My best friend is Shahen. He is 6 years old. He lives in Nugegoda. Shahen has a little brother. He likes to eat apples and drink water.

I like him because he is good and plays with me. We both love to swim and play together. We play during the school interval. I love my best friend.

My father

By Ashan Selvanayagam (8 years), S. Thomas' Preparatory School, Colombo 3

My father's name is Suresh Selvanayagam. He is forty years old.
He is an accountant.
He works in Padukka.
He takes us to school.
He reads newspapers.
He has a beautiful car. He gives us surprises.
I love my father very much.

I am a calendar

By Inuka Rodrigo (Grade 4), Thurstan College

I am in every house, office and other places. I am divided into twelve months from January to December. I inform the dates and the days, holidays and special events in each month. At the beginning of every year you can see me in different designs.

An unforgettable day

By Ahmed Ahzin (10 years), Amal International School

It was a Saturday afternoon and we were returning from my hometown. We stopped to have lunch at a Habarana restaurant. There my parents decided to go to Sigiriya. It was my first visit to Sigiriya.

My father bought the entrance tickets. We passed the inner moat. Then we passed the gate and we reached the foot of the rock.

We climbed up but I got tired while climbing. But at last we reached the Lion's Paw. Then we climbed again and after a tiring half an hour we reached the top. Then we looked at the rock pool at the summit and the view was breathtaking.

When we climbed down, we looked at the paintings. I was amazed at how they were drawn. We then
continued to climb down and walked back to our car. We got into the car and continued our journey back to Colombo.

For me, visiting Sigiriya was an unforgettable incident in my life. It was a wonderful trip. I wish I could go there again.

My country

By Dayan Samarasinghe (7 years), S. Thomas' College, Mt. Lavinia

My country is Sri Lanka. It is in the Indian Ocean. It is a small country. It has the shape of a mango.

There are nine provinces in Sri Lanka. There are mountains and rivers in Sri Lanka. There are Sinhalese, Muslims, Tamils and Burghers living in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka gained independence on February 4, 1948. Sri Lanka is very beautiful. I love Sri Lanka a lot.

The day my cousin left

By Changa Malawige (Grade 4), Visakha Vidyalaya

My cousin's name is Denushka. She is big. She is done schooling, so she was leaving to Australia for more studies. Two days before she left there was an almsgiving, to get her more blessings and the day she was leaving there was a dinner. All of us were there to play and eat and laugh.

At about 8 in the night, we all left home in three vehicles to go to the airport to drop her. Most of us cried when we hugged her to say goodbye. The day was sad but filled with fun.

Twilight

By Mariam Sadique (12 years), Bishop's College

Twilight is a series of four books by the author Stephenie Meyer. It is based on a romantic
fantasy and is young adult fiction. It's about the life of Isabella "Bella" Swan, a girl who moves to a town called Forks and falls in love with a 104 year old vampire named Edward Cullen.

The four books are called 'Twilight', 'New Moon', 'Eclipse' and 'Breaking Dawn'. The series is told from Bella's point of view with the epilogue of Eclipse and Part II of Breaking Dawn told by Jacob Black, a werewolf. The unpublished 'Midnight Sun' is a re-telling of Twilight by Edward Cullen.

There are movies based on Twilight. The main characters are Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen, Kristin Stewart as Bella Swan, and Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black.

The other characters are; Edward's family – Carlisle, Esmee, Emmert and Alice Cullen as well as the twins, Roseline and Jasper Hale – the foster children of the Cullens, Jacob's pack of wolves and Victoria and her army – Bella's sworn enemies.

The most interesting book is Breaking Dawn where Edward marries Bella, has a daughter named Renesmee after both their mothers, and when Edward and Jacob become friends.

My new ink pen

By Anil Pandithakoralege (9 years), St. Peter's College, Colombo 4

My new ink pen is red in colour and it has a lovely painted nib. Do you know who invented the ink pen? It was invented by Lewis Waterman.

I write with it in school and at home. I fill it with blue ink. It writes neatly and clearly. My father gave it to me. I keep it very carefully in my pencil box.

Every Sunday I fill it with blue ink. Ink pens are also called fountain pens. I will now tell you a little bit of history of the ink pen. In old times, people wrote with quill pens.I think my ink pen is very handy.

My train

By Rashvin Senanayake (7 years), British School in Colombo

I got my train for my 7th birthday. It is a Hornby train made in England. The name of the model is 'The Coastal Freight'. The set has a locomotive, two wagons, Iomac and load plus a coach.

My dad set it up on a piece of wood. He pasted the sheet on the wood. We laid the train tracks on the sheet. We then put the train on the tracks and put the switch on. Then off went the train!

Myself

By Oshadi De Silva (Grade 3), St. Michael's National English School, Homagama

My name is Oshadi. I'm seven years old. My mother's name is Lakmini. My father's name is Chandana. He is a businessman. I am in Grade Three. I go to school by jeep.

