Poem- My School Day

During my primary school days,

I slept quite early every day.

I always had a clean shoe,

my CCA was wushu.

There wasn't a badge that time,

but now with a badge it's still fine.

Every Monday we had to wear a tie,

Drops of sweat dripped into my eye.

Sometimes I was real unlucky,

having bees buzzing around me

During the National Anthem.

My stomach would always churn.

Finally its time to go home,

I packed up and left my "throne"

I realized I had lots of homework,

but there was nothing else I could do.

Online Learning- Favourite Poem or Song Lyrics

The Simple Truth by Philip Levine

I bought a dollar and a half's worth of small red potatoes,
took them home, boiled them in their jackets
and ate them for dinner with a little butter and salt.
Then I walked through the dried fields
on the edge of town. In middle June the light
hung on in the dark furrows at my feet,
and in the mountain oaks overhead the birds
were gathering for the night, the jays and mockers
squawking back and forth, the finches still darting
into the dusty light. The woman who sold me
the potatoes was from Poland; she was someone
out of my childhood in a pink spangled sweater and sunglasses
praising the perfection of all her fruits and vegetables
at the road-side stand and urging me to taste
even the pale, raw sweet corn trucked all the way,
she swore, from New Jersey. "Eat, eat" she said,
"Even if you don't I'll say you did."
Some things
you know all your life. They are so simple and true
they must be said without elegance, meter and rhyme,
they must be laid on the table beside the salt shaker,
the glass of water, the absence of light gathering
in the shadows of picture frames, they must be
naked and alone, they must stand for themselves.
My friend Henri and I arrived at this together in 1965
before I went away, before he began to kill himself,
and the two of us to betray our love. Can you taste
what I'm saying? It is onions or potatoes, a pinch
of simple salt, the wealth of melting butter, it is obvious,
it stays in the back of your throat like a truth
you never uttered because the time was always wrong,
it stays there for the rest of your life, unspoken,
made of that dirt we call earth, the metal we call salt,
in a form we have no words for, and you live on it.

Reason Why I Like This Poem

I like this poem because it is simple to understand. Although it is a little wordy, it is easy to comprehend. I can understand what the author is mainly trying to say and the words she uses to describe are very nice.

Figurative Speech Used In the Poem

In the second line of the poem, the author mentioned boiling the potatoes in their jackets. The jackets she is referring to is the skin of the potatoes. In the fifth last line, the author said " It stays in the back of your throat like a truth". It is obvious that the thing she is talking about does not really stay in her throat, she is using figurative speech to say that she regrets what she had done and the thing keeps on bothering her, like something staying in her troat.

Bodily/Kinesthetic

I chose this picture as this shows an Indian woman praying, when Lila was offering flowers to the sea, she was also prying. Hence, I chose this picture.






http://images.clipartof.com/small/46337-Royalty-Free-RF-Clipart-Illustration-Of-A-Pretty-Hindu-Indian-Woman-Praying-In-Front-Of-A-Temple.jpg



This picture depicts a woman very relieved and happy. When the medicine man arrived to help her mother, Lila was very
happy and relieved that her mother was saved.

http://www.lifemakeoverclub.com/images/LMO/HappyWoman-main_Full.jpg




I chose this picture as it shoes a sad woman in tears. When Pinto got killed, Lila was very sad and she was crying, hence, I chose this picture.
http://www.hypnosisdevon.co.uk/images/Autumn%20News%202008%20Images/Sad%20Woman%27s%20Face.jpg

Research on Chapati and Jalebi

After doing my research, I found out that Roti pratas are pan-fried with butter, you can choose to sprinkle sugar on the Roti prata or you can also pour curry onto it. The Chapati is a flat piece of bread where you can roll it up and stuff it with fillings.

The jalebi can be served either warm or cold. It has a chewy texture with crystallized exterior coating. The sugars are partly fermented which gives flavour to the dish. You tiao, also known as fried bread stick, is a long, golden- brown deep fried strip of dough.

This is the Chapati's Recipe

Ingredients :
3 cups
1 1/2 teaspoon
1 tablespoon
1 cup
Fine wholemeal flour or roti flour
Salt or to taste
Ghee or oil, optional
Lukewarm water

Method:

1) Put flour in mixing bowl, reserving about half cup for rolling chapatis.

2) Mix salt through the flour in the bowl, then rub in ghee or oil, if used.

3) Add water all at once and mix to a firm but not stiff dough.

4) Knead dough for at least 10 minutes (the more it is kneaded, the lighter the bread will be).

5) Form dough into a ball, cover with clear plastic wrap and stand for 1 hour or longer (if left overnight, the chapatis will be very light and tender).

6) Shape dough into balls about the size of a large walnut.

