Winner:

My Mother Lanka

My country is Sri Lanka. It is known as the "Pearl of the Indian ocean." It is a small island. Its neighbouring country is India.

`Mother Lanka' has many natural features such as long rivers, huge mountains, cascading waterfalls and lush green forests. The most beautiful feature is the coastline around the country.

There are four main racial groups living in our country. They are Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and Burghers and they are Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians.

My country also exports crops such as tea, rubber, coconut and cinnamon. Tourism is a popular industry which is fast developing in Sri Lanka.

Our country has an abundance of naturally attractive places to lure tourists. These places enhance the scenic beauty of my motherland.

Our motherland is an admirable treasure island which God has given us. I am proud to be a Sri Lankan.

Thanushan Narayanan,

Grade 10,

Royal College, Colombo 7.

Winner:

I am a tree

I found myself hidden under the soil, then I felt water falling on me. I came out of the ground and felt the fresh air and sunlight on me.

I started to grow taller and bigger. The flowers started growing on me. It then became fruits and children started throwing stones at me. I give shelter to people. Animals stand under me. I gave them fruits for many years till I couldn't give them any more.

Then one day, I felt something hitting me hard. It hurt me very much. They cut me into huge logs and took me away, and I felt that I was not being loved by anyone.

Senooka Somerathne,

Grade 3B,

Royal International School,

Kegalle.

Winner:

The cow

The cow is a mature female of an ox. It gives us milk. It is a very useful animal. The little one is called a calf.

We use cowdung for plants to get a better crop. In the good old days people used cowdung to touch up the floor when building houses.

They love to eat grass and drink water and poonac. The cow is a domestic animal. They are friendly with people. We should save the lives of cows.

Thusvi Liyanage,

Grade 2C,

Royal Institute International School, Nugegoda.

Winner:

The job I like most

Everyone does a job to lead a happy life. My ambition is to become a teacher when I grow up. A teacher does a great service to children. Teaching is a noble profession and a teacher is respected by everyone.

A teacher imparts valuable knowledge to children. A teacher has a huge responsibility to make students perfect. A teacher also needs strength, courage, kindness and good manners.

All teachers are trained for two or three years at teachers' colleges before they teach children. A teacher faces many difficulties while teaching. No matter what the difficulties are I will try my best to become a teacher in the future and it is the dream of my life.

Amaya Amarasinghe,

Grade 7C,

Musaeus College, Colombo 7.

Winner:

Plans for the August vacation

As schoolchildren, August is a pleasant month for us as we wait eagerly for the holidays. The mid-term holidays will start in a few days. We are looking forward to it, because it is the longest vacation. We put aside our books, daily homework, complicated sums and difficult examination papers. Most Sri Lankan students have this outlook towards vacations.

There is a definition given by authentic educationists, that it is the period to relax from school work and studies, entertain and prepare for the next term. Nowadays most children are glued to the Internet, social network and television during the vacation.

This time it is ten days more than earlier ones because of the special events in the country. You should organise yourselves because it is such a long period, else we will lose out if we don't have proper time management.

For example draw up a daily time table including fun, enjoyment, relaxation, getting up early, exercising, gardening, reading and helping elders and limit time to surf the Internet, watching television and going on picnics.

If you follow a time table, the vacation would be marvellous. Give priority to your studies and last term notes. I hope you all spend a beneficial and an entertaining, balanced vacation with your creative ideas. Have a wonderful vacation!

Dewmini Sirithunga,

Grade 10D,

Sacred Heart Convent,

Galle.

A country I wish to visit

Italy is the country that I wish to visit. It is a Peninsula and has a long coastal area. The capital city of Italy is Rome. There is small state called Vatican in Rome.

Some of the famous cities in Italy are Naples, Venice, Bologna, and Florence. The majority of the Italians are Roman Catholics. Agriculture and farming gets a prominent place in Italy.

We can see juicy fruits in luscious valleys and steeples in Italy. Mount Etna is a volcano in Italy. Short cold winters are experienced in Italy.

Italy has canals as well as roads. People use boats called 'Gondolas' to travel along the canals. World famous personalities such as Galileo Galilee, Leonardo da Vinci and Guglimo Marconi were born in Italy.

Divya Jayamini Yashmira,

Grade 5B,

Royal International School.

Flowers

Flowers add beauty to the environment. They are the reproductive parts of a plant. Sepals, petals, stamen and carpel are the main parts of a flower.

The stamen is the male reproductive part of a flower. Carpel is a female reproductive part of a flower. Filament and anther are the two main parts of a stamen. Stigma, style, ovary and ovule are the main parts of a carpel. Sepals protect the flowering bud and are green in colour.

Petals are the most attractive and scented part of a flower. It attracts insects for pollination.

Shaheeka Sherin,

Grade 6A,

Royal International School,Kegalle.

A trip

My school holidays were during April. Our family arranged to go on a trip. We packed our bags in the evening and left home early in the morning at 4 O'clock.

At first we went to Pasikudah to one of my relative's house. We bathed in the Pasikudah beach in the evening. The next day we went to Arugam Bay. It was beautiful.

The following day we went to Nuwara Eliya and stayed there for two days. We went to Ambewala and the strawberry farm. We returned home the next day. We reached home at midnight. I enjoyed the trip a great deal.

Althaf Hussain Areeb, Grade 5A,

Amal International School.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall of China is one of the Seven Wonders of the world. It is not a single wall but a series of walls built and rebuilt by different Chinese dynasties over a thousand years.

The Great Wall stretches to about 6,560 km from East to West of China. It is the largest man-made structure on earth. The first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huangdi started the wall 2,000 years ago. He decided to construct the wall by unifying all the independent walls built in ancient times to protect China from the raids of the Northern Nomadic tribes. The Great Wall became the world's greatest military structure during the Ming dynasty. It is a beautiful place in China.

Himasha Liyanage, Grade 6B,

Royal International School.