Happy New Year 2010!

For next year postings, welcome to our new blog: twpssec2010.blogspot.com.

Migratory Birds

If you are in the forests, listen carefully as it might be filled with myriad voices of migratory birds that's just arrived, together with the chorus of resident birds. Bird migrations generally occur between October and March. Migratory birds come from as far away as North and Central Asia. Most birds fly in groups and flocks of migrating shorebirds can be seen along the coast. Welcome to Singapore, hope you'll have a wonderful time here!

Honours Day Celebrations

On 20th of Nov, we celebrated our Honours Day with variety of programmes arranged. Our GEC club set up an exhibition booth in the canteen for the guests. This time, the theme was focused more on the application of nature in our lifestyle.

We had tea appreciation section with tea sampling using the stevia leaves. This kind of leaves had a natural sweetness with mild fragrant aroma. It is commonly used as a substitute for sugar, and is known for treating obesity and high blood pressure.

We also demonstrated and displayed exhibits of flower arrangement done by our members, under the guidance of our dear Ms Chin. Some of the exhibits were purchased in advance by our teachers. Thank you very much, teachers, for your kind support!

We had an enjoyable time in preparing, demonstrating and interacting with the guests on that day. It was indeed memorable.

World Kindness Day on 13 November

(Click on the picture to read the message)




Singapore will be celebrating World Kindness Day on 13 November, and Yellow Gerbera Daisy will be given away to show appreciation to an everyday kind person.

Celebrate everyday kindness on 13 November as Singapore joins countries such as Japan, Canada, Australia, United Arab Emirates, and Nigeria in celebrating the World Kindness Day.

In Singapore, the focus for this year is on "showing appreciation to kind people and acts of kindness". The Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) is adopting the yellow gerbera daisy as the flower to represent kindness. SKM is encouraging everybody to give a daisy to an everyday kind person around us and will be distributing 45,000 yellow gerbera daisies at numerous locations across the island on Friday, 13 November 2009, while stocks last.

The gerbera daisy is the fifth most popular flower in the world after roses, carnations, chrysanthemums and tulips.

Daisy symbolises Random Acts of Kindness

If you wonder why the daisy was chosen as the symbol for the random acts of kindness, here's the explanations:
1)Daisies open every morning to the sunrise, just when the random acts of kindness begin.
2)Daisies are simple and beautiful, just as random acts of kindness.
3)Daisies are found everywhere, just like grass, kindness is everywhere like daisies and grass- just look within yourself.
4)Daisies come in different colours and sizes, random acts of kindness do too- they are only limited by your imagination.
5)Daisies can be made into daisy chains. random acts of kindness can be done one after another in chains- each person passes the kindness forward.
6)Daisies have given us pleasant memories playing in a field of daisies as children,random acts of kindness leave pleasant memories that people remember.
7)Daisies have healing properties, just like kindness heals.

Thus, the humble daisy was chosen to represent random acts of kindness.

Recycled Bottles

The members continued to collect recycled bottles, and they were used for making products such as flowers and pencil holders. The members painted the products with different colours.We are sure these nature products will be put in good use in the future.

No Car Day

In 2007, China launched the Green Transport and Health week campaign. The campaign ends with a No Car Day Saturday.

This Chinese national urban transport campaign was launched by the Ministry of Construction. During the week of September 22 walking, biking, public transportation, and carpooling are encouraged. On No Car Day they will have special 'green zones' in hundreds of cities. These normally vehicle congested areas will be open only to pedestrians, bicycles, and buses from 7am to 7pm.

This campaign is planned to be an annual event. It is estimated that the 2007 campaign saved 33 million liters of gasoline and cut emissions by 3,000 tons

7th Inter-School Creative Floral Art Competition 2009

Our members, Zheng Yating of 5Trust and Lim Shu Xuan of 5Care represented TWPS in the 7th Inter-School Creative Floral Art Competition 2009 at the Great World City Atrium, organised by Nanyang Primary School on the 11th of September. Both members received certificates of participation, and Yating also received a merit prize! The works were on display at the Atrium for 3 days.

Our heartfelt appreciation to our trainer, Ms Chin(our own Teck Whye Teacher), who willingly agreed to train our members for the competition. Ms Chin had carried out several training sessions for our members who had either very little or no knowledge of flower arrangement. The members learnt speedingly under her guidance. We also like to show appreciation to our teachers in charge, Mdm Masnah, Ms Ong and Ms Yip for time and effort spent in the preparations, and Mrs Raju for lending us her colourful rice powder. Last but not least, a great hooray for Yating and Shuxuan for their well-done performance. We will continue to provide more opportunities for our members to showcase their talents and capabilities.

Training for Flower Arrangement

Ms Chin conducted a series of flower arrangement workshop for our members. The members learnt about the basics of arranging different kinds of flowers.
"We learnt that the taller leaves and flowers must be put at the back, and the bigger flowers in the middle." ~ Shuxuan, 5Care.
"The main flower put below, and the smaller flowers at the top, so that the audience's focus on the main flowers." ~ Yating, 5Trust.
"Flowers of close colours such as orange and red should not be put close together, as the colours will not be outstanding, and that the leaves can be folded into different shapes for balanced feel."~ Huiting, 5Trust.

Activity in Flower Patterns

Today, Mdm Masnah teach the members about flower patterns. They have come across many flowers since they joined the club, they will have to choose one flower as their design and draw it in one square. Then, they will repeat the design in other squares.

50th Anniversary for TWPS

We celebrated our school's 50th anniversary on 18th of July! Our club had set up an exhibition booth in the canteen for the guests on that day. It had a natural setting with exhibits covering the areas of our club's activities and the programmes or projects that we have participated so far, which included the following:
1)The gardeninng kit
2)The spices and herbs from our garden
3)Nature journals and works
4)Community in Bloom programme: bookmarks, plant pockets,etc
5)Recycling programme: the use of recycled bottles as flower pots, terranium, etc
6)Green Wave project

Our Green Wave Plant - Cermai

Gardening Journal by Nur (5Care)

Preparation for TWPS's 50th Anniversary

World Environment Day

5th of June is World Environment Day.

It was established by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment.

Commemorated yearly on 5 June, WED is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.

The day's agenda is to:
Give a human face to environmental issues;
Empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development;
Promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues;
Advocate partnership which will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.

The theme for WED 2009 is 'Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change'. It reflects the urgency for nations to agree on a new deal at the crucial climate convention meeting in Copenhagen some 180 days later in the year, and the links with overcoming poverty and improved management of forests.

In Celebration of Green Wave Day (22/5)

Activities of the day:-

7.30-8am:
Slides presentation by the Gardening & Environmmental Club on:-
1) Green Wave Day & 2) How To Save Earth

9.45-9.49am:
3 groups of the teachers and pupils were at our garden to witness the watering of the Cermai Plant.

10am:
Guest-of-Honour: Mr Ali (our school gardener) watered the plant, assisted by Mdm Ng (Our Principal) & Mdm Rahima (Our Vice-Principal)

After 10am:
Classroom Activity: Form Teachers and Mother Tongue teachers did 1 class journal or other form of work based on their experience of germinating the seeds in the classrooms.

After school:
Collection of classroom pots. Classes that successfully growed the seeds will be awarded 'We are Green Wave Activits Certificate'.

Preparation for Green Wave Day