloured, isn’t it lovely!

Then, they painted their shoe boxes red .

Look how skilful she is…

Adding colours to the shoe box ...

After painting, my teacher helped me to wash the containers and dry them.

Cleaning up

I enjoy the art lesson very much and hope that I can make a police car next year! J

Fire Drill@Frontier

Walking briskly but orderly to the holding area~!

 

Today, we had our fire drill. We had just returned to class after assembly, and were settling down to our usual classroom routine when suddenly, a loud alarm sounded. Immediately, we were alert and we quickly looked to our form teacher. The teacher said to us that the fire alarm had sounded and we should quickly get ready to evacuate the building. One of my friends wanted to pack her bag but the teacher told her not to. Our teacher said the priority was to leave the school building. However, we need to remain calm and the last thing we should do is for all of us rushing out to to the doors. We would be crushed. This will only slow us down!

 

 

Not the right way to evacuate!

 

As we quickly lined up outside the classroom, we heard an announcement through the PA system that this was a fire drill. To be honest, I was relieved to hear that it was just a drill. If it was a real fire, I would be very afraid. However, I still took this drill seriously. Drills are important because through practice, we learn what to do and how to behave in an emergency. My teachers have shared this with us and I think they are right.

We finally reached the assembly area!

 

 

Knowing what to do during a drill is very important. We have faith in our teacher. My teacher looked in control and she has all the knowledge that she needs to get us to safety. For instance, she knew the route of our evacuation. My whole class was also very cooperative. I must say that the briefing given to all of us in January helped. My teacher shared with us her expectations during an emergency. She said that it is important that we stay together and gather quickly in the assembly area. Hence, when some of my classmates became quite mischievous during the evacuation, they were reprimanded by our class eLFs. To be fair to naughty ones, they also became serious when they were reminded! Kudos to the naughty ones in class because they knew when to be serious!

 

 

Marking attendance ....

When we reached the assembly area, my teacher again took our attendance to determine that all our classmates were accounted for. It is important that we take attendance as if we have missing children, the school will quickly send a team to find the missing pupils. Anyway, we did not have such a problem because our class stayed intact throughout.

 

 

Now, is anyone missing ?

Finally, the Principal spoke to all of us in the assembly ground. He said he was pleased that we took less than 5 minutes for all the pupils to evacuate the building. He praised us and said that we did a good job and every should be proud of ourselves. Yeah! I must say I feel quite good that we did a good job in this fire drill. My teacher said that we may have a more challenging exercise to do in semester 2. I am looking forward to it!