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| Sunday, 23 October 2005 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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A day of fun and learning
The workshop was conducted by the teacher in charge of the Junior English Club Ms. Uddeepthi Supushpika Muthumini. There is an interesting story behind her idea to conduct the workshop. The Annual English Day of the school is only for Grade 12 students, and the juniors of the school rarely get an opportunity to take part in these activities. Therefore Ms. Supushpika decided to conduct a separate workshop for the junior students on the same day as the English Day. She had a good response from the members of the Junior English Club which was formed only a month ago. The hot sun didn't disturb the girls who were busy acting, taking part in quiz competitions and many other activities during the two-hour workshop. The event was focused on improving the four skills of the English language reading, writing, listening and speaking. The students were using the Junior Observer to test their standard on the four skills.
The 'Reading' group had a different activity. Students from Grades Six and Seven were busy completing sentences which were given in separate papers. First they had to read a given passage from the Junior Observer and then pick the correct lines and complete a sentence from the passage. Students from Year Eight and above had another activity. They were given a worksheet to complete after reading a paragraph from the paper. Another group participated in a quiz competition which was based on the Nature Trail. According to Ms. Supushpika, this was to improve the listening skills of the students. The 'Writing' group was busy making a story based on the cover page. "We didn't have much time to organise this event. But it was successful and the students enjoyed participating in the activities. They used the newspaper to improve their knowledge without any effort," said Ms. Supushpika. She added that she is hoping to publish a monthly magazine which will have creative writings of club members.
Vice President of the Club, Tania Frugtuiet said the club has helped many students to get into the habit of reading. "It also encourages us to improve our writing skills," Tania said.An active member of the club Shafreena Rizvi thanked the teacher in charge Ms. Supushpika for her efforts to form the club and helping the students to improve their English. "She is our strength and we are ever thankful to her," noted Shafreena. - CNK 60 years of the United Nations The United Nations Day will be celebrated all over the world tomorrow.
The theme for this year is 'Child health and survival: The Millennium Development Goals and the most vulnerable'. The focus is on child mortality and the programmes that can be carried out at local level to minimise this. The 39-storey UN Headquarters are in New York but represents over 190 nations of the world which are its members. The site is officially international territory, not part of the United States; the land belongs to all UN member countries. In its 60th year, the world body has been troubled by accusations of corruption and inefficiency. Not only that, even its headquarters building is said to be in bad shape with structural and environmental problems which could cause the organisation hundreds of millions of dollars. It is said that the building has leaking roofs, walls facing collapse, asbestos insulation needing replacements and emergency exits in bad shape; only a few of its problems. Some believe that the UN should get its house in order first before trying to correct mistakes committed by other countries. World Development Information Day This is also celebrated on October 24. It was established by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to draw the attention of the world to development problems and the need to strengthen international cooperation to solve them. The Assembly decided that the date should coincide with the UN Day, which was also the date of adoption, in 1970, of the International Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade. The Assembly felt that improving the distribution of information and
the mobilisation of public opinion, particularly among young people, would
lead to greater awareness of the problems of development, thus, promoting
efforts in the sector of international cooperation for development. |
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| Politics | Produced by Lake House |
The Junior English Club of St. Paul's Milagiriya recently participated
in a different kind of academic activity. It was around 9 in the morning
on a busy Friday - but over 80 club members flocked near the ticket
counter to enter a special workshop. The ticket to enter the workshop was
a newspaper. It was the Junior Observer. 
They were divided into four groups representing each skill. The
'Speaking' group had the most enjoyable activity, a drama based on the
Word Power page of the Junior Observer. They had to pick a dialogue which
appeared in the page and perform it as a drama. 
President of the Junior English Club Shanika Pindeniya thanked the
Junior Observer for the informative articles. "Thanks to the Junior
Observer, we can now improve our knowledge of English," she said. 
The international organisation was established exactly 60 years ago
(1945) on October 24. However, celebrating the UN Day started only in
1948. It has traditionally been marked throughout the world by meetings,
discussions and exhibitions on the achievements and goals of the UN. 
