Observations and Communication

Blogwork(classwork)

TIS!!👇 is what we feel should represent the Chinese New Year. We have used:

GOLD

gold has the meaning of riches in mandarin, and the colour represents luck and fortune, which we will expect to receive in the new year.

TARO

taro has the meaning of a new beginning, and it will represent a fresh start for the new year.

'FU DAO'

this word is written on red paper, and the word is pronounced as 'fu', which means fortune. writing it upside-down will be read as 'fu dao', literal meaning as the word 'fu' upside-down, but it also means good fortune will come to you and you will be blessed.

#3 - little things

ohaiyo! we're back! how are you qtpies doing? 

the flowers are all blooming fine and beautidul, we're doing fine!

this week's about little things, can you guess what we are gonna talk about?

yes! we are going to talk about details and observations! 

well lets us hear from our first flower, jinn ♡

"Time for me to share what i learnt again!! So basically, this time, we were taught how to improve our blog and reflections. We can add pictures to further explain our point, as a picture speaks a thousand words. We should also write our feelings and opinions when writing our reflection, not listing down the events that we did in class as that would be more of a report. We also improved our observation skills by stating actions which prove when a person is tired, hungry, is a good swimmer, etc. We were also made to think of the kind of environment we have in RVHS. I think that having good observation skills is important. By sharpening our observation skills, we can find out even more information about things without others informing us about it, by infering from the things that we see. For example, if a friend were to be feeling down or is having problems and needs our help but is too shy to say so, we should be able to tell through his/her actions, speech or facial expressions and render help to that person."

you could just feel her excitement when it comes to sharing with you guys! 

let's move on to our second flower, juen ♡ 

"For this lesson, we learn how to be better (little) observers. It is an important ability to be aware of what happens around you, for you can deduce many small details of the person. There are many ways to tell, for feel that something is wrong. Observing others can also make yourself conscious of your own behavior, or those small little things and habits you do, to improve on them or break them. We were also taught to write better blogs. It isn't just about reporting what happened, since it will be boring and monotonous that way. You have to add in your own thought, your feelings, and what you've learnt. Nobody knows what you're thinking, so a blog is for you to share your experiences, which can vary differently from your peers. Writing a blog can also allow you to think about what you did, and learn something from that. It prompts you to do a bit more of thinking and reflection then just simply forgetting the experience. By noticing a bit more, you can deduce the person's feelings and even PERSONALITY! Just like those cool spy movies! "

we read juen's thoughts like boomz

lets us move on to our fourth flower, qing ♡ 

"For this lesson, we learnt about observation skills and our teach used examples from the worksheet like : people who don't eat breakfast

Observation: rush to recess, hugging the stomach in the morning. I think that this lesson's purpose is to build on our lesson last week. After learning that we shouldn't be judgmental, we learn that we must still be observant so that we can know more about other people even though they didn't make it known. I find that it is useful because if our family or friends are feeling unhappy, we are able to notice it and comfort them. I also feel that being observant is good because we will be more aware about our surroundings. By being observant, I find that we would smarter as we can infer."

i just like the way she writes because its so summerised with all those facts ready to be taken in!

well lastly, lets have our fifth flower, xinn ♡ aka me

"for this lesson, we were told to observe the people around us for clues like 'who doesn't eat breakfast?' according to our teacher, there are signs and clues that tells us about a person, thus little things and details that everyone does is important. for example, maybe people who skips breakfast will feel tired and sleepy during lessons etc. personally i notice little details alot, like it just comes to me. when i walk around i'll just be able to spot little details at times and my mum says im useful when it comes to retracing steps to find missing things because i'll be able to say when was something last seen and that would spark somebody's memory and the thing missing would be found! partically this isn't entirely my credit but i can remember and notice all those little things so observing isn't a hard thing for me!"

well yes i have eyes that can spot little things yet ironically my eyes are small o.o

too bad for me ☹ 

well thats somewhat all for this week! do you wanna try guessing the next one?

comment away!

xoxo ♡ 

#4 - poor things😨😰😔

hi it's us again! 

this post is an addition to the previous one, because we discovered something really saddening :-(

let's all take a moment to emphathise with the poor in singapore ☹☹☹☹ 

although we don't usually see beggars asking for money or starving children on the streets of Singapore like other countries, there are still a lot of people who are living under the poverty line. 

