Flowers beautify the environment

Winner:

Flowers have been important to man since ancient times. People love to grow flowering plants in their home gardens. Botanical gardens such as Peradeniya and Haggala have a wide variety of flowers. Natural forests such as the Sinharaja rainforest are also abundant in beautiful flowers.

Flowers have a lovely fragrance and they also beautify the environment. They appeal to everyone.

They brighten every occasion of our lives. We use flowers to express our feelings. They are also used in religious activities. Buddhists offer flowers to the Buddha. Hindus garland their gods with flowers.

People use them for decorations too. Flowers are an integral part at weddings and funerals.

Today flowers have become an important source of income. Many varieties of flowers are exported to foreign markets. Selling flowering plants brings in a good income.

Many valuable flowers are now endangered. Recently the araliya or frangipani trees were attacked by a fungus.

Fungi, pests, diseases and climatic changes are the major threats to flowering plants. We must take steps to overcome these threats. People should be encouraged to grow flowering plants in their home gardens.

Flowering plants should be well looked after. They should be manured, weeded and watered regularly.

Precautions should be taken to protect them from pests such as snails, caterpillars, rats and insects.

Malshani Nishara,
Grade 9E,
Royal Central College,
Polonnaruwa.
 

Giants of all giants

Winner:

The largest living creature on the Earth is the Blue whale. It weights 150 tonnes and is more than 24m in length. The giant animal is under the threat of extinction today.

The blue whale has a light-grey and white mottled pattern on its skin which appears as light blue just below the surface of the water, on a sunny day. This is the reason why it is called the blue whale.

These giants of the sea have huge tails which they use to push themselves through the water. They can swim as fast as 30 km an hour. But blue whales are not fishes. They cannot breathe underwater.

They can only stay underwater for 25 minutes. Sometimes they can swim more than 100m down below the surface of water. When they come up to breathe, they shoot water out of two holes on the top of their heads. Sometimes the water shoots about nine metres into the air.

Blue whales produce a very loud sound which travels across a vast expanse of the ocean, to communicate with each other.

They can live up to ninety years. Blue whales feed on krill or fish. The amount of food taken in as a meal is above two thousand kilograms.

In the summer they live in the seas near the north and south poles. In the winter they swim to warmer waters.

Their babies are born in warmer water in the winter. At birth the babies are already eight metres long. Although the blue whales are giants and in fact, can be called the giants of all giants, because they are so big, not many people see them. There is a lot of sea for them to hide in!

Anjalee Kaushalya Kitthangoda,
Grade 6A,
Negombo South International School,
Nittambuwa.

Blood!

Winner:

Blood is red
It is hot
Sometimes cool
If someone feels it
It is frightful.
Who likes blood?
We never like it
But the vampires do
I’m not sure if they are alive
Does anyone know for sure?
I don’t fear them
But are you afraid?
This seems to be a different topic
That is not written
But I know blood is dangerous
It even brings you death.

W. Sejeendra Shanuka,
Grade 11G,
Bandarawela Central College,
Bandarawela.

Value of trees

Winner:

Trees are a part of the environment. Both man and animal cannot exist without trees. So, we can call them a life saver. A tree serves us in many ways. We get fruit, medicines, shade, and timber from trees. We get rain which is most essential because of the trees. Trees are useful to birds as well. They build their nests in trees and also get their food. Many other animals too depend on trees for their existence. We know that the main cause for a drought is the felling of trees. When we cut down trees, the fountains of water on the surface of the Earth dry up.

Most people have not realised the value of trees. It is true that we need to cut down a tree sometimes, but we must plant many trees in its place. It takes only a few minutes to cut down a big tree, but it takes several years for it to grow.

The forest cover in Sri Lanka has been reduced to less than 20 per cent today. Even the forest reserves that are reserved by the government are being destroyed by unscrupulous people.

Trees can be regarded as a gift of nature to man and animal. Therefore, we should preserve them always. If we cut down trees without planting new trees in their place, our country will eventually become a desert. So let's save trees that save us.

Buwaneka Illangaratne,
Sussex College,
Kurunegala.

Sir Isaac Newton -a great scientist

Winner:

A. physicist, mathematician as well as a philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton was an all time scientist. He always tried to explain the behaviour of objects from a mathematical point of view. He imagined how the moon travelled along an orbit around the Earth.

He thought of an apple falling off a tree and assumed that it is attracted to the Earth, in some way for this to happen. He believed that the moon too has a similar attraction to the Earth. At a time when no one had ever thought of the Earth’s gravitational force, this great scientist discovered it and published his findings very accurately.

Newton as a student enjoyed constructing various things apart from doing his classroom activities. Solar discs, models of windmills, water clocks and trolley are some of the creations which caught his interest.

Even though he was a very silent person he enjoyed flying kites attached with lanterns in his spare time. Some of his major discoveries are the laws of gravitation and motion, behaviour of light when travelling through various media, first reflection telescope and certain areas of mathematics.

Rikzan Rizvi,
Zahira College,
Colombo-10.

Stars call us to play

Winner:

Thousands and thousands of stars
Are looking at me.
They are playing with the rabbit on the moon.
They invite me to play with them.
When I go to play with the stars.

Their mother the moon frowns at me.
What a beautiful thing the moon is?
"But, it is very cruel inside",
A bat shouted in an ugly voice
In that dreamy night and
Oh! Suddenly I woke up...

I ran out and looked up at the stars
Which seemed like glittering diamonds
I felt so sad, because,
They didn’t look back at me.

They were talking with the river nearby,
Were they angry with me,
Because I didn’t play with them?
Now the moon is laughing with me..

L.H. Isuri Arunodai,
Grade 10-1,
Veyangoda Central College.