Children

Benefits of eating nutritious food

Dear Children,

Do you know that good eating habits make a big differnce specially for children? That is because children are in the growing stage that they do need nutritious diet for their physical and mental growth. The media highlighted the impact of food habits as we celebrated National Food Week last week (From June 22 to 28).

The main purpose of the National Food Week is to encourage people to take a balanced diet. It is most unfortunate that most of the people in society are not healthy mainly because of their bad food habits. They are suffering from various kinds of diseases like Diabetes, high cholesterol, high pressure and heart related ailments.

In the past Sri Lankans used to eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They also added grains to their meals. They were lucky to eat foods without poison. Because of that they could work like giants. With the open economy various foreign food items are imported and added to our daily diet. We eat bread made out of wheat flour which is not nutritious. It is the duty of the parents and teachers to encourage their children to take nutritious foods for their meals.

Parents are now used to giving artificial food to children due to commercial advertisements. Although junk food or fast food is popular specially with the younger generation, medical advice is to refrain from them.

Instead it is time to grow vegetables in your own back garden. We have a fertile land, good weather conditions and also sunlight all over the year. So we can cultivate any kind of food in our country. Thereby we should eat fresh fruits and vegetables sans insecticides and pesticides. Farmers should be encouraged to grow more food. But unfortunately we import many food items which can be produced locally in our country.

We should avoid importing food items unnecessarily and save our foreign exchange.

So dear children, if you are into junk food and soft drinks is time to minimize them.

Try to add more nutritional foods like Mallum, red rice, gram, green vegetables and fruits to your diet. Eat good food and stay healthy. Bye for now.

Aunt Anji

China

The People's Republic of China, commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population. It is a socialist republic ruled by the Communist Party of China under a single-party system, and has jurisdiction over twenty-two provinces, five autonomous regions, four municipalities, and two largely self-governing Special Administrative Regions.

The People's Republic of China's capital is Beijing.

At 9.6 million square kilometres, the People's Republic of China is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area, and the second largest by land area. Its landscape is diverse with forest steppes and deserts (the Gobi and Taklamakan) in the dry north near Mongolia and Russia's Siberia, and subtropical forests in the wet South close to Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar.

The terrain in the west is rugged and high altitude, with the Himalayas and the Tian Shan mountain ranges forming China's natural borders with India and Central Asia.

In contrast, mainland China's Eastern seaboard is low-lying and has a 14,500-kilometre long coastline bounded on the southeast by the South China Sea and on the east by the East China Sea beyond which lies Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

Ancient Chinese civilization one of the world's earliest flourished in the fertile basin of the Yellow River which flows through the North China Plain. For over 4,000 years, China's political system was based on hereditary monarchies (also known as dynasties). The first of these dynasties was the Xia but it was later the Qin Dynasty who first unified China in 221 BC.

China's importance in the world today is reflected through its role as the world's third largest economy nominally and a permanent member of the UN Security Council as well as being a member of several other multilateral organizations including the WTO, APEC, East Asia Summit and Shanghai Cooperation Organization. In addition, it is a nuclear state and has the world's largest standing army with the second largest defense budget.

Since the introduction of market-based economic reforms in 1978, China has become one of the world's fastest growing economies and the world's second largest exporter and the third largest importer of goods.

Rapid industrialization has reduced its poverty rate from 53 percent in 1981 to 8 percent in 2001.

However, the PRC is now faced with a number of other problems including a rapidly aging population due to the one-child policy, a widening rural-urban income gap and environmental degradation. Courtesy: Internet

One Flag, One Nation!

The war, which caused many deaths,

Has found its death.

Sri Lanka as one nation,

Under one flag,is getting up,

To face its bright future day.

The road is clear, and there's

nothing to fear,

'Cause this land,

Just like in the early times,

Will become the Granery of

the East.

The tears which ran down,

Won't again run down.

One flag will dance in the wind,

And under it,

One proud nation will go ahead....,

Together, forever

D. W. Lilani Anuruddhika

8 H

Sanghamiththa Balika Vidyalaya Galle

Features of Nature

Sky looks white

With a cloudy bright

The sky is high

Which looks like a pie

Moon at night

Always gives light

The goat says, "can't, can't, can't"

I cannot live without my plant

World is filled with creature

I really like the Nature

Sajadh Rizvi

8B

Amal International School

The prophecy

The story so far...

