Going to take a break away from parenting and schooling stuff for today's post.
Recently, I was caught in a bad jam near Mid Valley megamall. I wanted to find out whether it was an exhibition that was causing it so I surfed over to the Mid Valley megamall website. I didn't find any exhibition posted that day but I found their Live Update for car park bays. I think that's a really useful feature. I wish I had known about it earlier. That's why I decided to share it here today.
Many of my friends and relatives have often mentioned to me that they give up on the idea of going to the mall because of car park woes. I think they would find this car park bays live update useful too. It shows you a map of the mall car park with a 30 second live update of the bays available so you can plan your drive there. Nice!
Here are some screenshots I took from the website. On the right are the available parking pays. Plenty as you can see now since it is 7.45am at the point of writing. The numbers will be different by noon. Below is a map of the parking zones. I tested out the update by checking the numbers as we drove past one day. It was accurate. Fantastic. Now, I can plan my trips there.
I hope this post was useful for you. Share it if it was.
While I was researching the translation from Chinese to pinyin and with English meaning for yesterday's post, I came across a very useful and interesting site which I would like to share.
This site called Purple Culture has lots of interesting Chinese tools including the Chinese character to Pinyin converter which I was searching for.
It also has a Chinese Character Worksheet Generator. Now, there are many sites out there which provide this Chinese Character worksheet tool, I rather like this one because it does not require any registration, is free and is in English.
Here's how to use this Chinese Character Worksheet Generator. First navigate to the site Purple Culture and click on the Chinese Tools tab. You will see a page like the following one which shows you all the tools available on the site. Do browse through them if you have the time. They are all interesting and useful. However in this post, I will be talking about the Practice Sheet Generator. Click on that link as shown in the red arrow in the screen shot below.
Your next steps are as follows (Please refer to the screenshot below with the corresponding numbers).
Select "stroke order". This is useful so that an example of the stroke order for the Chinese character will be shown on the worksheet. (Updated: Stroke order is no longer a free feature so leave it out if you don't have a paid account)
Under "No. of traceable characters" select "3" or more if you like. This will print out grey scale characters for you to trace before attempting to write on your own.
The default font is "Kai Ti". That looks good so leave that alone. Finally, click on the "Generate" button.
I input the following characters which means "I love you" and here is a sample of my Chinese Character Worksheet generated in pdf for me to print out and use. As you can see, it has the stroke order at the top of each character and 3 grey characters for me to practice by tracing before attempting to write on my own.
Cool right? This is very useful for Chinese Mandarin learners as well as parents coaching their kids in Chinese.
I also like the "Vocabulary List Generator" in the Chinese tools link. It allows you to generate a list of chosen vocab (which you can type in or copy and paste in). The list gives you the vocab in Chinese, pinyin and with English translation.
There has been a lot of talk and emphasis on the extra English paper in UPSR 2016. However, one should take note that there is significant change in the Science paper as well. Just like the English paper, the Science paper has also been split into two papers. The difference is, English is now counted as two subjects but Science is still considered as one subject.
Notwithstanding that, there is no denying that the Science paper is now two separate papers, one hour for each paper whereas previously it used to be one paper to be done in one hour 15 minutes. In other words, there is now more emphasis on Science Paper 2 (which used to be Part 2 of the one Science paper).
The new Science Paper 2 has 8 subjective questions which are broken into sub-parts eg. Q1a (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), Q2b, Q3c(i), (ii), Q4d(i), (ii) and so on and so forth.
Science Paper 2 usually test the students knowledge on conducting experiments.
Now, here's the tip. For SJKC students, do make sure your child knows all of the following terms. Not only memorize the terms but know and understand what they mean. Previous format, may use these terms to ask the questions directly. The new format may ask questions based on your understanding of the terms and may not use the terms to ask questions.
If you are a non-Chinese speaking parent who send your child to SJKC, you should also recognize and know these terms so you can help your child. In Science, we can teach our kids concepts in English and then get them to learn the important terms in Chinese.
To answer paper 2 questions on experiments, the student MUST know and UNDERSTAND the Science terms associated with conducting experiments. Do not be confused or use the terms interchangeably.
Here is a free printable of the Science terms in Chinese. Pinyin as well as English translation has been provided for non-Chinese families who send their kids to SJKC to help mum or dad assist their child with homework or revision. The printable is for our website members only.
Members may go to the link below to download the free printable.
Note: Find the printable that looks like the image on the right to download and print for your home use.
Test Yourself: After you have learned the terms, go to this page for sample questions. Here's what to do.
Go to this link: Bank Soalan SJK (C) Pei Hwa (They have an excellent collection of past year papers for download)
Select "English Version"
Click on 2015
Click on Std 6 (Last green tab)
Click on the Sains Tahun 6 tab (That's the 7th yellow tab counting down from the top)
Click on Sains Paper 2 (any month)
See how many of the terms you can spot in the questions. (The questions are bilingual so you won't have trouble understanding them. Note that they are in the old format still as the school has not put up the 2016 ones yet)
Study these terms well and half the battle is won in answering Science Paper 2 questions on experiments. Those in Upper Primary, Std 4 and 5 can start learning these terms to familiarize themselves. By std 6, they should know and understand these terms well.
