Home Learning Comic Strip (24 Jan)

By WLCheng | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

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Title: The Christmas Present
Theme: Treat Others Well
Characters: Boy, Boy's mother

Plot: It is Christmas. A boy opens a Christmas present from his friend, Bob. However, it is a prank present as a mechanical devil toy pops out like a jack-in-the-box and growls fiercely. The young boy gets a shock as he thinks that it is real. He begins to cry as his mother rushes out to see what had happened and comforts him.

Background: In the house with a lighted Christmas tree and presents under it.
Explanation: This background was chosen as most families would be at home during Christmas and to open presents especially for children.

1st Scene
Characters: Boy
Explanation: This scene shows the boy excited at Christmas as he has had a lot of presents given to him, especially one given by his friend, Bob.

2nd Scene
Characters: Boy
Explanation: The boy unexpectedly gets a shock after opening a prank present and getting a mechanical devil toy popping out like a jack-in-the-box and growling fiercely.

3rd Scene
Characters: Boy
Explanation: The boy was both angry that his friend would actually play such a trick on him, and also afraid as he thinks that the toy is real. He begins to cry loudly.

Final Scene
Characters: Boy, Boy's mother
Explanation: The boy's mother rushes out to see what made her son cry. She hugs and comforts him that it is only a fake toy and there was absolutely nothing to be scared about.

Term 1 Week 3 (Black Eyed Peas -- Where Is The Love?)

Why be prejudiced?

 
Summary of song

Firstly, I would like to provide the meaning of the two words, Prejudice and Discrimination. Prejudice is an unreasonable feeling, opinion, or attitude, especially of a hostile nature, regarding a racial, religious, or national group. Discrimination means treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit.

The main message of the song is that the blacks are against and lamenting on their discrimination and prejudice around the world. After listening to this song a few times through, I realised that it holds great meaning in it. In the first stanza, the sentence "But if you only have love for your own race Then you only leave space to discriminate And to discriminate only generates hate And if you hatin you're bound to get irate" shows that one thing leads to another and that everyone should love both their own race and other races so as to prevent any discrimination from happening. In the chorus, the song tells what happens to people whom other people are prejudiced to, "People killing people dying Children hurtin you hear them cryin". 

I feel that the part of the song which I have the strongest feeling is the last stanza before the last chorus. It shows that children are wrongly influenced by the media as they show negative images and it is "Infecting their young minds faster than bacteria". They act prejudiced, like what they see in the cinema, and as this goes on, all the values of humanity, fairness and equality are lost. "Instead of spreading love, we're (they're) spreading animosity". 

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Reflections

Racial discrimination cannot carry on as all humans have their own rights and status. Even though the blacks are of a different skin colour, they are still part of this society. In Singapore, everyone is equal regardless of our race, language and religion, as stated in our pledge. Everyone should strive to accept one another regardless of skin colour. We can discriminate somebody in our heart, but no matter how small it is, once we voice it out we are considered a racist. If one was put into the blacks' shoes, he would realise that their plight is worse than it seems, so, we have to sympathize with the blacks. After all, they are still part of our society and have their own capabilities and needs. 

As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” If this is the wish of a fellow human being, why do we not fulfil it? Why do we still carry on and even make things worse? What's inside a person matters more than what's outside. Therefore, we should carry on the message of racial harmony so that there will eventually be world peace.

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Where Is The Love Full Lyrics

Term 1 Week 2 (The Coral Island)

Summary of book
Recently, I read a book titled "The Coral Island", authored by R.M Ballantyne and written during the peak of the British Empire in 1857. Firstly, let me give you a brief introduction of the main plot and storyline.

The Coral Island

Ralph Rover, Jack Martin and Peterkin Gay, were three boys who were sole survivors of a shipwreck on one of the Polynesian islands in the Coral Sea. The islands were better known as the Coral Islands for their abundance of necessities such as food, water and materials. Their life at first was quite idyllic, with only a few tools at hand. However, they seemed to have landed upon one of the most plentiful islands in the region, without any savages inhabiting the island, and thus had no plan whatsoever for the future, deciding to follow fate.

The story continued on to describe their adventures together and the challenges they faced. They met savage Polynesians and even British pirates who claimed to be traders of the Polynesians but were actually no less savage than the Polynesians themselves. The boys found themselves in Mango Island, after Ralph discovered that Tararo, a chief whom they helped in a tribal battle, was living there. They intervened in the conflict between the islanders who were converted to Christianity and those who were not, and Tararo who called for their arrest. They were rescued in the end by a missionary who converted Tararo and the other unbelieving islanders. The boys soon set sail homebound, older and wiser.

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Reflections
After reading this book, I was very touched by the bond of friendship between the three boys. They went through thick and thin together and never gave up on each other. The part when Tararo and his men rubbed noses with the boys as a form of a farewell gesture after the gory battle between the two tribes was very heartwarming as they had spent a few days living and communicating together. Peterkin even shed tears when they left in their war-canoes.

The author used a very wide range of vocabulary. He also had a very exciting plot and could make the story seem very realistic. Once I picked up that book, I was so engrossed in it that I was sometimes reluctant to stop for my meals! The first part of the story was very useful and enriching as it told about basic survival skills. The author used a lot of dialogue in his story and also described in great detail what condition and surroundings the boys were in.

I would definitely recommend this novel to my friends as this story is very interesting and it can be considered as one of the popular classics. This book has upped my interest in reading and it would certainly be the same for anyone who reads it.

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