Elementary School Lessons

It’s back to school tomorrow for the children. It is doubly hard to prep them to go back to the routine after the holidays. I had to find ways to make them go to bed after 8:30am two nights before classes started.

Here are some ways we prepared before going back to school after the holidays:

• go to bed at the same time they are used to when there are classes. For us it was between 8pm – 8:30pm. Do this even if they don’t feel sleepy yet.
• Wake them up earlier than the time they usually wake up. For us, wake up call was around 8am which is kinds late because they usually wake up at 5am during school days.
• Have them prepare their school things a day or two before going back to school.

I will see how they will be tomorrow. For now, we will just enjoy the last day of our holiday break 🙂

August marks “Buwan ng Wika” in honor of the late President Manuel L. Quezon. Different celebrations in different schools were done to commemorate this day where the Filipino language is the main focus of the month.

School children play different native games, wear traditional Filipino clothes and eat native food and delicacies.

For the intermediate level where the children are now enrolled, they had a poem recitation contest among grades 4 – 5 children. There were 8 contestants (from 8 classes, 4 classes for each grade level) and my son was one of those who competed. They recited “Tayo na sa Bukid”

I missed his performance during the competition because he said it’s ok for me not to watch but I later found out that it was ok. Sigh.

Anyway, the good news was that he won! He bested seven other contestants.

Here he was reciting the poem during the culminating activity in front of the whole school assembly.

Here is what the son loves to watch and read during his free time:  Formula One Grand Prix which is having its last race for the season at the Abu Dhabi Race Track.

He not only watches the races, past and current, but watches the standings as well. He’d rattle off the statistics in the standings, names the drivers, quotes even more numbers from races a few years back and talk endlessly about Formula One.

He loves analyzing numbers, that’s for sure 🙂

Global Art announces call for participants to the 2^nd National Art Competition

Encourage your children to unleash their creative genius at the Global Art Philippines 2^nd National Art Competition. Global Art is an international Creative Art Program that develops and trains children’s creativity and self-expression,

WHAT: Global Art Philippines 2nd National Art Competition

WHO CAN JOIN: Students and non-students of Global Art ages 4 – 16 (there will be three categories)

WHERE: Bahay ng Alumni, University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City

WHEN: November 7, 2010 9:30am – 3pm

THEME: “ONE WORLD”

Registration fee is PhP600.00 inclusive of t-shirt to be worn in the competition.

Winners for each three categories bring home a cash prize of PhP3,000, a trophy and Global Art gift certificates.

Deadline of submission of entries to join Global Art Philippines 2nd National Art Competition is November 5, 2010.

For more information, interested participants may contact Global Art at (02) 515-7005 or email at HQ@globalart-phils.com or visit the Global Art Philippines website at http://www.globalart-phils.com/

Department of Education or DepEd Guidelines on Suspension of Classes in case of typhoons in Philippine area of responsibility:

• Classes in preschool level in all private and public schools will be automatically suspended with storm signal #1
• Classes in preschool, elementary and high school in all private and public schools will be automatically suspended with storm signal #2
• Classes in all levels are automatically suspended with storm signal #3
• All travel and outdoor activities are canceled with signal #4

For more details: check the Department of Education guidelines on suspension of classes.

Greatest Common factor or GCF is the largest whole number that divides evenly into each of the numbers.

FACTORS are the numbers that you multiply to get another number. [ 3 X 5 = 15 where the factors are 3 and 5]

To get the greatest common factor, one can use two methods:

• First is to list all the factors of the given numbers. The list the common factors or the same factors for these given numbers. When this has been done, choose the biggest number among the common factors.

ex: 30 = 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 15, 30

20 = 1, 2, 4, 5, 10, 20

The common factors for 30 and 20 are 1,2, 5 and 10 therefore the greatest common factor is 10.

• Another method for finding the greatest common factor is listing down the prime factors. After listing the prime factors, multiply these prime factors.

PRIME FACTORS are numbers that can only be multiplied by 1 and itself [ex: 2,3,5,7,11…]

The prime factors for 30 are 5 x 3 x 2

The prime factors for 20 are 5 x 2 x 2

The prime factorization of 30 and 20 have one 5 and one 2 in common. Multiply these common prime factors and you get the greatest common factor.

5 x 2 = 10

Today marks this year’s Autumnal Equinox and is the first day of Autumn in the northern hemisphere.

What is Autumnal Equinox? Autumnal Equinox in the northern hemisphere is the day when night and day almost have the same length. The Sun crosses the celestial equator moving southward.

In the Southern hemisphere, the Autumnal Equinox corresponds to the center of the Sun crossing the equator moving northward. This occurs on the date of the northern vernal equinox.

Nosebleed? I am too.

Read more here: The September Equinox Explained

Here is a photo of our “Autumn Tree” that sheds leaves in sync with the Autumn season in the northern hemisphere.