Meanwhile, here's a YouTube video to quickly and easily explain Scientific Variables to kids. (The first three items in the list of terms in our printable).
This post is for parents who are trying to help their kids with the Chinese Paper 1 for UPSR 2016. Non-Chinese speaking parents can refer to this to inform tutors on which area to teach should they lack the focus.
Before you read this post, please refer to our previous post on the UPSR 2016 Chinese Paper Format What's New. This will give you an idea of the new format for the Chinese Pemahaman or Paper 1 of the Chinese Paper for UPSR.
In short, there is now more emphasis on Paper one. The time allotted has been increased from 50 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes while the total marks for this paper is now 50 instead of 40.
Previously the paper had 40 objective questions, 1 mark each. Now the paper is divided into two parts. The first part has 20 objective questions, 1 mark each. While the 2nd part has 5 subjective questions. Some of these questions have sub questions so there are actually 9 questions in all if you count all the sub parts. 30 marks for the 9 subjective questions.
The main difference is previously there were 2 passages. In the new format, there are 3 passages. The third passage is rather long and requires subjective answers.
Previous Format Chinese Pemahaman Paper 1 40 Marks
Q1-Q30 - Various Multiple Choice questions
Q31-35 - Passage followed by multiple choice questions
Q36-40 - Passage followed by multiple choice questions
New Format Chinese Pemahaman Paper 1 Part 1 (20 marks)
Q1-Q4 - Various Multiple Choice questions
Q5-Q12 - Passage followed by multiple choice questions
Q13-Q20 - Ancient Chinese Passage followed by multiple choice questions Part 2 (30 marks)
Q21 a,b,c,d - Subjective questions
Q22a,b, Q23a,b, Q24, Q25 - Long Passage (about 2 pages) followed by subjective questions (see example below)
In the recent UPSR diagnostic test, this is what happened. Students score part 1 easily obtaining 18 or 19 out of 20 marks but were pulled down by Part 2 ie the subjective part which has a higher weightage in terms of marks.
It is therefore clear, that emphasis should be given on how to answer this section ie Chinese Paper 1 (Pemahaman) Part 2. The strategy for answering UPSR 2016 New Format Chinese Paper 1 on Pemahaman is therefore to do a lot of practice exercises on this part of the paper especially questions 22-25 which comes after the long third passage. There are no shortcut methods. Lots of reading and practice required.
Subjective Questions 22-25 that comes after the long 3rd passage under the new format for Chinese Pemahaman or Chinese Paper 1 in UPSR 2016 (Sample taken from the Skor 8A book by Hup Lick Publishing (M) Sdn Bhd)
Tip for non-Chinese speaking families: When buying workbooks, look for one that says 理解练习 This means Practice Pemahaman. Look inside the book to make sure it is the new format practice ie with subjective questions (not objective ones) and make sure sample answers are provided.
Example of workbooks using the new format long passage followed by subjective questions
for practice pemahaman or 理解练习
Extra Tip:
To improve on Q13-Q20 on ancient Chinese Passage, watch Chinese history cartoons like the Three Kingdoms. This is to help improve on the general knowledge to help in the understanding of such passages
I run a parents Facebook group, the Malaysia Primary and Secondary School Parents group and one of the things that parents often ask is "Where can I buy......?" For example.....
To answer all your questions, there this one place where you can find all of the above and more! Shopee, your one stop mobile marketpace where you can buy and sell in less than 30 sec, anytime, anywhere. Shopee is available for both iOS and Android users. Shopee marketplace has a wide range of items catered for all age groups. In fact, you can easily list and sell your items as well with just a few steps. Aside from that, Shopee is safe, fun and convenient.
Apart from just shopping on the app, you can also shop in the Shopee Mall. It is so convenient and with Shopee Guarantee, you can rest assure that you are protected as a buyer all the time.
Speaking of Shopee Guarantee, there is an added security whenever you make a purchase on the app because Shopee becomes a middle person to ensure you as a buyer receive the items first before releasing the payment to the seller. With Shopee Guarantee you can request for a refund or return the item if you are unsatisfied with it. The best news is there is no middle person charge, w hich means the app is totally free and has no hidden commission fees.
Another great feature of the app is you can Chat with the seller directly to find out more about the product or bargain on the price before buying. One best feature I like is you can shop by categories, through search or by browsing all. That's how I found all of the above items for kids.
One more thing about Shopee, it’s not all about shopping. If you overspend on shopping, you can always become a seller yourself. All you need to do is just take a photo, upload it, fill the details and you've become a seller. Easy peasy. There's no download cost, no listing fee or commission.
Find out more about Shopee by heading over to their official site to discover how to buy and sell on mobile or download now to give it a try.
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Going to take a break away from parenting and schooling stuff for today's post.