In this article, Mr Ang has to provide for the 6/7 mouths in his family with the mere income of a taxi driver's.

Although he has 5 children and two of them are of working age, he still has to provide for them as they are visually impaired. 

We feel that Mr Ang is very persevering and hardworking, providing for his family despite the many obstacles and problems he has to face in life, which includes taking care of his visually impaired children. 

Yet, he did not give up on life, which is really impressive!!! 

We feel that we should learn from his determination to support his family through his own ability. Although he is experiencing such circumstances, he did not choose to beg for money or just stay at home and grumble on about the unfortunate things in his life.

Instead, he chose to continue on with life, strive to take care of his family members and struggle to earning a living. 

It is thankful that Mr Ang's case is being recognised now, as we believe that since there would be more kind hearted souls aware of his condition and lend him and his family a helping hand. 

We are sure that there are many more families out there who are still suffering in silence, in need of our attention and help. 

Having once came across with the thought that money can solve everything, we do not think that just money will solve the problems of poverty in Singapore. 

We have to be empathetic with the poor people in Singapore as they did not choose to be poor, but were just born with an unlucky fate. 

so what do you think about the poor in singapore now? comment away!

we'll be back again next week! 

xoxo♡ 

TIME TO USE OUR EYES👀 (Observation challenge)

a) After school, in class. The environment is very chaotic, people look confused as to whether they need to stay back for the CNY decoration. There are also noisy since it's after lesson and they are trying to get the attention of their group mates as the noise level is very HIGH. Some are using their phones some are talking to their friends and there also people decorating the classroom. They are grouped together with their cliques, or with people who have common motive for staying, in this case, CNY decoration.

b) Happy because we got to play with the whole class during P.E and it's very good for class bonding. We really had a lot of fun! We played captain's ball and it helps to build our team spirit. She's smiling and using hand gestures to show her happiness.

c)We have special features in the class room such as the whiteboard. It's special because it is the place where teachers write down their knowledge which is intended to be passed down to the students. This knowledge is then absorbed by the students into our memory. Which in short, is special and important for our learning. 

d) The passion and the class spirit everyone has to stay back after school to complete the CNY decorations together. It seems very heart-warming as people help one another to hang up the decorations, and to make their own decorations like fish and lanterns.

e) School live is supposingly stress but in rv, it is very fun and eventful as rvians are all very passionate about doing our jobs dutifully. We work hard together, and strive together. We all do our part and make River Valley a very condusive environment. Everyone plays and study equally. We are not a school whereby the students are just 'computers' that generate answers. We have fun together as well

Happiness:

This is a photo of our class chair person(XINN!!!) hanging up the decoration. We have just started and everyone is eager to finish and thus are participating enthusiastically.

School spirit:

 

This is a picture of the different houses coming up on stage to sing our school song during our 58th school anniversary.

It shows school spirit as they are all from different houses but come together as a group.

Life:

This is a picture about people jumping on the beach, having the best time of their lives.

Life is all about having fun and living the life you want without any hesitations. It is about letting yourself free and soaring as high as you want such as jumping at the beach or trying to reach the sun.

Fear: 

This is a picture of Juen when she saw a cockroach on the floor I think she's too shocked to react and thus she stood on the spot -- giving us the chance to take this photo. She is also clenching her fist like as if controlling herself from opening her eyes to avoid the cockroach 

#3 - not to take things for granted

hi guys!!!! how are you doing? ☻ 

 

after reading the article from the last post, we were yet again shown another picture of a baby and a vulture, and give two situations of different beggars!

