Winner:

Natural disasters could be in the form of floods, tsunamis, droughts, landslides or others and could occur all over the globe. They cause death and destruction.

There are measures we can adopt to minimise certain natural disasters that occur in the world. One is minimising deforestation. By doing this, we will be able to minimise the number of natural disasters such as droughts, floods, and landslides. Trees support the water cycle by releasing water vapour into the atmosphere while producing food through photosynthesis. When trees are cut down, the water cycle is affected and we will receive less rain.

This will lead to drought. Therefore, by stopping deforestation we will be able to stop drought. Deforestation is also the cause of landslides. With the shortage of trees, the soil will have no cover, thus making the land open to rainfall. When it rains, the water will penetrate the soil and reach the stone layer underneath. When rainwater collects in this stone layer, it will weaken the land, which will eventually give away, causing a landslide.

In the same way, by minimising deforestation, floods can also be stopped. When an area that is deforested receives rainfall, the soil is washed away into rivers, lakes and ponds. Because of this, even slight precipitation will cause the rivers to overflow, creating floods. Another method of preventing natural disasters is stopping uncontrolled urbanisation.

The construction of too many factories and houses will cover up the land completely, thus making it difficult for the soil to absorb excess rainwater. This can cause floods. Yet another measure is to dispose of garbage in a systematic way. By dumping garbage into drains and waterways, we block the drainage of water, thus causing floods.

Therefore, it is my opinion that we, as humans, should try to prevent natural disasters for the well-being of both humans and animals.

Ruwimal Pathiraja,

Year 6 K, Royal College, Colombo 7.

A rescue mission

Winner:

Near the Bay of Trincomalee one morning, there was a strange sight . A long trunk popped up and down in the sea some distance from the shore.

The people looked at one another. They had never seen such a sight. Some were scared, but some were more sensible. The latter group were of the view that it must be somebody who needs help, deserted in the middle of the vast ocean.

Somebody who was suspicious informed the Navy officers about this sight. They were surprised to hear about this, but without any delay, set off to the sea in search of this mysterious creature.At last they came close to the huge head and trunk bobbing up and down in the water. It was holding its trunk upright to breathe. As you may all have guessed, it was an elephant!

Quick to act, the Navy men dived into the large blue ocean. Somehow, someone was able to get hold of one of the legs of the elephant. He tied the end of a rope to the elephant’s leg and the other end was given to the men in the Navy ship.It was a very difficult task to pull the elephant ashore, since it was half drowned and wriggling helplessly. Somehow the sailors managed to pull it ashore. When the elephant sensed that the land was getting closer it seemed to wriggle more and more!

The elephant was finally pulled to the shore. It belonged to a grassland not far away. It was easy to recognise because of the collar on the neck.It stood gazing at the Navy men for a while as if to thank them and walked off to the forest. Nobody could ever guess how it had gone that far into the water.Many insisted that it must have wanted to swim towards the island of its ancestors, the Aliya Doova.

However, it was lucky enough to escape with its life.

Harini Mihara Silva,

Grade 8E, Sujatha Vidyalaya, Nugegoda.

The cat and dog I loved

Once I had a cat and dog at home. They were very friendly, but sometimes they were rather angry. They were so pretty, cute and nice. I loved them so much. They liked to eat and drink all the things in our fridge, and I had nothing to eat.

They slept most of the time. I loved them very much.

Isuru Amandhi Wijesinghe,

Grade 2-F,

Musaeus College,

Colombo 7.

Your Poem

Good morning

Winner:

It’s the morning
The sun is rising
It’s a new day
A bright sunny day

In the beautiful morning
We hear birds singing
We see birds flying
Under the blue sky

The environment is beautiful
With lots of beautiful flowers
Children are going to school
With all their friends

Many colourful butterflies
Flying for nectar from flower to flower
We are happily watching them,
I wish you a ‘Good Morning’!

Minuri Ruwanka Undugodage, Grade 8K, Musaeus College, Colombo 7.

Dinosaurs

Many kinds of dinosaurs, big ones, small ones, raptors, tyrannosaurus and allosaurus, lived on Earth many years ago. There were mainly three types of dinosaurs; carnivores who ate meat, herbivores who ate plants, and omnivores who ate both. There is a nice movie about dinosaurs named Jurassic Park produced by Steven Spielberg. I like dinosaurs.

Disala Loneth Jayawardane,

Grade 3 A, S. Thomas’ Prep School, Colombo 3

The hobbies that I love

Winner:

Leisure is free time - we can use our leisure in many creative ways. If we have a useful leisure activity we will be happy and fresh. We should spend our leisure in meaningful and useful ways.

Such activities are very important to the life of students when they are tired of studying, leisure time activities give them relaxation and freedom.

As students we can select good leisure activities. Some of them are swimming, gardening, cycling, reading books, collecting stamps, playing computer games, camping, bird watching, drawing, making toys and creative arts and crafts.Collecting stamps is a popular hobby among schoolchildren. It is called philately. This is my hobby too.

It increases my knowledge and give me much pleasure, however it has to be done carefully. I have about three hundred stamps which I have pasted in two albums. We can learn many things about a country through its stamps. We can sell rare stamps at high prices. I started collecting stamps three years ago. It is a hobby that anyone can follow easily.Gardening is a very useful leisure time activity. It has many advantages. My garden is small but I have planted various fruits, vegetables and flowers in it. Some of the fruits are guava, pineapple, woodapple, mangoes, oranges and jambu. Some of the vegetables are brinjals, beans, pumpkin and tomatoes.

Some of the flowers are shoeflowers, anthurium, sunflowers, orchids, idda, roses, temple flowers, hendirikka and ehela.

I pull out weeds and water the garden every evening. My father, mother and sister help me with the work. Birds, butterflies and bees come to my garden to make it beautiful. We also get to eat fresh fruit and vegetables while I can earn some money as well selling them. It is a good exercise too.

Sometimes I read books, magazines, newspapers and novels. There is a saying "that reading makes a full man". Books help improve our knowledge and give pleasure. There are interesting books about travel, science, nature, history, myths and legends. Some books are educational while some are entertaining. I think these hobbies are very important in my life.

A. P. Navoda Dilrangi,

Grade 9, Godapitiya Central College, Akuressa.

Plants sustain life on earth

Winner:

The plant kingdom has sustained life on Planet Earth and assisted mankind to have a happy and tranquil mentality. Even a tiny patch of garden full of green leaves and flowers please our eyes in the same way a beautiful scenery or picture does. Plant life was the pioneering form of life on this planet and produced the food for the animal life that appeared subsequently. This chain has been controlling the balance of the eco-system ever since man was born.Trapping of solar energy and providing animals with their source of energy is a wonderful function of nature which maintains the balance in atmospheric gases especially oxygen and carbon dioxide, through its purifying effect. This fantastic process further helps maintain the water cycle of the planet too.

In short, the whole world remains, glistening and bristling with animal life, only because of the life-supporting functions performed by the ever green vegetation. We too are a part or component of animal life to be dependent on plants. So, why do we act so ungrateful and destroy the plant kingdom, thereby losing a source of energy as well as mental solace?

R. M. Pabodhi Tharushika,

Grade 10B, Mahasen National School, Nikaweratiya.