STELLAR Programme : Primary 1 (Part 1)

There has been far too many feedback from supposedly concerned parents from years ago that Singapore education only breeds "squares"... that the national curriculum needs to be tweaked to nurture students who can think out of the box.. students who can express themselves eloquently.. students who can take ownership of their projects and learn leadership skills, are creative and many other interesting must-haves for the Singaporean child. Our national education has been compared to those of other countries far too often. Parents rave how the national education in other countries support a child's holistic growth in both values and academia apart from envying how the children turn out to become confident public speakers who can offer thought-provoking insights to ignite constructive discussions, can think out of the square box and they never seem to be left behind. It seemed that the national (preschool to high school) curriculum of every other country is the envy of Singaporean parents. 

Singapore's Ministry of Education's English department and research team then came up (together with designated publishers) with a "new" English curriculum they named, STELLAR. STELLAR stood for STrategies for English Language Learning And Reading. 

Despite the initial outcry from parents for more creative ways of engaging children in the learning process in primary schools all over Singapore, instead of the old-school method of rote-learning to nurture more rounded children... many parents began to doubt if this change in the national primary English curriculum would work. 

STELLAR became the hype of the nation when it first started with only a few schools piloting this initiative for their students. Other schools joined in the bandwagon and eventually all schools will be equipped with materials to execute STELLAR literacy programme effectively in all schools. This directly means that teachers too need to be trained.

This post is meant as sharing a personal experience with the STELLAR programme. The lack of real-time information on the said programme made it too vague for parents to understand the effectiveness of learning the English Language. On the contrary, for the first in a long time, I felt that the Ministry of Education did something right. STELLAR was a hit with my children and many other children of our acquaintance. Here's sharing how this very interactive English programme changed how students in Singapore learnt English.

The most common complaint of the STELLAR programme was how un-structured it was and next was how parents are kept in the dark of what's been taught in class. 

In our personal experience, we were briefed during Primary 1 orientation on how STELLAR was going to be carried out. There were slides during the parents' briefing, there was a tour to the classrooms, there were children's work all over the classroom walls and corridors and there was a complete handout (like the one pictured above) of what was to be covered for the term/semester! We were very impressed! Scroll down to see more details on the items to be covered with the children in class. These are the detailed outlines of what the children and the parents can expect their children to be learning in the coming months.

There was a list of books/titles detailed in the handout given to the parents on the first day of school. No, the children do not have to purchase any of them. These are provided for by the school (used in school) in the form of big books (large sized story books suitable for classroom reading). The children are not expected to have read them prior to attending Primary 1, nor should it be of any pressing concern to parents at all. The books have beautiful illustrations, some titles are fiction and some are real stories and others are familiar rhyming books to recap on combinations of phonetic sounds that may have been done in preschool but in general all the books are easy to read-along together or for children to read on their own.

A spelling list was also given out to the children, all words that will be tested for first term of the new year. (ie. 10 weeks) The words were not too challenging for this school and all taken in context with the stories they will be covering in the different units as detailed in the given lesson plan.

Despite the many parents who have the notion that this "Teach Less, Learn More" effort from the Ministry REALLY teaches the children less (during curriculum hours), we found that the teachers had to prepare even more materials and resources to ensure the programme ran smoothly and most importantly the delivery of the programme would be fun for the children, without compromising on the fact that children will still need to know the basics of the literacy from reading to writing to comprehending. STELLAR books come with activity worksheets & teaching ideas but teachers/schools are given free rein to add on creative and interesting project ideas to bring the learning experience to a different level. Here are some samples (yes, you can peek at them) for your perusal to gauge "standard" in case you think that your children may not be prepared for early formal education. Children who have attended preschool (kindergarten) should have no major problem in completing the written assignments.

As you can see here, these class assignments are projected at an age-appropriate level so students who are advanced will have no problem with them.. students who have grasp concepts can manage them.. students who are slightly weak in language can catch up eventually. The words used in the crossword puzzle activity for example, are words taken from the big book, Dan The Flying Man. If you have noticed, this activity covers the nouns in the story. The teachers will introduce nouns as : people, places, animals and things.

For children who may still require help with spelling words, written assignments vary in difficulty and some worksheets do come with helping words.

My children had fun learning prepositions with games conducted in class and role play during speech and drama class where they get to re-enact Dan, flying over the different things in the story.

Teachers recap on phonetic combination sounds which children may or may not have already learnt in preschool. These efforts, (to us) are great measures so teachers can distinguish the independent readers from the children who are still work-in-progress.  

Like this sample worksheet below, children revise the double consonant blends...

... and this activity encourages children to listen to the short vowel sounds in words.