let's listen to our first flower, jinn ♡

"Today we learnt more about poverty. As a warm up activity, we were shown a famous yet sad and pitiful picture of a vulture and a toddler taken in africa, where the toddler was the prey. I learnt that many people in Africa are living below the poverty line and are dying due to hunger and diseases, which could not be cured due to the lack of money. It leads me to be thankful of the luxurious food choices that we have in Singapore, and that we would not have to experience such hunger and pain. I also learnt that it was not easy to help these people and donate some money as the governments are corrupted and a large amount of money would become theirs'. Also, we were shown two pictures. One of a man begging on the streets, holding a sign that explained his pitiful plight, and another of a woman carrying a baby and asking for something, which was most probably money, from a man reading the newspapers. The majority of the class had chosen to donate to the woman originally, for we had thought that the woman had to feed another mouth other than her's, and needed the money much more than the man. However, when told about their background, the situation was reversed as we realised that the man was more independent while the lady was pretty much just a con-woman. From this, i have learnt that we should not judge a book by its cover, or someone by their appearance. Instead, we should take the small effort to learn more about the behind story in order to make an even more accurate choice."

this were her actual words! don't you feel so impressed after reading it?

well, you'll be even more impressed after reading the next one!

right up we have our second flower, juen ♡ 

"For today's lesson, we were exposed to the poverty of some parts of the world we only got to read about. At first we were puzzled by what was shown on screen; we never saw such a thing in real life before. After the teacher explained to us what the picture was about and the backstory, I felt my heart ache just a little. The little baby girl showed more strength and courage than any one of us. She's just a little baby, yet she's trying so hard to survive on her own. There's barely a chance she would make her was to the feeding centre, yet she still tries anyway. We were born into this world alone, and if we don't try our best to survive, some other people would step ever you to climb higher. Then I look around, I had clothes, I had food, I had a safe environment. What else could I possibly want? Kids these days would never feel and think foe those who are really in need. Their sufferings would never reach their pampered minds. 

Again we were shown two pictures of poverty. A man asking for help and a women with a baby, possibly asking for help. We were tasked to choose who to help, by observing the two seperate pictures. Thoughts ran through my mind, and I debated silently who I should help. I came in to conclusion of helping he women, since she had a baby, and those stories I've heard of women's difficulty to find jobs were clouding my mind. But I was wrong. A large portion of the class choose to help the women as well seeming with similar thoughts as mine. However, after knowing the backstory of the two people, I changed my mind. The women was part of a syndicate that cons people of their money. (how horrible is that! >:( )I think it is very betraying, especially those who genuinely wanted to help the women. The baby might be raised to be like that too, and by doing so, it was corrupting our future generation. However, the guy was really in need. He had lost a limb, and his only source of income has been stolen. It was just a setback, I could see that he really wanted to get back on his feet and earn money on his own. This courage was admirable. Although he had lost a limb he still decides to work instead of depending on others and beg. 

Through this exercise. I realized never to judge a book by its cover. (so chim) Some things you can trust your instints, but some things you have have to do a bit more research. No matter how unfortunate you are, there is definately a way to survive. Why, when I look around, there's so many things I can thank for! Better make use of it haha :)"

well who would have thought that her words are so impactful!!!

coming next we have our third flower, kel ♡ 

"Today marks the second lesson of CID ,and I have learn many things from it. Firstly, Mr Chua show us a picture which is take by a very famous photo journalist who have sadly passed away. The picture show a vulture that is preying on a malnourished baby.Looking at this picture,I realize that I am very fortunate to live in Singapore and into the greatest family ever. I counld not even imagine how I could survive in those poor living conditions with no food and a comfort home and must always be wary of predators. After that, Mr Chua show us two picture which is a man with a cardboard, begging for necessities and money as he is homeless and all his belongings have been stolen. Another picture shows a lady holding a baby, extending her arms begging for money from another man. We were then asked to list down what we see, thought about and some what if questions.The lesson also taught me that we cannot judge a person by its appearance but must understand them to make further judgements. We should also know that how lucky we are to not worry daily about all three meals and how lives would go on. I really benefit a lot from today's lesson."

here's a picture that she included! it's the one with the little child and the vulture ☻ 

following that, we have our fourth flower, qing ♡ 

"For today's lesson, I learnt that a picture paints a thousand word but I must not judge a book by it's cover. I still have to learn about the background information before coming up with a judgement. I also became more aware of the large amount of people below the poverty line, especially in Africa. There are people who are inhumane as they wouldn't distribute food fairly to the poor and there are also people who feel helpless as they could not do anything. I personally feel that if someone takes initiative and lead the people who wants to help, help could be rendered to the poor and needy.

