There has been a terrible storm in the Philippines.
The Philippines is a country in southeast Asia.
Because it is an island in the Pacific Ocean, the Philippines often gets very bad weather, including earthquakes, volcanoes and typhoons.
However, Typhoon Haiyan is perhaps the worst natural disaster to ever befall the country.
The typhoon (tropical storm) hit the Philippines last Friday.
Its winds of up to 300 kilometres an hour whipped up the ocean waves.
The storm also caused flooding and landslides.
The country’s National Red Cross has launched a huge program to help the people whose houses were destroyed by the typhoon. About four million people were affected by the storm; thousands of people died. There are about 96 million people in the Philippines.
The government in the Philippines is being helped by some European countries and the United States.
The U.S. has sent planes and boats to help locate survivors and to get emergency supplies to people in need.
There are a large number of Catholics in the Philippines. Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic church, is asking people around the world to pray for the people of the Philippines. In Vatican City (where the Pope lives) he led thousands of people in silent prayer.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
When a disaster occurs, people from around the world want to help. What are the ways that people can help the areas in The Philippines that are most affected by the typhoon? Use examples from the article and your own ideas to brainstorm a list.
Reading Prompt: Making Inferences/Interpreting Texts
Using clues from the article, explain what a typhoon is. After you create your own definition, look up typhoons on the Internet or at the library. How is your definition similar/different to the definition you researched?
Junior
Use stated and implied ideas in texts to make inferences and construct meaning (OME, Reading: 1.5).
Intermediate
Develop and explain interpretations of increasingly complex or difficult texts using stated and implied ideas from the texts to support their interpretations (OME, Reading: 1.5).
Grammar Feature: Double Letters
Some of the trickiest words to spell are those that have double letters. For example, when spelling the word ‘Philippines’, some people get confused and think the word is spelled with two ls and one p instead of one l and two ps.
With tricky words, sometimes you just have to memorize them!
Try to memorize the spelling of these tricky words:
1. commit
2. millennium
3. accommodate
4. embarrass
5. broccoli
6. recommend