The name of my school is St. Michael's National School. The name of my class teacher is Miss. Maadavi. I like to be a doctor. I want to help poor patients.

My hobby

By Kalani Chanika (Grade 8), B/Dikkapitiya Vidyalaya, Welimada

My hobby is gardening. I have a beautiful garden. I grow vegetables and beautiful flowers in it. There are carrots, potatoes, chillies and tomatoes in it. There are roses, anthuriums, jasmine and many other flowers in my flower-beds.

My father helps me in my garden. I feel happy when I see flowers in my garden. I pick fresh fruits and vegetables from my garden. It saves money from buying vegetables from the market. It is an
interesting hobby.

Peace

By Sawanthi Delpe Arachchi (13 years), Mahamaya Girls' College, Kandy

There are diverse people in this world. Co-operation among these people is essential for their
survival. There is a special force that keeps living beings together. That is peace.

Peace is the unity, trust, love, harmony and understanding prevailing among people. Human nature varies according to each individual which results in conflicts. One small conflict may develop into a war gradually. A world without smiles is like a dry, parched land.

Peace is the only solution which controls war among nations. To make peace, all of us have to get together and work in harmony. Unity and strength can destroy evil. We have to act reasonably and bring peace upon our mother Earth.

Then, our planet will be the most pleasant place to live. The messenger of peace will fly in the sky. Peace will make our Earth better than the heaven above.

Our little step today, will enlarge gradually making the entire Earth blessed with peace. So let's put aside our cultural, religious and ethnic differences and work to achieve peace.

Sources of knowledge

By Chathuka Bandara, Sussex College, Kurunegala

'Knowledge is power' is a great saying that prevails in our society. There are a lot of ways in which we can acquire knowledge. Books, magazines, newspapers and tabloids are some of them. Newspapers keep us abreast of current news in the world.

Encyclopaedias were developed from dictionaries. While dictionaries give us only the spelling and definition of a word, encyclopaedias are a complete summary of information. The internet is a very popular source of knowledge which gives us a vast amount of current and historical information.

Books not only give us knowledge but also give us a lot of entertainment. We learn poems, stories, reports, history and adventures through books. Each religion has their own books such as the 'Bible' for the Christians, the 'Quran' for the Muslims, the 'Dhammapada' for the Buddhists and 'Veda' for the Hindus. The 'Mahavansa' is considered as our oldest record of history.

Knowledge cannot be separated from man. Therefore it is our duty to develop our knowledge.

Dinosaur periods

By Mihan Rathninde (Grade 2), Eastern Elementary School, Indiana, USA

When dinosaurs ruled the Earth the world was much different; there were no humans; all the
continents were stuck together. In the Triassic it was called Panagaea, which means 'all earth' in Greek. In the Jurassic it was called Gondwana. In the Cretaceous it was called Laurasia. That was the continent that most recently existed.

One flying creature from the Cretaceous called Quetzalcoatlus was about 13 m long! The first dinosaurs to evolve were in the Triassic period. The long neck dinosaurs and vicious predators evolved in the Jurassic.

The horned dinosaurs and raptors and bigger long necks evolved in the Cretaceous. Dinosaurs died in the late Cretaceous period by a meteor that hit the Earth. The other dinosaurs from different continents died from natural disasters.

Some animals that you know like opossums survived the extinction of dinosaurs. When palaeontologists discover fossils of a new dinosaur they bring it to a museum so other palaeontologists can look at it and decide what it is.

This was a great opportunity for me to share my knowledge about dinosaurs with you. Remember to go outside and explore nature and make your own discovery.

My class teacher

Dilini Dimanthika (5 years), Colombo International School, Kandy

My class teacher's name is Miss. Rukshana. She is about 30 years old. She teaches well. She is kind. She is happy to see me. I like her because she's helpful. I like my class teacher.

The Sinharaja Rainforest

By Nilfa Issadeen Fathima B.M.V., Puttalam

The Sinharaja rainforest is the only undisturbed rainforest left in Sri Lanka. It is about 9000 hectares in extent. The climate is humid because of heavy rainfall in the Sinharaja rainforest.

The Sinharaja rainforest is the largest rainforest in Sri Lanka. In 1840, Sinharaja became a crown property. This is the first national heritage of Sri Lanka.

There are many kinds of trees, shrubs, herbs and woody climbers in Sinharaja forest. Sinharaja provides habitat to many rare animals, birds, butterflies, insects, reptiles and trees. The purple faced monkeys can be observed easily in Sinharaja.

Wild pig, leopard, fishing cat, barking deer and mouse deer are the animals we find in the Sinharaja.

Some threatened species of birds are found in this forest. This also controls floods, which is due to heavy
rainfall in the area.