Little Red Dot (Issue: 28 July 2009) - Do you see a hit song? (page 4)

There are differing views as to how appealing the National Day (ND) theme song, What Do You See, is to the general public. While some lament that the good old sing-able tunes like Count On Me, Singapore and We Are Singapore are a thing of the past, others are applauding the move to go rock and see the change as "refreshing". What about you? Do you like the rock element in the recent ND theme songs or do you prefer a more sing-able tune that you can hum to? Post your thoughts as a comment to this blog entry.

Dicing with Death

Based on p 3, LRD 28/7/2009 By 4 Joy

The noose in the picture caught our attention and we chose this article to blog about.

In pairs, we discussed what the consequences for drug trafficking are in Singapore. We found out that for taking some drugs, the punishment can be up to 20 years in jail or may be caned 15 times. Our teacher explained to us that people who commit certain crimes in Singapore are caned with a thick cane. We squirmed at the thought of this!!

People can also be hung for drug trafficking, which is very sad because it means someone dies just because he or she bought and sold drugs.

The aim of the article is to tell us that no matter how old or young you are, you will be punished if you take drugs!

How do you think other people are affected when someone takes drugs?

Come and post your comments! =)

A lifelong dream that was not meant to be

(Based on an article in the LRD 22/7/2009 issue on a Singapore medical team's attempt to separate a pair of Iranian Siamese twins, Ladan and Laleh Bijani, almost exactly 6years ago.)

The class felt that the twins were very brave to go through the operation. They had the dream of seeing each other face to face. We are sad that they were unable to do so. We had a little experience of being "being stuck" together with our partners in the classroom. The task was to retrieve something which was away from us. We felt uncomfortable "following" the other person, very inconvenient and it was not easy to move around. We were "joined together" for a few minutes but the twins were connected together for 29 years. We really admire their courage,their patience with each other.

By 5 Grace

How did you feel when you read the article in this week's LRD?

Guest bloggers from other schools!

Hi girls,

Yesterday, we were priviledged to have 14 guest bloggers at the ccpslrd blog! They were teachers from other schools whom we had shared our blog with yesterday. We invited them to share their thoughts on last week's LRD issues with us and we're glad they agreed! The eight previous entries are by them. Do leave your comments! (If you want to blog for us on ccpslrd, drop Miss Wong an email at misswongccps@gmail.com!)

=)
Miss Wong

Guest Blogger on Asian Youth Games Singapore

The Asian Youth Games Singapore opened in Singapore with a bang on the 29th June 2009, Monday at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The crowd of spectators are met with a myriad of performers with student from many primary and secondary schools. Despite seats in the auditorium not being fully filled up due to the H1N1 flu situation, spirits were rather high in the stadium as the crowd cheered to the performances and the competitors.

This is the first time these games have been held. The 9-day Asian Youth Games (AYG) are designed to showcase sporting excellence in the region. Almost 1,400 young people aged 14 to 17 from 43 countries across Asia took part. Spectators had a chance to see future Olympians showing their potential. Malaysia had withdrawn their participation due to H1N1 infections that were on the rise at that time.

Contrary to the Opening Ceremony, the Games were declared closed in a private function at Fairmont Hotel Singapore, which included only partipants and officials.

Singapore bagged 9 golds in this Games!

Well done Singapore!

Here's a video on one of the items from the Opening Ceremony. Enjoy! :)

Guest Blogger on the Sari (with video!)

The sari is India's national dress for females. This is how a sari is worn.

Guest Blogger on Salt and You

Eating too much salt is bad for your health. You are more likely to get high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke if you take in too much salt in your diet. Although some salt is necessary but doctors recommend that a person takes no more than one level teaspoon a day.

Take note that some sweet things and food like cakes, biscuits and bread can contain high level of salt. So beware! There are ways to lower the amount of salt you eat. One way is to choose fresh food instead of pre-prepared, processed or pickled ones. look out for Healthier Choice symbol.

Finally, eat lots of different fruits and vegetables everyday - naturally low in salt and great source of health-boosting vitamins, minerals and other nutrients.

Should you add chilli sauce or ketchup to your french fries?

What food contain natural salt?

Guest Blogger on The Graceful Saris

I've always thought that saris are beautiful. When I was in Primary 6, my form teacher, Miss Williams wore saris to school everyday. I loved all her saris. The prints on the fabrics were so beautiful.

