Hello Children,
I'm sure most of you would remember your first day at school, when your mother or father took you to school. Everything would have been so new and exciting but also a little scary. Maybe your parents would have related stories about their school days and how they were taken care of by your grand parents. Your grand parents too would have interesting stories to tell about your ammi's and thathi's but most of us don't take much notice of what they have to say, do we?. They are left alone most of the time but given a chance they could be your friends and companions. Did you know that last week was dedicated for the elderly people? Have you'll ever visited a home for the elderly? Some old folk sspend their days longing for their children to visit them. You can make their days a bit brighter by visiting such places and by giving them some of your time. So why not start right away with your own grand parents!
Until next time
Aunty Sunshine
Every mischievous little child's innocent dream or expectation would be to go to school someday. When the elder children in a family go to school the younger children are also anxious to do the same.
One day my sweet dream came true. It was my first day of school. It was a special day. On that day I went to school with my mother. I wore a new frock and new shoes. I had new books and a bag.
There were many children in the school. Some children were very mischievous and others were crying. I entered my classroom with excitement.
I handed a boquet of flowers to my new class teacher and wished her good morning. She was the very first teacher to teach me in school. She is Miss Reka Samarasinghe. She is very beautiful and was kind to us. As time passed I came to love my school life.
I was very happy because my new friends and I used to play when school closed for the day. I felt very sad. But in a flash I remembered, that I will be coming to school the next day.
B. A. Imesha Sanjeewani,
Convent of Mary Immaculate,
Matara.
Here are the first lines of ten famous poems. What are the names of the poems and who wrote them?
1. I sprang to the stirup and joris and he;
2. At Flores in the Azores Sir Richard Grenville lay
3. Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
4. Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
5. O what can ail thee, knight at - arms
6. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
7. I wandered lonely as a cloud
8. Slowly, silently, now the moon
9. If I should die, think only this of me;
10. He did not wear his scarlet coat
Answers
1. How they brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix - Browning
2. The revenge - Tennyson
3. The Tiger - Blake
4. The Burial of Sir John Moore after Corunna - Wolfe
5. La belle Dame Sans Merci - Keats
6. Henry V at the Siege of Harfleur - Shakespeare
7. Daffodils - Wordsworth
8. Silver - De la Mare
9. The Soldier - Brooke
10. The Ballad of Reading Gaol - Wilde
By Michelle De Saram,
Asian International School.
He waits at the doorstep
Eyes fixed on the path way
Till I come home from school
A glimpse of my figure
Gets him excited
With boundless happiness
He jumps onto his feet
And runs towards me
Wagging his tail, he smiles up at me
He welcomes and takes me home
And conveys my arrival to all at home
I see a wealth of trust in his eyes
When he looks up at me
He guards and loves me
Yet never expects anything from me
Rajitha Bandara Dissanayake,
Sri Sumangala M. M. V.,
Ku/Wariyapola.
Electricity is another new discovery of modern science and technology. Today the progress of our country mainly depends on electricity. Modern living without electricity would be nearly impossible. Vast indsustrial and technological corporations would have to shut down if there was no electricity.
The water-pumps, electric motors, the television stations and the communication systems depend on electric power. All office machines from computers to air conditioners need electricity. A modern housewife-fumes, frets and feels helpless when there is a power-cut. All the latest sensitive equipments the X'Ray machines, life supporting machines and even the operating rooms in our hospitals depend on a non-stop flow of electricity.
In short all machines that work with amazing speed and accuracy to make our life and living worth-while, need electricity.
Electricity therefore has become our master and has made fascinating changes in our lifestyle. It will continue to perform greater wonders than it has hither-to done.
So our duty is to use it carefully and protect it without wasting it in vain.
Priyanganie Renuka Kumari,
Sri Sumangala National College,
Wariyapola,
Kurunegala.
We need water for drinking, bathing and washing. We cannot live without water. We eat plants and animals. Plants need water to grow. Animals too feed on plants and drink water. So water is important for plants, animals and men.
We have to clean our body, clothes, cooking pots and pans and dishes. We need water to boil the rice, vegetables, fish and meat. Water is necessary for making things in a factory.
We can get water from the well, the lakes, rivers and tanks. The spring water (Well water) is good for drinking. We water the farms and fields from the lakes and river. Animals drink water in the ponds and pools.
Water gives us power too. Rivers and water falls help us make electric power. We use hydro power for many things. Hydro power is cheaper than steam engine power. Steam is again water in another form. We can quite correctly say "No water, No life on Earth."
F. Shezny Rauf,
Year 6 D,
Mt. Anuna Maha Vidyalaya,
Matale.
Crocodiles are reptiles rather like enormous lizards in appearance.
Their bodies are covered with horny plates and they live in warm areas
in or near rivers. They move quite easily on dry land though their short,
sturdy legs do not allow them to run with any great speed. However, in
the water their movements are more rapid. There are many species of crocodile
and their sizes 
range
from 1.5 metres to seven metres in length.
The Mississippi Alligator of North America is similar to the crocodile but less agile on land. The Black Cayman of the Amazon (which is hunted for its skin) can be as much as five metres in length. The American Crocodile will go out to sea to look for food. It is found in the southern United States and in South America and may be seven metres long.
The Esturine or Salt-water Crocodile is found in the area between India and northern Australia. Up to seven metres long, it often leaves the river estuaries and may swim a long way from the shore. This is the crocodile which is more truly marine than the others. It is a very dangerous species and will readily attack man.
The Nile Crocodile
This species has now disappeared from some parts of Africa because of excessive hunting during the first few decades of the twentieth century. The Nile Crocodile is a huge animal, six metres long. It was once hunted because it killed domestic cattle and also claimed many human victims. Now it is hunted for commercial reasons, to provide the skins for crocodile-skin shoes and handbags. Like many other predators, crocodiles are important in maintaining the ecological balance of their environment by keeping down excessive numbers of fish and killing sick and old animals near the water. They will also take antelope, giraffe, buffalo and even lions when they come to water to drink. However, their teeth are not adapted for chewing freshly-killed animal flesh and because of that they often drag away their prey to a hole underwater, leaving it there to putrefy.
A Protective Mother
Mating occurs after a ritual display in the water in which the male crocodile follows the female and swims round her in a circle. The female digs holes along the river-bank and lays between thirty and forty eggs in them, covering the holes afterwards with sand and grass. During the incubation period (11 to 14 weeks), the mother stays near the nest, guarding it against large lizards, baboons, hyenas and other intruders. Just before hatching, the young crocodiles make a noise to signal to their mother to come and remove the hardened sand and grass covering the holes, and to help them out. The young crocodiles stay with their mother in the first few weeks of their lives and she defends them from all possible danger. In spite of her care, only a small number of each brood will survive.
Once they have left their mother, the young crcodiles join other young crocodiles and begin catching their own food of insects, larvae and various small invertebrates. As they grow bigger so their diet changes and they catch larger prey. In the first years of their life, the young crocodiles grow rapidly and show tendencies to live separately and hide underwater in cavities; anywhere, away from the territory of the aggressive adults. They only join the main adult group when they have become large enough not to be attacked by their own kind.
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