quality schools international malta
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QSI Malta NewsletterTRANSCRIPT
NEWSLETTER
V O L U M E 1 I S S U E 9
Apr i l 2013
QSI Malta
NEWSLETTER
V O L U M E 1 I S S U E 9
P a g e 2
In this Issue
Mr Bud Iles
Director
Ms Caroline Sammut
Business Manager
Ms Maria Fenech
Marketing Consultant
Director’s Message
Mrs Iles’s Class Activities
Ms Rebecca’s Class Activities
Ms Kim’s Class Activities
Ms Kim’s Class Activities
Weekly Calendar
Address: Triq Durumblat
Mosta
MST 4815
Tel: 21423067 Fax: 21418213 Email: [email protected] Website: www.qsimalta.org
QSI Contact
Front Cover Picture:
Victoria
Photography by Maria L Fenech
All materials used in our newsletter and website, including logos, im-ages and articles are property of
QSI Malta and are subject to copyright.
This Month’s Sponsor
‘Lets Move’
Thank you
NEWSLETTER
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Director’s Message
Dear Parents, Students & Community Members,
Many years ago I met an old man while standing on a quay, looking out to the sea. We talked at length about life and the sea but one thought stood out in my mind from our conversation. It took a while for me to digest the meaning. He told me "It is better to travel hopefully in all that that you attempt to conquer rather than to arrive at the end." As we jump into the season of spring and the school year is coming to an end, I reflect on this saying and I think about its meaning. I can say that I am very happy with my travels at QSI International School of Malta
Mr Bud Iles
Director
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NEWSLETTER
V O L U M E 1 I S S U E 9
Mrs Iles’s Class Activities
Culture Event: Our class joined Ms. Gina’s class to meet the actors that perform reenactments of the Great Siege of Malta. All the students were “Knighted” by the Grand Master, La Valette. The big sword made the girls gig-gle. The Grand Master’s sword was heavier than the children expected. Many questions were asked and the students were especially interested in where the knights were buried.
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Language Arts: Our class has started a new morning routine which promotes more independent work and responsibility for the 4th Quintile. We have established a rotation system with the three tables to complete their morning journals, Mountain Language, and paragraph writing. Each day there is a new table leader in charge of organizing the work. I’m extremely proud of their work and this allows for more individual editing time with each student.
Writing Journals: I hope that all parents take the opportunity to read some of the great stories from the journals that were sent home this week. The students had a great time reflecting on their writing in September as compared to their current ability to write. Some of the comments from the September journals were: “I only wrote 10 words and they were not even spelled right.” “This story didn’t even make sense!” Please check to see that your child returns their Friday Folder to school every week.
Have a great spring break and I will see you on April 8th.
Mrs Iles
NEWSLETTER
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Mrs Iles’s Class Activities
Discovering various forces that affect movement…with time and distance…then recording data.
Choosing one design at a time to experiment with length, height, angles, and weight that affect collisions.
NEWSLETTER
V O L U M E 1 I S S U E 9
Ms Rebecca’s Class Activities
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Working together in a group to assemble a list of words which we could use as models to improve on spelling.
"Want to read more..." section
This week Ms Portelli's students focused on spelling words ending with the suffixes - ous, - ize and - ism. Learning endings can help students to scaffold their ideas on how to spell
challenging words.
Interestingly Oxford Dictionary has this to say on the subject of the difference between US and UK spelling which might surprise you!
-ize or -ise?
Many people visiting the version of our website ask us why we spell words such as realize, finalize, and organize with ‘- ize’ spellings, rather than ‘- ise’. There’s a widespread be-
lief that these spellings belong only to American English, and that British English should use the ‘- ise’ forms instead, i.e. realise, finalise, and organise. In fact, the ‘- ize’ forms
have been in use in English spelling since the 15th century: they didn’t originate in American use, even though they are now standard in US English. The first example for the
verb organize in the Oxford English Dictionary is from around 1425....
Read more here http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/03/ize-or-ise/
Rebecca Portelli
Language Arts & Literature
Middle School & High School TAHA can read - Taha believes spelling can be fun!
NEWSLETTER
Ms Rebecca’s Class Activities
A p r i l 2 0 1 3
P a g e 7
Working together in a group to assemble a list of words which we could use as models to improve on spelling.