Punctuation is also an important factor when learning how to write simple compositions. These are also revised at Primary 1 level to complete the fundamentals of learning the English Language.

Look out for Part 2 of this Primary 1 STELLAR sharing, where I will share other resources from other good schools. In Singapore, all schools are good schools. 

Teachers are all trained under the same institute, however there are many who surpass basic teaching quality because of their passion for teaching young children and also their passion for the English Language. 

In Part 2, I will commend some exemplary  school initiatives that complement teaching of English the STELLAR way. Check back soon.

Meanwhile, have a peek at this book Dan, The Flying Man with this photobook. 

> Dan, The Flying Man Photobook.

I like this animation (video) from zarahalexis.

> Dan, The Flying Man Video.

Watch this video to see how these children sing Dan, The Flying Man song in class.
By Lily Hoi.

> Dan, The Flying Man Song.

Montessori Cultural Explorations

Cultural subjects include history, geography, art, physical science, cosmology, music and physical movement. The aim of studying culture is to allow the child to experience their place in the universe. They begin by exploring similarities between their culture and others, and then have appreciation and respect for differences. They learn how all beings are fundamentally related and discover ways to feel they are significant beings in this world.

In Singapore primary education, there is what parents term the considerable leap of academic challenges from the honey-mooning phase of lower primary education ie. Primary 1 and Primary 2... to the inevitable coming-of-age phase in Primary 3. Many parents lament that their children are either caught off-guard come CA1 or SA1 results or that they are shocked at what the just graduated from P2s hafta swallow whole at P3... especially with THAT one additional subject... yes, I am referring to Science.

Inclusive in the 5 areas of Montessori Education is the Cultural Explorations. It is precisely, because of this area that Montessorian children are often observed to also be ahead in Science, apart from the tested and proven Math and Language areas. Montessori's Cultural curriculum is in-depth and offers plenty of opportunities for extension activities where directress can bring the wide world of Science into the classroom. Montessorian children also enjoy excursions to destinations rich in nature so children can observe and apply what they have worked on in class. This complements the appreciation of nature in real life and not just from books and resources.

For the natural born scientists and the nature lovers, this is surprising, for to them... Science was something they never had to learn at all. Whether or not you want to take the chance to eventually find out if your young ones are adept at this subject, you can expose them to this subject at an early stage where they won't even know they're actually learning Science.

And no.. i'm not talking about just doing the experiments. But yes, you can do that too. Hehee.. 

1. Concrete Introduction Using models (3D)

You can introduce children to a variety of Science concepts by using 3D model animals and objects for concrete learning experiences. To name a few are those animal packs you can easily purchase from your neighbourhood stationery store at less than 5 to 10 dollars a pack depending on the size of the animals in a pack. There are a few packs mainly, farm animals, wild animals, dinosaurs, ocean creatures, creepy crawlies and the likes.

Introduce one animal/object a week/day depending on your schedule and you can see that your children will learn so many names and shape (physical characteristics) of the animals/objects you have shown to them and shared (info) about them. For items can be, things in the bathroom, kitchen utensils, at the garden (etc)... you get to decide your own theme for the month(s).

After which, you can follow up by a trip to the zoo or the bird park or the farm (etc) to reinforce the concept you have introduced. For household items, a trip to the hardware store or even big supermarkets can be a fun educational trip for them. Engage them in discovery and expand their vocabulary by asking them the physical characteristics of all the stuff they've been introduced to.

2. Abstract Follow-up (2D)

After the concrete introduction, you can follow-up the activities with worksheets or craft work. Here's when the concrete moves on with the abstract. There are loads of resources readily available on the web. If you're keen to buy, there are also gazillions of resources off the shelves out in good stores that you can purchase.

You can also get puzzles, start in small pieces a pack for the tots and slowly upgrade to more pieces as they advance in skill or age whichever comes earlier.

This is one for early learners. I got a few boxes in different themes for my girls when they were tots. Still in pristine condition till today.

As your child pieces the puzzle, just name the part. No need to go into functions of each part. Just one word. Especially for the younger learners. They will absorb the vocab real quick. By the next play time, you'd be surprised they already know the parts to the whole fish.

For the above picture, just say "head" when you place the 1st piece, say "body" when fixing the 2nd piece and "tail" when the final piece is fixed.

Flashcards can be introduced regardless if you're a flashing-cards-advocate or just using flash cards as a revision tool in support of what has been shared earlier with the 3D lessons.

3. 4D (Yes, 4D...)

4D refers to whole puzzles that are able to be stripped down to pieces part by part, to learn more about body parts or bones within an animal. Very very fun for the older or the more advanced learners.

Here's one that i have from a purchase sometime back. Extremely interesting..

