An imaginary animal

Winner Under 9 years

The first time I saw this animal was in my flower garden. It was strange and beautiful. When I was walking in the garden, it was sitting on a tree branch. I hid behind the wall and watched.

It was in a size of Liliput. It jumped out from the tree and got into a flower. It drank nectar greedily. Then it sang and danced happily.

I went closer. Suddenly, it jumped onto my shoulder. I felt happy. It talked to me in a sweet voice. But I could not understand. Then my pet dog barked loudly at us. Suddenly it disappeared

Binuri Gunawardana
(6 years)
Musaeus College

Christmas

On a wintry cold morning,
I sit up and dream,
For the dawning of Christmas,
How long the days seem.

Snowflakes are falling!
What fun to go sleighing!
Playing and laughing,
In the spirit of merry-making!

Here comes Santa!
With a big bag of toys,
Gifts and presents,
For all girls and boys!

My wish for this year is,
May there be no fear,
For a Christmas that's peaceful,
With love and good cheer!

Ayodhya Perera
(Grade 6)
Bishop’s College

Bogglehead

Winner 9-12 years

Bogglehead was a cute little alien.
Bogglehead was also very
playful and amusing.
He was friendly and easily got to know people.
Many people thought of him as cute and adorable.
He was a good friend and a
lovable companion.
He is very wobbly as he cannot walk properly on his tentacle legs.
Bogglehead was loyal to his friends.
But when it came to food he was a bit too greedy.

Farah Rameez
(10 years)
Ilma International School

In the teacher's chair for a day

Winner 12-14 years

Sh..oo..oo! Came a noise, just when I opened the door of my new classroom and stepped inside. "Good morning children!" I said with pride. "Good morning Miss Husna" came my reply from my students. This was my first day in this class.

"I have come to teach English for you as your old teacher is going to training college", I said looking at the children. Next I went and sat on the teacher's chair that gives me respect and asked the children to introduce themselves. After that I appointed a girl named Lizz as the English monitor as everyone voted for her.

"What I want to tell you is that I never let room for my pupils to seek private tuition. I always do my work thoroughly and to the best of my ability. So if you have any problems please inform me," I said, standing up.

These children got very friendly with me. I really enjoyed teaching them. After that I said good morning again and walked out of the class. I banged my head on the door. "Ouch", I said and looked around. I was out of my bed, lying on the floor. Then I realized that I had been dreaming.

Husna Woleedh (13 years)
Hillwood College,
Kandy

Christmas Season

Now again Christmas has come
Santa on his way down
Bringing all the gifts we asked
Down the chimney when midnight pass.

Santa and the snowman are best friends
They come this season to have more friends
We all will be their good friends
By welcoming them to our homes again.
- Merry Christmas -

Tracy De Silva
St. Lawrence's College

Christmas

We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas. Christmas comes on December 25. We make a tall and beautiful Christmas tree. We hang Christmas decorations like stars, bells, Santa's and angels on the tree. We make a lovely crib too. My family attends midnight Christmas mass. I send (hand made) Christmas cards to my friends and wish them, "Happy Christmas." In churches they sing carols. We give gifts to poor people. Santa comes from the North Pole to give gifts to good children. At home my mother makes cakes and sweet meats for Christmas. It's a joyful and peaceful time for everybody.

Bhagya Pandithakoralage
(8 years)
St. Bridget's Convent

Earth in danger

Humans are damaging our planet in a number of ways – by using up precious resources too quickly, by destroying the habitats in which plants and animals live and by pollution.

Talking about pollution, it can be divided into three groups, water pollution, air pollution and land pollution. The main reason for air pollution is smoke. Factories and power stations put out dirty smoke and poisonous gases into the air and also the smoke from vehicles and burning forests, cause air pollution.

Water is polluted with toxic chemicals, oil and sewage. People wash their cars and pets near the rivers and the chemicals which are used by farmers and factories also cause this massive problem.

Land pollution happens due to the dumping of garbage. Using chemicals harm the micro-organisms which live underground. These things cause land pollution. When the land gets polluted we can't get any use out of it. And without water, air and land, we can't even survive. So we have got to protect our earth. For me, you and for all of us.

Indumini Randeny
(14 years)
Sirimavo Bandaranayake Vidyalaya

Saturn

Saturn is the famous 'ringed planet, in our solar system. It is more beautiful than the other planets in our solar system. Only Jupiter is larger than this gas giant.

Although Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun, it is clearly visible to an unaided eye as a bright golden star. Its rings are clearly visible through a small telescope.

Measured from edge to edge, Saturn's rings span about 600,000 miles (one million kilometres) or two and a half times the distance from earth to the moon. Saturn's rings are made of ice and rock. They are not solid but consist of small chunks of frozen material in a layer just a few thousand feet thick. They may have formed with Saturn itself, or much later when some of its moons collided or were struck by a comet or an asteroid, splitting into fragments we see today. Saturn has at least 23 moons around it.