I've always wanted to try wearing a sari, but was worried because nobody would help me secure it properly. Now, with ready-made saris available, I think I'll just get one and wear it on the next Racial Harmony Day.

Website on salt by guest blogger: Pass (on) the salt

Doctors recommend not more than one level teaspoon of salt a day. That's too much for me. It's not necessary to take any salt at all. The salt that your body needs is already in or supposed to be in the food that you eat each day.

website on salt

A note from 2 guest bloggers: Less salt is good!

Hi gals,
I am sure most of you know too much salt is bad for you.
Is it good for us to have a salt-free diet?
Can you imagine eating food without salt? How would that be like?
List the foods that we consume daily that contain salt.
Share with us your comments.

From sts,
sj and lm

Guest Blogger on The Graceful Sari--recollections of Mrs Shankar

Reading The Graceful Sari reminded me of my vice-principal, Mrs Shankar who passed away last year. She was a modern woman who donned the sari every day changing out of it only during the times she joined the school for mass exercise in the mornings. She always looked elegant in it with not an inch of her tummy exposed. It takes a lot of practise to don the sari. Oh, how I miss her. God bless her wonderful soul.

Guest Blogger on Passing (on) the salt...

Do you know your daily recommended salt intake?

According to this BBC article, "The government recommends a maximum of 6g of salt per day for adults, 5g a day for children aged 7-10 and 3g for children aged 4-6."

This is easily achieved when a typical McDonald's meal of a Quarter Pounder with Cheese Meal (quarter pounder burger with cheese, medium fries, medium coca cola) has 3.2 grams of salt!

Think about this:

How much salt do you consume a day?

What does too much salt do to our body?

Remember, you are what you eat!

©heste®

Guest Blogger on Learning with Recipes

Hi!There....I think its a very interesting idea to let pupils learn how an instructional text is done using a food receipe and getting them to restructure it in the right way. It's a excellent choice to motivate LA pupils.


Pavithra.

Guest blogger on The Place in BigInAsia

Hi people,
On pg 5, look for the section which refers to The Big Place?
What is the Big Place and why is the Big Place doing what they are doing?
Share 1 advantage and disadvantage of their mission?
How will it contribute to the environment?
Hurry to save our earth!!!!

Guest Blogger on Racial Harmony Day - Singapore HeritageFest

Having fun playing "Zero-Point" :)

We are celebrating this year's Racial Harmony Day tomorrow! :)

Racial Harmony Day (Chinese: 种族和谐日), which was first launched on 21 July 1997, is celebrated annually on 21 July in Singapore. The event is to commemorate the 1964 Race Riots, which took place on 21 July 1964.
Racial Harmony Day also represents a day for schools to reflect on, and celebrate Singapore's success as a racially harmonious nation and society built on a rich diversity of culture and heritage.

In schools all across the nation on that day, students are encouraged to be dressed in their traditional costumes such as the Cheongsam and the Baju Kurung.
Traditional delicacies are also featured in the celebrations. Traditional games such as Kutih-kutih and zero point are played in schools, where inter-class competitions are sometimes organised.

This year, the Cultural Heritage Festival’s theme is, “Who’s Your Neighbour?”

In the past, neighbours were counted among our best friends. They were always there when we needed help and they were the ones we counted on should we run out of daily necessities.

Festivals were often celebrated with the sharing of goodies in one another’s house.
Over time, neighbourly life has taken a back seat in our hectic lives.
Singaporeans are encouraged to reconnect with each other through a series of activities.
Go on, check out the diversity in your neighbourhood today!

In class today, we read 2 texts in the Little Red Dot and did the comprehension questions that followed (LRD 14/7, p 7). The first passage was about a woman whose money ($1050!!) and belongings (her ATM cards and identity card) were stolen from her.

At first I thought that she was very unlucky, but when we discussed it in class, I realized that actually, she could have prevented it from happening. Do you know why? Well, firstly, she had put the money in a plastic holder in her side pocket. All $1050!! I can’t imagine having so much money. And if I did, I would NOT put it with my EZ link card in my pocket! Secondly, she fell asleep! Miss Wong said she must have been a hawker, because there was a line in the passage that said she boarded bus 66 at Jalan Besar Hawker Centre at 5.30 pm, probably after she closed her stall. Maybe that’s why she was so tired.