"Want to read more..." section
This week Ms Portelli's students focused on spelling words ending with the suffixes - ous, - ize and - ism. Learning endings can help students to scaffold their ideas on how to spell
challenging words.
Interestingly Oxford Dictionary has this to say on the subject of the difference between US and UK spelling which might surprise you!
-ize or -ise?
Many people visiting the version of our website ask us why we spell words such as realize, finalize, and organize with ‘- ize’ spellings, rather than ‘- ise’. There’s a widespread be-
lief that these spellings belong only to American English, and that British English should use the ‘- ise’ forms instead, i.e. realise, finalise, and organise. In fact, the ‘- ize’ forms
have been in use in English spelling since the 15th century: they didn’t originate in American use, even though they are now standard in US English. The first example for the
verb organize in the Oxford English Dictionary is from around 1425....
Read more here http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/03/ize-or-ise/
Rebecca Portelli
Language Arts & Literature
Middle School & High School
P a g e 8
Modified Foods
by Amra
All over the world people grow Genetically Modified Foods, but what are Genetically Modified Foods? When
did it start? What problems come from it? Do they help us? These are all the questions we have and now I
shall tell you about Genetically Modified Foods.
Genetically Modified Foods are foods that have new genes from other organisms added to their existing
genes. Scientists take genes from other organisms and insert them into foods. The first Genetically Modi-
fied Foods started in 1994 when Calgene first marketed its Flavr Savr delayed ripening tomato.
Genetically Modified Foods have positive and negative parts. Some of the foods that are Genetically Modi-
fied can help people with allergies. These foods are said to be high in nutrients and they also grow faster
than normal foods. Genetically Modified Foods cost cheaper than normal foods, since they cost cheaper it
would be easier for people who don’t have a lot of money to buy these foods.
As I mentioned before, Genetically Modified Foods also have negative affects. According to experts people
who eat these foods can develop cancer. Some Genetically Modified Foods have antibiotic features built
into them to immune or resistant to diseases or viruses. When you eat them, these antibiotic markets per-
sist in your body and can make actual antibiotic medications less affective. The planting of herbicide resis-
tant crops might encourage farmers to use weed killers more freely since they could then be applied indis-
criminately to crop fields. As a result, the excess could be carried away by rainfall to pollute rivers and other
waterways.
Now you have gotten some answers to the questions so think, do we need genetically modified foods? Are
they safe? I think we don’t need them. They can cause cancer and pollute water. Our normal foods are fine
the way they are why do we need to change them? Our normal foods are healthy and nutritious. Geneti-
cally Modified Foods make medicines less affective and because of them farmers might use weed killers
more. If farmers use weed killers more than it can pollute rivers and other water ways. We have fine food,
we don’t need to change them our foods are fine the way they are.
NEWSLETTER
V O L U M E 1 I S S U E 9
Ms Kim’s Class Activities
P a g e 9
From Empty Bowls To Full Bowls
By Amra and Anika
In our reading class we read a book called Food for the World. In the book Rachel B. Heimovics, the
author, mentioned an event called Empty Bowls. But what is empty bowls? Empty Bowls is an event
where parents make soup and money is donated to an organization. So we decided to do the Empty
Bowls Event. It was challenging because we had to do research on World Population, Genetically Modi-
fied Foods, Aquaculture, the FAO and Save the Children organization. We also needed to do a six para-
graph essay on our topic.
Then we had to announce it to the whole school and to parents. So we broke up into two groups. One
group gave a speech to the all classes and the other group typed a letter to you. We also had to learn a
song to sing on Thursday.
After the Event, which went very well, we counted up all the money that was donated and as a result we
have 304.70 Euros to donate to the FAO. We are very proud of our work. THANK YOU FOR YOUR
SUPPORT!
More pictures on following page
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Ms Kim’s Class Activities
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V O L U M E 1 I S S U E 9
Ms Kim’s Class Activities
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Ms Kim’s Class Activities
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A p r i l 2 0 1 3
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April 2013
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Weekly Calendar
Date Hour Event
Mon 22
Tue 23
Wed 24
Thu 25
Fri 26 Quintile 4 ends on 29 April
Photography, Design & Production Maria Fenech (Marketing Consultant)
V O L U M E 1 I S S U E 9