Like the moons of Jupiter, Saturn's moons each have unique characteristics. For example, Titan – which is larger than planet Mercury – has an atmosphere of hydrogen, and may be covered by vast lakes or oceans of liquid methane.

Another of Saturn's moons, Lapetas, is bright and icy on one side and dark and dusty on the other. And one small moon, Mimas, was once hit by an asteroid that almost broke the moon apart. Enceladuse, the moon next to Mimas, has a bright icy coating.

Volcanoes may periodically belch ice and water from its interior. Like all the gas giants, Saturn is not a very appealing place for humans to visit. The hydrogen atmosphere is not breathable, and the terrible winds that stir the atmosphere would certainly tear apart any living thing.

Koshila Peiris
(Grade 7)
Princess of Wales College,
Moratuwa

My class teacher

My class teacher's name is Fahima. She likes to teach us. She comes from Wellampitiya. She explains things to us very well. She always tries to teach us good habits. She likes to read magazines. She comes to school early. She is a good teacher. May God Bless You. I like my teacher.

Sridder Kanishker (Grade 3)
Zahira College

Myself

My name is Serena Warnakula. I am six years old. I live in Moratumulla. My favourite hobby is watching cartoons. I like to eat mangoes. I like to be a teacher some day.

Serena Warnakula (Grade 1)
Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya

The butterfly

The butterfly is an innocent insect. It has two wings. They are very colourful and beautiful. It has two feelers. It sucks nectar from flowers. Some children like to watch butterflies. We can see lots of butterflies at the zoo.

Uvini Jayasinghe (Grade 2)
Musaeus College

My Barbie pencil-holder

I have a nice Barbie pencil-holder. My mother and father bought it for me. It is pink in colour and is very beautiful. I like my pencil-holder very much.

Mahima Sivapathan
(Grade 3)
Lyceum International School,
Wattala

A wish for Christmas

Father Christmas,
What are your plans?
Are you coming,
Like last Christmas?
Is it a doll, or is it a bell?
only for me,
Like last Christmas.
Oh! Father Christmas,
Just bring me,
a gift of peace,
wrapped with love,
For me to share,
with everyone,
For Christmas.

Harini Nanayakkara
(Grade 4)
Lyceum International School,
Panadura

Television

Television was introduced to our country in the recent past and now it has spread far and wide. In remote villages most people spend their leisure time watching TV programmes. Television is a good media for instruction because there are programmes for children as well as for adults. Young and old alike enjoy these programmes. We should be very thankful to John Logie Baird for this great invention.

Ameena Siraj
(13 years)
Al-Imran International School,
Kandy

Spot and Lucky

Blacky and Spot are stray bitches. Blacky is a black dog and Spot is a white dog with black spots. Blacky is Spot's mother.

Recently Blacky gave birth to five puppies. Then one puppy was taken to a home as a pet. Two were knocked down by vehicles and another one fell into a hole and died. Only the luckiest puppy was able to stay with her mother, so I named her Lucky.

Now Blacky's two daughters are best friends. They share their food and they play together too. They sleep near our gate and they come running into our garden when we open the gate.

I love Lucky and Spot very much.

Samith Ailapperuma
(7 years)
Trinity College,
Kandy

My favourite movie

Every year several movies come to the screen. One such movie is 'Punchi Suranganavi.' It is one of the best movies I have ever watched.

It was directed by Somarathne Dissanayake and produced by Renuka Balasooriya.

The story is about a little Tamil girl and a little Sinhala boy. The Tamil girl is the servant in the boy's house but they are friends. The little boy's parents are separated. For this reason he is very aggressive and difficult to control. And also he has become dumb. He is cured because of his friend.

The story goes on and ends up tragically.

Nimashi Silva (Grade 6)
A/Central College

My trip to Polhena beach

On September 1, 2006 my family and I, went to my grandmother's place and stayed the night there. The next day at eight o'clock in the morning we went to Polhena beach and swam in the sea. My sister was frightened and sat on a rock, watching the sea. My father went to the beach and took my sister to the sea, but she ran back again to the rock and sat there.

I saw some fish swimming in the sea. I tried to catch a fish but I couldn't as it swam very fast.

A few minutes later, my sister came into the sea and played with me. While we were playing I saw some boys also playing with a ball. The ball fell into the water and floated. A boy swam towards the ball and tried to catch it but he couldn't. The ball floated away.

At about one o'clock we went back to my grandmother's place.

Nuwanga Weerakeshara
(Grade 4)
Richmond College,
Galle

Our staple food

Our staple food is rice. It is rich in carbohydrates. Farmers do a great service to supply rice. Rice is one kind of cereal. This cereal helps us in many ways, as it is a carbohydrate rich food, which helps to develop our body. We often eat rice with curries such as meat, fish, vegetable curries etc. There are so many types of rice. Some are white in colour and some red. I love to eat rice very much.

Champika Herath
(11 years)
Kuli/ Asseduma Subharathie Vidyalaya