7) Roll out each one on a lightly floured board (using reserved flour) to a circular shape as thin as a French crepe.

8) After rolling out chapatis, heat a griddle plate or heavy-based frying pan until very hot, and cook the chapatis, starting with those that were rolled first.

9) Put chapati on griddle and leave for about 1 minute.

10) Turn and cook other side a further minute, pressing lightly around the edges of the chapati with a folded tea towel or an egg slice.

11) This encourages bubble to form and make the chapatis light.

12) As each one is cooked, wrap in a clean tea towel until all are read.

13) Serve immediately with butter, dry curries or vegetable dishes.

Journal entry by Hari

Dear Journal,

I am very worried about my family now. My mother is lying sickly in bed and she has no energy to work at all. My sister Lila has to do all the housework. Both of us are under a lot of stress as our mother has entrusted us to take care of them. But now, my sister is left all alone as I have gone overseas to work. Our father leaves early in the morning and drinks all day long. He only comes back late at night. If he is in a bad mood, he will start beating my sisters up. Recently, my mother was sent to the hospital by a kind soul called Mr De Silva. Hence, my father has stopped drinking and he stays at the hospital everyday to take care of my mother.
I am at Bombay now and i met a kind watchman. He introduced me to Jagu, who let me work in his restaurant. I have been leading a good life and I have enough money to survive.I pity my sister at home as she is not leading a very good life. But soon, when I earn enough money, I will return back home to help my sisters. The man next door, Mr Panwallah, has taught me how to repair watches. I go to his shop when I have the time and he teaches me some everyday. Now, I roughly know how to repair a watch. I am very grateful to these people who have helped me in Bombay.
I miss my family very much and I hope that they are still fine back home. I have written many letters back home but I decided to write a journal entry to express my feelings. I really hope to go back to my homeland and give my family all my earnings. I will also try to find a job in my homeland so that I won't need to leave Thul or my family ever again.After writing this letter, I feel much better than before.

1A3 T2W4 Online Learning "Urbanisation Arrives in Thul."

By: Andre Poh

THUL-INDIA.Shocking news have been discovered. The all along undeveloped Thul had received big news yesterday afternoon at 3pm. Factories are going to be built in Thul. Soon, Thul is going to be a very developed state.
The bad news is that the factories will most likely employ the workers from other countries. They will only want workers with high expertise and skills. to build factories, the land will be cleared and their attapt houses will all be gone. This is very bad news for the people in Thul. moreover, the factories will produce a lot of harmful and poisonous gases that will polute the air. The peaceful and beautiful village will be turned into a polluted and noisy place. the lives of the people in Thul will be disrupted badly. Thul is famous for its rice. For the buildings to be built, the rice paddys will be cleared and Thul will not be able to grow the fragrant and delicious rice.
All the people in Thul will lose their jobs except for some people. The security of Thul will drop as people might resort to stealing to continue living. This is all the cause of the government. Villagers have gone to Bombay to protest against the government. No one knows who will win the protest.
The rest of the villagers are waiting in their homeland for the protesters to come back. They are very anxious and hope that their villagers will win the protest.

Wushu

Wushu is a popular term that have become synonymous with Chinese martial arts. Wushu literally means " martial art". It is formed from the two words "wu" which means martial or military and "shu" which means discipline, skill or method. Wushu has also become the name for a modern sport involving the performance of adapted Chinese bare-handed and weapons forms judged to a set of contemporary aesthetic criteria for points.

I have been in wushu since primary one. It was quite tough and boring initially as we only learnt the basic stances and exercises over and over again. Examples of these basic training may include stretching, stance work, rudimentary conditioning, meditation, basic kicking and punching techniques, and jumping.

After two years, we began to learn competition routines. It then became more interesting. In fact, I almost gave up during the first two years if not for my teachers,coaches and parents. They never cease to support me. Each time I felt like giving up, they gave me some encouraging words to spur me on.

I begin to understand that without strong and flexible muscles and proper body mechanics, many movements of Chinese martial arts are simply impossible to perform correctly.

Finally, in primary four, I earned my place in the school team, taking part in the National Inter Primary Schools Wushu Competition. In the first year, I was nervous and did not perform well but it was a good learning opportunity. In the second and third year, my efforts finally paid off and I earned a silver and bronze medal respectively.

Primary Four was the year when I started learning "weapons". I am beginning to enjoy wushu now as it is no longer as boring as before. We get to learn new routines and get introduced to new weapons as we become more senior.

Since last year, I have learnt the "nanquan international routine", "nandao international routine" as well as "nangun international routine". These are the hand and weapon routines related to "southern boxing". I will also be competing in this year's competition and it will be my debut in the National Inter Secondary School Competition.It will be tough as I will be competing against the older boys but I will persevere to the end......