P3 Composition A Competition

I believe that the start of a good writer is usually in the P3 and P4 years. Having said that, I have had students who have come to me in P5 and blossomed to be humorous and exciting writers.

In the writing section of my P3 & P4 classes, our usual Composition planning follows the simple:

I wanted the Planning technique to be as simplified as possible in the first few months of classes to get the students used to the planning quickly, and writing within a time frame of 40 mins (5 mins to plan, 40 mins to write, 5 mins to check).

For students at this age group and at the start of the year my objectives for them are:

• 1) Able to plan within 5 minutes by looking at the theme and pictures. Planning does not need to be completely written down but student must be able to tell me his complete story idea
• 2) Able to complete writing the Composition within the 40 minute time frame given
• 3) Able to check through his writing and correct some of his tenses or punctuation mistakes on his own.

The Composition model below is A Competition. It was written by my P3 student in my P4 class. I have added on more descriptions to the story for him but the content and the humor are all his own.

P3 Composition model – A competition Picture

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Nervous. That was what I was feeling. I scanned my surroundings and there was a sea of people wearing different coloured t-shirts with numbers printed on the back. I was at the Inter-School Championship stadium and the 100-metre sprint was just about to start.           

I was as jittery as a small boy lost in a shopping mall. Looking at the competitors around me, I regretted signing up for the race. There was a tall, muscular Indian boy beside me. He looked like a miniature Usain Bolt! How was I ever going to win?           

A starter pistol went off with a loud bang, signalling the start of the race. I started running as fast as the wind, all my nerves then forgotten. My friend Jayden, from 3K, raced to the front while I was lagging behind. Just as I thought that he was going to win the race, Jayden tripped on a small pebble and flew forward. He landed hard on the ground and was bleeding. I was in a horrible dilemma. Should I help him? But if I stopped, I would surely lose the race.           

In a split second, I made the decision to help him. I knew that it would be meaningless if I won but left my friend bleeding in agony. I helped him up and together we walked to the Finish line. The next day, the school Principal made an announcement about what I had done and she even invited me on stage to hand me an award. I was disqualified from the race but I was not at all disappointed. I knew that I had done the right thing.