STMARKS NEWSLETTER 8 (29 SEPTEMBER 2023)

PREP P.E.: RELAY GAMES

Our Prep students recently enjoyed engaging in unique games during their P.E. class. These games not only provided them with entertainment but also helped enhance their speed and strength. It's a class they eagerly anticipate each time.

With their friends enthusiastically cheering them on, they enthusiastically stacked cups into towering structures, racing against the clock to construct the tallest tower possible. This activity fostered coordination between their hands and eyes and taught them valuable teamwork skills. The resounding cheers and the radiant smiles on their faces upon completing the challenge were truly priceless.

We emphasize the importance of physical education because it not only contributes to the well-being of our students but also nurtures essential social skills that will support them in leading productive lives.

YEAR 1 MANDARIN: '拉 la' - PULL

In their Mandarin class, our Year 1 students learned a new word, '拉 la,' which means 'pull.' They now understand what it means and can write it. They also read stories on the board. This helps them practice reading and saying the words correctly. It's like listening to fun stories while learning.

The students had a cool activity where they got words and had to put them in order to make sentences. Feeling confident, the students also made their own sentences using '拉 la.' Telling their own stories in Mandarin and practicing how to write sentences.

In Year 1 Mandarin class, it's not just about learning words; it's also about enjoying stories and becoming good at using the words. 

YEAR 4 ENGLISH

As a routine, our Year 4 English class starts off with a review of classroom norms. As a warm-up, they play a game called Wordle: a word puzzle that helps them learn new words while having fun. After that, they practice spelling and learn new words from their current reading book. This helps them become better at English comprehension.

In a previous class, the Year 4 students wrote an addition to a part of a story where one of the characters went to a different planet. Their job was to imagine and write what happened to that character on the new planet, making up their own exciting story.

Now, the cool part! They take their written stories and turn them into comic strips. This means they draw pictures and write words to tell the story in a fun way. 

In Year 4 English class, they learn and have fun at the same time. It's all about using their imagination and getting better at English!

YEAR 8 MANDARIN: MOONCAKE FESTIVAL

Our Year 8 students recently had a fascinating experience in their Mandarin class. They learned all about the Mooncake Festival, a special celebration in Chinese culture, and even got to make their own mooncakes from scratch!

The Mooncake Festival, also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival, is a Chinese tradition celebrated on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. Families come together, enjoy the full moon, and eat mooncakes, which are delicious pastries. To make their learning more exciting, the Mandarin teacher decided to involve the students in a fun activity.

The teacher provided the students with different ingredients like taro, green bean paste, and red bean paste, so they could make their own mooncakes. This was a great way for them to practice speaking Mandarin while learning about Chinese culture. They had to talk to each other and follow the instructions in Mandarin.

One of the most fun parts of this activity was that the students could be creative. They could choose how they wanted their mooncakes to look.  Through this activity, the students not only learned about the Mooncake Festival but also got to feel more connected to Chinese culture. Our Year 8 students learned that learning a language is not just about words—it's also about discovering new cultures and traditions.

YEAR 10 CHEMISTRY: ACTIVE COMPONENTS OF ASPIRIN

In this practical session the Year 10 students used a variety of separation techniques to obtain the active drug from an aspirin tablet. The students learned that aspirin tablets not only contain the drug acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) but a number of other substances. These substances are added to help make the tablet easier to swallow, digest, and be absorbed by the body. They also discovered that when pharmaceutical companies make medical drugs that the amount of drug in each tablet has to be carefully controlled.

The students took five aspirin tablets and crushed the tablets with a pestle and mortar. They then transferred the powder to a beaker and added 70 mL of water. They heated the water to dissolve all of the aspirin and then filtered the solution to remove the other substances that were undissolved. They then allowed the solution to cool, and as the temperature decreased crystals of aspirin were formed. The students were then able to filter the crystals and dry them. Having weighed the tablets before crushing and the crystals after separation they found that about 40% of each tablet was the active drug aspirin.