4. Music/Rhymes

Yes, early learners are attracted to rhythm and rhyme and can easily grasp simple concept songs from numbers to alphabets to animals (etc). One such rhyme for learning say... about the introduction to vegetables.

"One little pea in a pea pod pressed.."

" One grew two grew and so did all the rest..."

"They grew and they grew and did not stop..."

"Until one day, the pod went pop!"

What better way too than having a nice colourful book with hand-gesture suggestions to accompany those chant-like rhymes? Here's one i managed to pick up from Borders for buds_chubs on one of our town trips.

  

5. Fun Extension Activities

Extension activities are what children love most. They usually never realize that they are learning for such activity extensions aim to be very fun, allows them to be very involved learners and exposes them to experimentation.

Try cooking for example. It does not have to be something you have to do over stove and fire. It can be something very simple for tots to do... like if we were to go back to the vegetable theme for the month, children can have a hand at preparing a vegetable salad. Simple preps and on your ingredient list ito get is very few. Children can start off with play-cutting with wooden knife and fruits like this ones.

Prefer plastic ones so it'd be easier to clean? No sweat! There are plenty in the market... as in, the shops lar! LOL! I have a huge ziploc bag full of them for my girls to work with when they were younger and they are all still in fabulous condition! :)

Allow children to experiment with plastic or butter knives to cut the veggies or if you're doing a dessert fruit salad, they can also chop soft fruit like bananas for instance. What nice way to include a lesson or two on kitchen safety, aye? Get the little brats to add whip cream or ice-cream to fruity desserts, sprinkle hundreds and thousands (etc). Now what better way than to have your cake and eat it? Literally..

6. Decide/Plan on a theme

Themes make early introduction to Science systematic so you can further up to make the learning fun. If you're introducing different types of flowers... buy a few roses and baby's breath and carnations, dry them up and add one or two dashes of lovely aromatherapy oil and viola, you get potpourri. A trip to the Botanical Gardens will be fruitful for this theme. Why should children only know the response to changes of a plant eg. a mimosa plant only when they are in P3... when they can jolly well touch plenty of them outside and have them tell you that it was their touch that did it? What better way to blow those dandelions and ask your child to tell you how you think more dandelions can grow?

If your child is a photography enthusiast, allow them to take snapshots of the flowers... print them out to make their own flash cards / matching cards. No better way to identify flowers than having the real picture isn't it? Because they made the cards themselves it will be all the better to remember those flower names too! Just like these ones..

I have these few on animals i think cut-out from old magazines. So don't throw those beautiful National Geographic magazines, peeps!

I used them to make matching animal cards suitable for a reading and non-reading child. How cool is that?

I made a separate set for teaching animal body parts. You can do this too for all the different types of animals and non-living things too! You can even catogorize your animals into mammal sets, amphibian sets.. (etc). The possibilities are endless!

*The animal cards are available in Montessori classrooms for children to work with.* 

7. Conclusion

Now, learning won't really be complete without a definite conclusion would it? You see... the early introduction of concepts/activities should have objectives lest they would just pass on by like regular play-time. Well, technically it IS play-time... but in this case it is learning-through-play-time. *wink* But they don't know that yet. Hah! So, you can ensure this finale by perhaps getting them to colour a couple of relevant assignments.. by re-playing or role-playing those sessions and get them to show you / tell you what they know. This way you know they know what you've been wanting them to know...  

Who said early science preps should commence only in P2... when we can actually begin from birth? Being here in this forum just means we are that kiasu, right? So why wait? If you are keen to start on early teaching concepts of practically anything, just embark on it. Get those keywords smacking on those little lips like it means something... for later on it WILL mean something anyhow. Believe me, they'll thank you for it. 

Hard to find stuff? No excuse. With the number of Daiso stores growing like mushrooms and those novelty items you can get from those ever-so-frequent pasar malams (night bazaars), one can start on anything with one's children at anytime. They come pretty cheap too! Here's a set of the most realistic looking fruits i've got from Daiso. Yes, $2 for each!

Realistic size wise too! Still in mint collection. :) As an extension to introducing the names of the fruits to the children, you can make word strip cards for them to match to the corresponding fruit as well. Such exercises also promote sight reading in children.

Honestly, the gift of love is pretty much... time.

Your time.

So, make time if you have the time. Your children will love you for it! Make learning fun....... while you still can that is! Ahahakz! LOL!

*Final note :

*Montessorian children get to enjoy many of these activities in the classroom. Science explorations in a Montessori classroom spans broadly from zoology to botany and later even get to move on to early geography as well, where children learn about landforms and even natural disasters.

Trust me to add this on, uh? Well, can't help it. Hahaa! 