At the same time, I feel that we, people who are above the poverty line, should not take things for granted. We should feel blessed and thankful that we are living under such a good environment where we do not have to worry about money or food. After this lesson, I would remind myself not to waste food. We were also shown 2 photos and after we learnt about the background of these photos, we were shocked to know that the women carrying a baby is actually part of a syndicate that cheats money whereas the man holding onto a cardboard just need a money for the last time to get back on his feet. We shouldn't judge without knowing the whole truth."

*we shouldn't judge without knowing the whole truth* wise words indeed!

lastly it's time for the fifth flower, xinn ♡ aka me

"For today's lesson we touched on poverty, and a picture was shown on the screen: a little baby girl was crawling on the ground, and a vulture was looking at it from a distance, preying on it. this picture showed me two things, firstly, the natural cycle of life. the baby, which was about to die, was a prey to the vulture at a distance. if you overlook that fact that the baby is struggling to survive, it was the natural cycle of life, life then death. eventually everyone has to leave this world, and there is nothing we can do to stop it. there's nothing to be sad about, because we are born to this world alone, and we will leave this world alone. secondly, i saw how the baby struggled to stay alive, crawling to the food centre to get a bit of food. people in africa were so poor, that alot of the people are malnourished, including babies. seeing how the baby struggled to get food, even though the thought that it might die may have ran across its mind for many times, it still continued going on. it taught me it was important to cherish our time when we are still living, and cherish the thing i have now, because we are lucky to be born in such a wonderful environment. next we were shown two pictures, one with a man holding a signboard, asking for materials to help him survive, the other with a lady carrying a child with one hand, and asking money from a man with the other. at first, we wondered, why didn't the both of them go to work, because they seemed able bodied? the man seemed able bodied, but was begging on the streets. the lady might have to take care of the child, hence she couldn't go to work. then the next question came in: where was the government? why aren't they giving help? we concluded that there might be corruption, and thus no helping hand was extending to both the lady and man. when we were asked who would we help, if we could only choose one, most of us chose the lady, because she had a child with her, which adds to two mouths to feed. yet, when we were told the backgrounds of the two people, we realised actually the man has lost a limb, and tried to work by selling the things he picked up, but his trolley was stolen, and he can't work because all his items are gone too. on the other hand, the lady is from a syndicate of conmans, and the child was kidnapped to help the lady to con money. after this, of course the thing we all know is we can't judge a book by its cover, and changed their minds to help the man, but as the teacher had said, people from the syndicate didn't had a huge cut in the money that was collected, thus she was still genuinely poor. if it was me, i will still choose to help the lady, at least it would ensure that the baby would be fed, and she had some money to buy food for herself. and i would hope that because of all the people who gave her money, she would realised what she was doing is wrong, and she could earn a living by doing other jobs, no matter what it is. "

well i guess not everyone agrees with me, including the other four flowers, because i decided to help the lady. 

but well i guess you guys out there there will be this kind soul that agrees with me!!!!

till next time! wait for us!

xoxo ♡ 

#2 - THE PERFECT HOLIDAY~~✈️🚡🎢

hi guys! we're back again! ♡ 

how are you guys? since it's just the new year, we are gonna share about our holidays!!!! 

you'll be able to see our pictures, and journals~ enjoy! 

let's start with our first flower, jinn ♡ 

"During the holidays, i did various activities such as watching dramas, going overseas, studying and simply hanging out with friends. I watched the korean drama 'the heirs', and was able to learn about how a school could function in various ways. The drama was in a scene of a school that was attended by the rich, and the poor were bullied relentlessly. Furthermore, anyone that helped the poor was counted as 'lowly', causing no on to want to help the bullied.  I am thankful that River Valley High School does not work that way, as bullying someone is a very mean action and being bullied is never a good feeling. I also went to Zhu Hai and Macau during the holidays, and learnt about the culture there. In Zhu Hai, we went to a restaurant for dinner, and how the place worked left a deep impression on me. It was a restaurant for seafood, but seemed more like a market place. We were supposed to buy the seafood from the store owners, which was a difficult choice since almost the whole street was filled with stores that basically sold the same food. The store owners were also busy shouting out loud, persuading us to buy seafood from their store instead of from the others. We were then to choose which restaurant we wanted to help us cook the seafood we bought from the store owners, before we were able to settle down and enjoy our meal. It was an eye-opener for me and i was amazed at the difference in culture between Zhu Hai and Singapore as i have never seen such a place in Singapore where business ran in this way. I also met up with friends from both my primary school and secondary sch, and enjoyed a bonding session with them. My primary school friends and i met up at the playground (even though we may be a bit too old), and enjoyed games that we used to play when we were younger, while my sec sch friends came over to my house to enjoy some movies tgt. 

