Activities at digital.whatsup.sg:
• Funny or not? – Story 05
• Crossword: Protect Wildlife – Story 08
• Contest: If I were Jake – Story 12
• Lasting Beauty – Story 14
• Jumbled Words – Story 16
Activities at ideas.whatsup.sg
Q: HOW CAN I BECOME A CLIMATE ACTIVIST? (Story 04)
Educator and wildlife activist Vilma D’Rozario replies to a student’s letter by describing her own life-long journey from exploring nature to working with others to save the planet.
Protecting Our Last Wildcat – For English & Science, level 3 – DOWNLOAD
Groupwork. To practise listening comprehension, summary, and oracy skills. After watching a short film about leopard cats, each group presents a summary of a different section. ✪
Speech: Back to The Wild – For English, level 2 – DOWNLOAD
Individual. To practise oracy and empathy. With the help of four guiding questions, students write a speech from the perspective of a zoo tiger wishing to return to the wild.
PETROL? NO. ELECTRICITY’S TIME IS COMING (Story 05)
The latest news about electric vehicles and why they are becoming more popular. Side bar “Singapore’s plans” gives the gist of our progress towards the 2040 target for electric cars.
To Buy or Not to Buy? – For English, level 1 – DOWNLOAD
Individual. To explore a decision-making strategy. Students (i) list out and weight the pros and cons of buying an electric car versus a petrol-run car (ii) reflect on this process.
A VILLAGE IS TRANSFORMED (Story 06)
Ojok Okello returns to his birthplace, Okere Mom-Kok, and works with the local community to transform the village.
Bloom Where You Are Planted – For English and CCE, level 3 – DOWNLOAD
Individual work. To see possibilities for making a difference in the present. An exercise in visualising ways in which students can contribute wherever they are.
Mapping the Change – For English and Geography, level 2 – DOWNLOAD
Individual. To apply imagination with simple mapping skills. Steps for using the information in the story to create an imaginary map of the transformed village. Provided: basic map. ✪
OLYMPIC ORIGINS (Story 07A)
This and three more inspiring stories to warm up for the upcoming Olympics: “Olympic stories” (Story 07B), “Olympic lessons” (Story 07C), and “Olympic friendships” (Story 07D).
Mime Time Online! – For English & PE, level 2 – DOWNLOAD
Whole class. To enjoy mime as a performance art. Steps for playing a whole-class game online during an HBL session. The mime slips are provided in the Answers file. ✪
Olympic Shout Outs – For English & CCE, level 2 – DOWNLOAD
Pairwork. To grow the capacity to affirm others. Each pair prepares a PowerPoint slide and, with it, performs a shout out to Olympic athletes.
NO MORE TRICKS! (Story 08A)
Along with “RWS and Dolphins” (Story 08B) and “Should wildlife be in captivity?” (Story 08C), this set of stories shares progress in human efforts to respect and protect wildlife.
Crossword: Protect Wildlife – For English, level 1
Individual exercise. To grow vocabulary and comprehension skills. An online crossword based on the wildlife stories, with easy clues. ✪
Idioms: More Than Just Words – For English, level 2 – DOWNLOAD
Individual. To infer meanings of figures of speech. Students guess the meanings of six common animal idioms and construct sentences using any two of them. ✪
Design a Calligram T-shirt – For English and Art, Level 2 – DOWNLOAD
Individual work. To better understand the plight of wildlife in animal shows. With the help of an instructional video and example, students create two orca calligrams (captive vs free) and design a T-shirt supporting wildlife’s needs.
EDIBLE GRAINS FROM THE SEA (Story 09)
An innovative chef, Angel Leon, is a trailblazer for experimenting with unfamiliar edible grains such as eelgrass. The story explains we can have enough food and still be good to our planet.
All About Eelgrass– For English and Science, Level 2 – DOWNLOAD
Individual work. To distill and visually present facts. Steps for creating a mind-map about eelgrass based on the facts in the story. ✪
Visit The Sea Show– For Science & CCE, level 1 – DOWNLOAD
Individual. To better appreciate ocean life. A simple planner for a safe and meaningful visit to The Sea Show at the Singapore Maritime Gallery.
Postcard: Zero Wastage – For English and Art – DOWNLOAD
Groupwork. To explore reducing wastage. Each group (i) selects a vegetable, fruit or grain we eat (ii) gathers facts about the parts of the plant we do not usually eat (iii) thinks of creative ways to use the inedible parts (iv) creates a poster about zero wastage.
PANTUN: AN ELEGANT WAY TO COMMUNICATE (Story 10)
UNESCO recently listed the pantun as a part of our intangible cultural heritage. This article introduces the form of the pantun as well as its social functions.
Write a Pantun – For English, level 3 – DOWNLOAD
Individual. To experience pantun for creative expression. Steps to composing a four-line pantun. Gives an example to illustrate number of syllables, rhyme, and rhythmic flow.
✪ Answers to these activities will be emailed to teachers on the IDEAS mailing list. To join the mailing list, please email your name, designation, and school to ideas@whatsup.sg.