*Montessorian children learn beyond pre-school and whoever said it doesn't prepare children for P1 should research more into it. There's P3/P4 Science introductions in those 'fun' lessons, yo! Geography is only taught much later too! So before i end this article, just a quick nod to all fellow Montessorians, cheers!

Resources & Tips For Oral Exams / Show & Tell Presentations

Different schools have different ways of preparing children for oral examinations. Different schools also begin these preparations at different pace (consistent practice / last minute preps ) and these preparations largely also depends on the teachers assigned to your children's classes.  My girls have been extremely blessed. Their teachers prepare them sufficiently for this part of the English Exam. As parents, we have continuously been informed not to worry as the teachers are here to teach... it is their responsibility. Not the parents'. 

My DD2's class uses this series from Marshall Cavendish. I said "DD2's class" because I am unsure if the other classes were informed to purchase them as well.  But yes, her teacher prepares them for these things. 

 

 

 

 

 

Should you wish to help your child at home (in case the school does not adequately prepare them for this) or even if it is just that you wanna pump in the extra boost, apart from what they have been practicing in school.. you can shop for resources to help your child. There is quite a variety to choose from. This is one of them and somewhat an all in one. 

 

 

 

 

 

The primary school series from OXFORD Primary Essentials are pretty impressive as well. 

When I was coaching a struggling P4 boy with his oral and literacy skills... he was shy in his mom's presence so it was challenging to get him to read (the way I have been teaching him to) in front of her, each time she came to fetch him. So with his consent, I recorded his passage reading sessions on condition the videos did not show his face. Since... well, oral was audio after all... i agreed. From these videos, it helped the mother (Chinese educated) track his marked progress. Why progress and not success? Because he was a failing student who was in the midst of drowning within the cracks. However he was still undetected; because his class had too many children for the teacher to effectively zoom in to the children who required extra help with their work. They do attend Learning Support Programmes; these children... but it was not sufficient for their foundation from early years to lower primary was weak and they seemed to always need to play catch-up. Hence, in Upper Primary they just sail along the way the know how. 

I remember sharing this (show and tell experience) in another thread but will share it again here should anyone find it useful to try it out at home with your children. We were very enlightened about the school's practice sessions (for show and tell) during one of the school's Parent-As-Partners initiatives. The MT department invited all parents (not compulsory) to sit in a practice session where about 6 children will present. Our slots were scheduled according to index number and only when it came to our children's turns to present to the class and invited parents.

All the children in class were taught to be respectful during their friends' presentation and after every presentation, the teacher invited classmates to feedback.. yes, feedback to the presenter. The teacher also prepared smiley cards for every child in the class (one happy face and the other a sad one) to allow the presenter to see what or how the audience appreciated his/her presentation. 

1. Voice projection... loud.. soft.. too soft.. or just right..

Then a show of smiley faces (cards) to express that the friend presented well or a show of sad faces to indicate that the friend's presentation could use more zest. The children who raised the sad face cards were then invited to offer their thought on what they thought of the presentation and how/what they thought the presenter could improve on. 

2. Show and tell props... too much.. too few.. adequate..

Or perhaps something interesting? Similar to the 1st feedback round, peers are encouraged to give feedback to presenter. Children are encouraged to bring something to tell. Well, of cos since it IS show and tell.  Besides, these props help children to remember the sequence of their presentation.

3. Language/grammar usage?

Was the grammar used in the right context? Any good words used during presentation? The extra I asked DD2 to include was humour. You see after watching so many presentations, it can get pretty routine. The injection of humour perks the audience and later on the examiner as well. Most importantly, no Singlish. 

4. Are the children adequately prepared?

Children were encouraged to memorize their content and speak confidently while facing the class. Eye on the people and not the floor... or at least not too long. A prepared child will exude confidence as he/she will know what to say. ie. content wise, already there... unless if total mental block which indirectly goes to show that these consistent school practices are indeed extremely useful for children especially for those who may not necessarily have home support.

5. Expression? (etc)

The soft skills the children were indirectly taught while preparing for this presentation and the gradual preparations done with the teacher were awesome. Holistic education IS possible to be inculcated in classrooms and during classroom hours. Our school visit during the show and tell was proof of that... on top of what we hear from our children's sharings of/from school and what we can see from the projects or the work they bring home. 

My P5 DD1 experienced something different, they had to recite poetry in class for oral skills last year. 

My girls are not from fancy schools ... They are attending/have attended neighbourhood schools within proximity of our residence. Hence, suffice to say that all schools are good schools (they can jolly-well be!) but......... of course, it's the individual teachers that make the difference. Every single one of them... for together they can make a great team to form good schools. 

So here's to all the fabulous teachers out there.. you know who you are.