The second passage was about someone whose handphone got stolen from his own flat! He was a 28-year-old man. While he was on the computer in his unlocked flat, he heard a noise and turned around. A man was standing at the entrance, and he said that he was looking for the man’s flatmate. The man went into the bedroom to look for his flatmate but when he came out, he noticed that his handphone, which he had placed on the table, was missing. He confronted the stranger, who immediately returned the phone and fled. The man gave chase, but soon lost sight of him.

I guess it was a good thing that he returned the man’s handphone, but it was also quite silly to leave your door unlocked and to let a stranger walk into your house!

Low crime doesn’t mean no crime. I guess even though we think we’re in a safe place, we must still be very careful with our things and don’t give the thieves a chance!

A page from our LRD activity...

By Zara Trinidad

4 Joy did some interviewing today with this week's LRD. It was really noisy, but it was quite fun asking each other questions about the festivals that we celebrated. One of the "rules" was that we had to ask each other questions and answer in complete sentences, which was very hard!!

This is what I found out from 4 of my friends from this week's LRD p 16.




Name: Anne Lee Sook Yen
Race : Chinese
Name of festival celebrated: Chinese New Year
How is the festival celebrated:
She celebrates the Chinese New Year by going to other people’s houses and giving them Mandarin oranges. Adults give her red packets. Other people also come to her house and give Mandarin oranges.
What she loves most about this festival and why:
She loves the red packets because they have money inside them and she can save money.




Name : Chen Shu Xin
Race: Chinese
Name of festival celebrated : Moon Cake festival
How the festival is celebrated :She celebrates it by eating Moon Cakes and
playing with lanterns.
What she loves most about this festival and why :
She loves moon cakes because they are delicious.




Name : Chloe Ng
Race : Chinese
Name of festival celebrated : Chinese New Year
How the festival is celebrated : She celebrates Chinese New Year by going to other
people’s houses and collecting red packets. She will give them Mandarin oranges.
They celebrate it during January.
What she loves most about this festival and why :
She loves the food and different dishes because they are all delicious.




Name : Mon Theint
Race : Chinese (from Myanmar)
Name of festival celebrated : Christmas
How the festival is celebrated : She celebrates it by singing songs and giving gifts
to other people.
What she loves most about this festival and why:
She loves getting presents because she will get new things.

It's fun to interview friends!

7 ways to wash our hands

From LRD 30/6/2009

Before Term 3 started this week, my form teacher called my mother if we had travelled anywhere. My mother said that schools were really taken a lot of precautions to make sure everyone is healthy when school starts.

Yesterday, my teacher showed us some Powerpoint slides on hygiene. I guess it must be very important now to keep our hands clean because in today's LRD, there was an article about washing hands too!

Page 9 explains that your hands may look and feel clean, but it is still important to wash them properly and regularly. I like this paragraph:

"Just think of all the things you touched today-- food, the handle of the door, the toilet, the staircase railing-- and then think of all the other people who have touched those same things."

It made me shudder to think of all the germs that have landed on my hands today!! So gross!!

I remember that a long long time ago, when I was in Nursery, we sang a song about washing hands.

This video that we watched in class today brought back such memories!

National Orange Ribbon Celebrations

The National Orange Ribbon Celebrations (NORC) has kickstarted a month-long celebration in July to commemorate racial and religious harmony.

The theme for this year’s NORC event “Many Races, One Gracious Community”. This celebration seeks to promote the Olympic values of “Excellence, Friendship & Respect” in support of the Singapore Youth Olympic Games 2010. (You may remember the actions that you have learnt from this week's class assembly!)

A key feature of this year’s celebrations is to gather as many pledges from the people conveying our personal commitment to live in harmony as one gracious society. Every single pledge makes a difference! Grow the Movement! Make Your Pledge Today!

Follow this link http://orangeribbon.onepeople.sg/2009/ to make your pledge. By clicking on the button that says "Pledge here", you can write a pledge (which is like a promise) to live in harmony with your friends and other people around you.

For example, you could write that "I pledge to lend a helping hand to all those around me who need help so we can all learn well as a class." Let's show our that CCPS girls care about others around them!