A picture of my brother and me at the restaurant area in zhuhai for dinner^^

And this is a picture of my family, my cute cousin and me at a tourism area in Macau (without my sister since she did not go on the trip)

And this is a picture of my brother 'eating' a hotel in macau with the help of my photography skills~~^^"

looks like she had fun during her trip to macau and zhuhai! i'm envious ☹ 

well, let's move on to our second flower, juen ♡ 

"Over the holidays, I planned to read more books and write more compositions, but I stuck to reading the same old Chinese books. I bought the year two books early in the holidays, and had hungrily went over them twice, thrice... I got excited on all the new stuff I was going to learn. 

I did spend a lot of time with my family, with my grandmother having a broken back, I took time off my own holiday schedule to take care of her. I even learnt how to cook and sew, although it wasn't easy to learn at first. Pricked fingers, scalded hands, but it was so worth it when I shakily held my first bowl of porridge to my grandmother. I love her so much. That day's dinner was also cooked by me, although not as fantastic as what my parents would have cooked up, it was satisfying for me to be able to cook for my family. 

Here's a pic of me and my brother!

I went back to school for facilitator training, and it was the most enjoyable and memorable time I spent. The blood, sweat and tears were exchanged with better skills of awareness of situation, how to interact better, and leadership skills. I felt like a brand new person after the few trainings I went. Of course, I was excited to lead the year ones, our future generation (kids) to have the best and most awesome orientation camp ever. 

Here's 1I'14 and me! (With some random photo bombers)"

well, orientation for the year ones was really awesome! ((i was a facilitator too keke))

hmm shall we take a look at something written by our third flower, kel ♡ ? 

"Over the holidays, I did not do alot of studying but mostly spending my time with my family members. During the days where I have to go to school everyday, I did not have alot of time to spend with my family members so I decided to use my holidays to build up a even stronger relationship with them.<3 We did many things together such as shopping with my mother almost every weekend. As for the weekdays, I will spend times with my grandmother such as looking through cook books or talking to her and her telling me about her childhood stories. I even went to Bangkok with my mother.^^ We shopped all day and tried many new stuffs. I find that I did not waste my holidays like usual such as lying in bed and watching drama shows. I really enjoyed the holidays and really hope that during the following holidays, I will not be very busy and can also spend more time with them again."

wow, looks like kel has spent her own holiday differently ☻ 

next up, our fourth flower, qing ♡ 

"Over the holidays, I would stay at home to do holiday homeworks or hang out with my friends. Sometimes I'd watch dramas and play games too. I've also went to Hong Kong in late December. When I'm in Macau, the tour guide told us that Macau has 38 casinos and their earnings from the casinos is 7 times more than Las Vegas. It made me wonder about the addicts who would gamble away all their money. Is it really beneficial for the country to build casinos? Their people are getting addicted to gambling and not living a down-to-earth-life. Their profit from the casino is a lot but their people who are addicted are suffering. I also spent quality time with my friends and for the first time, went ice skating with them. Since it was my first time , I was bad at it but my friends helped me through and we really had lots of fun. It also made me wonder about the professional skaters. They skate on the ring like its so easy but they must've put in a lot of effort to have such skills. 

This is a photo of me on the Macau tower. It's also the world's highest bungee jumping. I was pretty scared as the floor was transparent, allowing me to look through from the height of 57-58 story.

