My favourite cartoon

Winner:

My favourite cartoon is Dora. Dora is a girl. She is always with her best friend Boots. Boots is a monkey.

We can learn good things from Dora. I like Dora very much.

G. Shisuka T. Pinnaduwa,
Grade 2,
Stanley Thilakarathna Vidyalaya,
Mirihana,
Nugegoda.

Value of reading

Winner:

Almost all of us know that “Reading maketh a full man”. It is a valuable saying. It is very valuable because we know that there are numerous advantages of reading.

I think that reading gives a person a deep knowledge about various subjects. Reading books as a hobby is very useful because its value is immeasurable.

There are so many things such as novels, story books, fairy tales, newspapers, magazines, articles and biographies to read. However, one must know what to read and what not to read. We should choose the correct thing to read when we are free.

The people who are interested in reading know that it is a good exercise which develops our brain and mental power.

And reading also improves our language skills such as vocabulary and understanding of idiomatic expressions. Reading gives us pleasure because of the details included in books. Really interesting books take us to a fantastic world.

Anyway, reading is a good habit to spend our leisure in a useful way.

We can read thousands of books in libraries to get the maximum use of reading. Finally, reading helps us to be good citizens in the future. So, friends let us cultivate the habit of reading and enjoy it.

Maheshi Wijesinghe
Grade 11
Holy Family B.M.V.,
Kurunegala.

The story of my early school days

Winner:

The early school days are a very memorable and interesting part that plays an important role in all children. It is the phase of life where a child first attends school. It is simply the stepping stone to a child’s future.

s a Montessori student of Methodist College, about 10 years ago, I didn’t leave my parents. I remember how my parents took me to school early morning each day. After I completed my education in the Montessori, I left Methodist College and joined as a pre-grader of American International School. When I first attended AIS, I just stared at all the ‘aunties and uncles’ passing the room.

At first, I would not talk to anyone or even smile. I pretended as if they were pieces of furniture I would stare at them and pretend that I was not listening. Later on, I became very friendly and loved spending time with my friends.

I joined Lakeland Inter-American School as a student of Year 4. When I first attended LIAS, I thought that I would not have any friends and I would have to make some new friends over again.

It was a time when I missed my dear friends at AIS so badly, but when I saw some of my childhood friends I was over the moon. I was overjoyed! Happiness instantly flooded through me! Even the teachers at LIAS were very friendly and kind.

They helped me understand lessons I could not comprehend. They even helped me to overcome certain problems I had. I am forever grateful to all the teachers who have helped my friends and me, whether it is sports meet, prize-giving or drama practices.

As a student of Year 10, I spent the best part of my life. Even though I was a very shy student, I grew up to be more friendly and gradually lost my shyness.

I loved making friends and I still do so. I love to have a lot of friends. My friendship and love for my brothers and sisters at school will always remain. Our friendship with each other has created a very strong bond. We help each other whenever possible.

I would like to thank my dear parents, family, teachers and friends for always being there for me. I thank God for giving me such good parents, teachers and friends. It is because of God that I am what I am today.

Tahanee Harris,
Grade 9,
Lakeland Inter-American School.

Let’s keep our pets healthy

Winner:

When we get ill, we really worry as we always like to live happily. Not only us our pets also like to live happily with their masters. So, when we look after our pets, we have to be more careful as we also love them a lot.

Today the life expectancy of pets is decreasing more and more is a real problem. Most important cause for that is overweight. Specially dogs and cats easily get obese.

So, at least once a month we should do a full examination and check whether our pets are healthy or not. Also we have to control sugar and starchy foods as if we give more and more our pets will get ill.

I would like to tell something to you that our pets also can get high blood pressure, diabetes and heart attacks.

So, we have to exercise our pets daily for their healthy life. Most dangerous disease our pets can get is rabies. So we have to vaccinate our pets annually.

Our pets are also a marvellous gift of nature. Therefore, we have to look after them carefully and we have to keep our pets healthy like our other family members.

Naomi Thamasha,
Grade 8 Olu,
Sirimavo Bandaranayake Vidyalaya.

The person I admire most

Winner:

The person I admire most is my grandmother. Her name is S.G. De Silva. She is 75 years old. She was an English teacher. She is very fair. Now she is not teaching and now gets a pension. Her favourite subject is English. She teaches us English stories and fairy tales. Her husband is Piyadasa. They have four children, three daughters and one son. My grandmother has five sisters and five brothers. She likes her children very much.

Our grandfather is a factory owner. He had a car and a lorry and he was a very rich person. He helps poor people always. He is very fair. When he was seventy he passed away. He spoke English very well and I love my grandparents very much.

Umesh Irushika,
Grade 5,
Lyceum International, Ratnapura.

Benevolence or generosity

Benevolence or generosity is the quality of being friendly, helpful and charitable. A generous person is always full of compassion for others and ever prepared to help those in need. A person can show his or her generosity not only through actions, but also through thoughts and words. The word generosity covers many activities such as giving food, clothes, shelter and other material things, helping to set up scholarship for the talented, needy children, saving the life of animals taken for slaughter and providing safety to a person and fear. It's not always necessary to have much wealth, to be generous.

Giving even a very little amount to a needy person will make that person happy. A quality of generosity is giving happily without grumbling. Giving something to a person due to someone's force is not generosity. Generous people provide not only for human beings, but also for animals with their basic needs.

In most of our homes, we place a vessel with food in the garden for birds and squirrels. We setup birdbaths in our gardens. Our ancient kings had set apart certain forest areas or places free of fear to make the animals live happily without fear. Even now there are several such places known as sanctuaries such as Yala, Wilpattu and Wasgamuwa. The first known sanctuary in the world was set up by King Devanampiyatissa in Mihintale on the advice of Arahant Mahinda Thera.

Giving advice to a person who always behaves badly and does wrong things and console a person who is in grief are ways of showing generosity through words. Thinking kindly about others is also an act of benevolence. A person who helps another with generosity does not expect anything in return. He does not expect even praise and recognition. But a generous person is always liked and praised by others. He himself feels happy when he sees that he has made other people happy. This is the best reward he/she can get. So, let's practise generosity and try to be a generous person in order to become a good citizen in the society.

U.G. Nimesha
Ruwanara Wasundara,
Grade 9, Sussex College,
Nuwara Eliya.

Where does light come from?

People used to believe that light came out of our eyes and lit up things so that we could see them. Now we know that our eyes take in light.

The most important source of light is the Sun which gives us light during the day. What would our lives be like without the Sun? Light comes from other sources too. They are from candles, torches and lamps.

P.B. Jithmi Rinushika,
Grade 5A,
Lyceum International School, Nuwara Eliya.