Pramodaka, Nalaka, Champika and Chinthaka go on a trip to the woods with their parents for their school holidays. In the middle of the night the children are awakened by a strange noise. On following their dog, Scooby, Chinthaka is snared by the age-old spell of the 'luring stones'. Pramodaka departs with Ruwi, a pixie, to recall a book of spell to cast off the spell while Nalaka, Champika and the dog remain behind with Sachi, a gnome who updates them on the life of mythical creatures. Shamilka, a friend of the mythical creatures joins in and they begin hunting for Pramodaka and Ruwi as there is no sign of their return. Just as they were coming to terms with the fact that they were lost, six rabbits scamper along the way. The rabbits take pity upon the children and agree to guide them part of the way. Meanwhile Sulo, the goblin who is always trying to make trouble for the mythical creatures, grabs a basket of goodies from a gnome named Russell and makes off. Scooby scents her and attacks. Ruwi senses that Russell is in danger but she also gets the strange feeling that there is a mysterious link between Pramodaka. Suddenly a storm breaks out and Pramodaka, Nalaka and Champika are blown away with the wind. As they make their way back to their friends Sulo notices them and comes up with a plan. She rushes off to gather the rest of her pack...

Pradesh scowled down at the creature standing beneath his feet.

"What news?," he questioned. "If it is another basket of food you have grabbed then we are not interested. The last one was charmed with a spell, so that all the victuals will turn to nasty creatures as soon as we try to put them into our mouth..."

"Never mind what happened. Let's listen to what Sulo has to say now...," a goblin with a slightly darker greenish tint interrupted him.

Pradesh glared at the speaker but did not wish to engage in an argument. Though only a few sided with Rangoon he had a way of getting revenge by humiliating anyone in public. Pradesh did not wish to fall out with him unless he had no choice. Rangoon was quite a dangerous and slippery creature to have as an enemy.

Sulo was grateful for the chance to relate her tale. She stooped down beside Tidura and began to describe the scene that she had witnessed.

"So... the elf chief knew that the storm will be coming early this year... Interesting! And you say that there are three nasty human brats on the loose?" Rangoon questioned, his thoughts far away as he stared at the clump of weeds springing from a rock just above Sulo's head.

"It's what I heard... and saw. I have been keeping company with that foolish gnome, Russell, and he once entrusted me with some papers that he said his grandmother wanted to put in the hollow for the rabbits to take. The stupid fellow had not realized that one of those scrolls was for the elf chief. I robbed a jar of see-through potion from Maggie's place..." Sulo hissed and paused. She got the response she had hoped for because every eye in the cave was directed at her. She basked in their attention.

"What was in that paper?," Pradesh asked impatiently as he almost fell off the rock with excitement. Always hungry for power he had lately felt that his chances to become the leader of the pack were under threat from other sources.

"Go on... Or was the language too tough for you to understand?," Rangoon added, slyly. Sulo coloured. She did not like it when her lack of skills for reading and writing was brought up - a scheme that Rangoon seemed to have noted and was using against her for his own amusement.

She quickly cast an annoyed look at his direction and went on: "Yes, I did understand and it referred a prophecy... A deep, dark prophecy."

(To be continued)

Art Gallery

 

On The Beach Nona Sharmila Jan 5EB, Sujatha Vidyalaya	Buddhist Flag with Dharma Chakra Kavinda Sadaruwan 2B, Isipathana MV Colombo 5
Our Home R. Monadee Livisarani Narithasan Kindergarten Ranpokunagama Nittabuwa	A River Hiruni Senanayake Grade 1 Western International School Wennappuwa

 

A Singhithi Pola held at the CCF Sri Lanka Institute premises at Dambulla attracted a large number of customers. This was part of the development projects organised by the Institute in Dambulla centralising 10 Grama Niladhari divisions to improve the living standards of the low income families. Picture by A. A. L. Dias, Matale District group corr.