This is a photo of me and friends ice skating. I was quite satisfied as I learnt how to skate slowly thanks to my friends :)"

although i liked my ice skating trip with her, but that photo of me is just unglam!!!!

okay well, next we have our fifth flower...... xinn ♡ aka me

"Over the holidays, i didn't spend alot of time revising and studying, and like kel, i spent my time with my family and friends. The holidays gave me the time to catch up with my primary school friends and i got to know about the different updates about them and it was refreshing to see the changes in their appearances. i went on small outings with my family, and i made a few trips back to malaysia to visit my grandparents. my parents planned a small outing for us to taiwan during december, and as taiwan is a place where i have never been to before, i took in the beautiful scenery and good food, while i was there, i fell in love with the taiwanese who were known for their warm hearts. my december was filled with events, firstly my trip to taiwan, then came facilitators training. the training had not just taught me how to handle year ones and about their orientation, but also helped me grow up, as i came to know the importance of having a sense of urgency, and also having the ability to haddle different dituations and juggling different matters at hand. compared to october and november, which i led pass at a slow pace, my decemeber was enriching and fufiling for me. i'm not who u was before, i've grown, both ohyscially and mentally, and most of all, i'm happier than before."

 

this picture was taken when my clique in primary school went to sentosa for an outing ☻ 

this one was taken on the year one's initiation ceremony, with different facs and a few of my year one juniors ♡ 

 a picture of a type of flower growing in taiwan!!!! 

and this is me and my sister at changi before going off to taiwan!!!! ☯ 

well i guess that has pretty much summed up our holidays. what about yours? ☻ 

xoxo ♡ 

#1 - Chio right chio right!!😸 I know lah~~😝

hello! we are the BitterSweet ♡ 

now let's start with a little introduction, shall we? ☻ 

fun fact! we are the only all girls group in our class! ♕ but that doesn't mean we can't produce quality work! ❦ {aye we're fab}

now's the time for our introduction! *drumrolls* our first flower...... JINHUI //JINN ♡ 

jinn's the chiobu of the group and she's the prettiest girl in our class! stare into her eyes and be lost in those hazel brown ~ yet, she's also hardworking, smart, and atheletic at the same time! she's also one of the best dancers in her cca! (aren't you feeling jealous already?) her writings are fabulous, so anticipate! 

time for our second flower...... JUENLIN // JUEN ♡ 

juen's the moodmaker of the group and she's the most cheerful girl, and it's hard for her to get angry! she's also the freedom kind of girl, who'd rather sail the seas to wait for Prince Charming! she's gonna participate in her table tennis matches soon! let's wish her the best!!!

((oh and her writings are awesome!))

next would be our third flower...... KELLY // KEL ♡ 

kel's yet another visual of our group bc she's also a beautiful dancer from our class, she's tall, hardworking, flexible, humorous! mysterious would be a word to describe her, but when she warms up to you, wow, she's super cute! (high tolerance she has) she secretly stashes so many goodies at her house HAHA okay and she writes well too!!!!

following that we have our fourth flower...... LIQING // QING ♡ 

qing's the mother of our group, she takes charge, and keeps us all on track ☻ but, she's also very pretty, hardworking, and very tall too....(zibei zibei) she takes everything seriously, but when you want to study, well better sit beside her! she's the one that does all the background work, so kudos to her! anticipate her writings too!!

well lastly it all ends with the fifth flower...... XINYI // XINN ♡ aka me 

i'm more of a mix of everyone in the group, and i dance like kel and jinn but we're from different ccas ☻ i was the class chairperson last year, so i guess you could say i'm sort of the mother of the group too~ (aye now she's part of student council wow) my writings have a 'the-kid-next-door' feel to it, so don't judge! 

in the group, we mostly combine all our ideas together to form up our group writings ☻ i'll edit up the posts so you could say i'm the editor of the group, qing's our leader, jinn and kel are the 'writers' of the group and juen's the one with the great ideas! 

although this blog was created for our cid school project, which serves as a 'graded assignment' for us, because this year may, we will be heading to either china or taiwan as a class, and this blog will serve as an interaction platforms for our reflections or daily posts. but well, like i said ALTHOUGH its for school purposes, we personally like blogging alot because it's something new and we haven't tried it before. 

i sure hope my style of writing isn't scary you readers out there, because you guys are cool and i love you guys! enticipate our updates because you rule! 

before i sign off, i'll leave you with our photo! kel's on the left, followed by qing, jinn, me and juen! we are the BitterSweet ♡ and yes we are chio ((hehehehe))

xoxo ♡