Let's Read and Write!

Have you try writing a story?

Writing a story (also called narrative text) may be too easy for you. Would you like to try something more challenging. Try to write one of the text types I mentioned in the last post.

After you have finished your writing, REMEMBER, don’t be shy to share your work. Sharing your writing with others can help you make improvement.

There are many ways for you to share your work:
1. Of course, you can share your writing by posting it here.
2. Or let your parents and friends read your writing
3. Or post it on the Hong Kong Education City --- English Campus website
(Many primary children post their work here!):
http://www.hkedcity.net/english/create/index.phtml?cat_id=34
Choose the method that you feel comfortable!

If you want to try something even more challenging, try to discuss on some hot topics (Go to http://www.4kids.org/ Click on “Speak Out!” response to the weekly discussion topic).

Always start writing with something simple!

I think writing a story is a good start. You can write your own story based on a traditional one.

Let’s say the story “Cinderella”. You can rewrite the story like this:

...The Prince visited all the houses in the town to find his bride. Finally, he came to Cinderella’s house. After the two sisters of Cinderella tried on the glass slipper, he gave Cinderella to try it on.

The Prince married Cinderella and they happily ever after.

From the above example, do you understand what I mean now ?

Just find a story you like or hate and rewrite it. You can post your writing here if you want to share it with others. Another way is to post it to http://www.hkedcity.net/english/create/index.phtml?cat_id=33.(:idea:Many children post their stories there.)

Let’s write a story now!

Do you want to read some more books other than stories?
How about recount, procedure, report, discussion or argument?(They are different text types.)
Don’t worry. I am going to explain what they are in a minute.

Daily examples for:
Recount: newspaper reports, letters, diaries
Procedure: recipes in cookbook, instructions for toys
Report: scientific articles, books about animals
Discussion: newspaper articles which express views on a matter
Argument: advertisements, pamphlets
All of them are very useful in our daily life.

It’s difficult to explain them one by one here. If you want to know more about what they are, you can visit the following website:

1. Senior Resource Centre --- Text Types
http://www.spx.nsw.edu.au/src/research/texttypes.html
(Tell you the purpose and features of different text types.)

2. Wrapping up Research --- Writing Frames for Non Fiction Texts
http://www.highlands.vic.edu.au/research/Words/Writing%20Frames.doc
(Give you some examples of the daily use of these text types)

Have you ever read any interesting stories?

There’re many famous stories like “The Hare and The Tortoise”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse”. I believe you must have heard of some of them. Actually, many of them have been put online. If you are interested in reading stories, you can visit these sites:

1. Grimm Fairy Tales
http://www.grimmfairytales.com/en/main
(You can listen to the stories by going to “Featured Story”.)

2. Aesop’s Fables
http://www.umass.edu/aesop/contents.html
(Many stories are about animals!)

3. Hong Kong Education City --- English Campus
http://www.hkedcity.net/english/library/newbook/
(There are adventure stories, horror stories, romance, etc)

4. CBeebies
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/storycircle/
(Click on “Bedtime Story”, “Fairy Tale”, etc. to read the stories.)

Enjoy!

Hi, children. It's nice to meet you here.

You can call me Cara or Miss Chan (but I really don't like you call me Miss Chan). I like cats and dogs. I like cooking. How about you?

Do you like learning English? Yes? No?
I know some of you may think learning English is boring and hard.
I enjoy learning English so much. Learning English is fun.

I’m here, therefore, to share with you how I learn English in an interesting way.

By the way, do you learn English like this?