Pupils' Response 14 - Earth Day

Earth Day is important to me, because Earth is my home planet and I love Earth a lot. Without the Earth, all living things will die. So, we must protect the Earth and the living things on it.

The Earth is dying because human beings are destroying it slowly, over many, many years. We are over-using the Earth's resources and not allowing it to renew fast enough. We are also polluting the environment and the air around us. That's why we have to "save the Earth" by stopping all the polluting and littering.

When we recycle, we make new things out of old things. This means that with the same amount of material used, we can do many more things with it. For example, trees are cut to make paper. After using the paper, we can recycle and make more paper. This means we do not have to cut down more trees. When we reuse, we make use of the same thing again and not waste it by throwing it away. For example, plastic bags can be reused again. Water for bathing can be used for watering plants or washing toilets. When we reduce the amount of electricity we use, we use less and save resources.

For "Earth Day", my family and I can try to use less electricity and water. We can also use hand-powered torchlights to find our way around the house. We can have fun and save the Earth as well!

Pupils' Response 13 - International Friendship Day

We celebrate International Friendship Day to spend time with their friends and express love for them by exchanging International Friendship Day Gifts like flowers, cards and wrist bands.

The tradition of dedicating a day in honor of friends began in US in 1935. Gradually International Friendship Day became popular and today International Friendship Day is celebrated in many countries.

A.S.E.A.N stands for Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

I do not know a lot about A.S.E.A.N but there was one time in school that they taught us about the asean countries.

I like the activities organized by the school on International Friendship Day, because they are very interesting and we get to try new things.

I have 2 friends from 2 different A.S.E.A.N countries. They were our tour guides when we went to Japan and Thailand.

The school can organize exchange programmes with other A.S.E.A.N countries or have contests to test students' knowledge about other A.S.E.A.N countries. This way, we can learn more about other A.S.E.A.N countries and their culture. We can also have penpals whom we can write to and develop friendships with.

Pupils' Response 12 - Improving the School

I like the canteen, library and the areas with computers, because in the canteen you can eat, in the library you can read and borrow books and in the areas with computers, we can use the computers to blog, do work, etc.

I do not dislike any areas of the school, because I like the school just the way it is.

For the library, the school can add more books. For the canteen, the school can add more stalls with more interesting and healthy food. For the areas with computers, the school can leave it the way they are because I feel that they are good enough.

Pupils can help in the improvements by going for more fund-raising activities the school organizes, and also getting their parents to contribute and help the school.

Pupils' Response 11 - Healthy Eating

To stay healthy, we must eat healthy food like salads, fish, fruits and vegetables, such as vegetable salads, fruit salads, steamed fish, cabbages and oranges. If you eat things like ice-cream and sweets, you may get sick and may also get tooth decay. So in order not get sick so often, you must not eat too much ice-cream or sweets. Some diseases you can get eating unhealthy food are "Hand-Foot-And-Mouth Disease", "Food Poisoning", "Stomach Flu" and "Mad Cow Disease".

If you eat healthy food, you will not get sick so often and you will not get diseases like those I mentioned earlier. I like to eat fruits but I don't really like to eat vegetables because fruits are sweet but vegetables have no taste or they might taste bitter.

I support the school's campaign in encouraging pupils to eat more fruit and vegetables because eating fruits and vegetables is very healthy. I can suggest a competition to eat healthy food, like fruit and vegetables. The canteen can also sell healthier food and not sell aerated or sweet drinks. Pure fruit juice without added sugar can also be sold so that students don't keep drinking sweet drinks. Pupils will get more used to eating fruit and vegetables after the competition, and will eat more fruits and vegetables even at home.

For more information, you can go to the HPB website.

Pupils' Response 10 - Earth Hour

Earth Hour is a world wide event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature, also known as World Wildlife Fund. Every year, it is held on the last Saturday of March. Households and businesses are asked to turn off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour.

Earth Hour was held at 8.30pm, Saturday 28th March 2009 in Singapore.
The event is to raise awareness about global warming, environmental disasters, and climate change. If world leaders agree to take part in the event, more people will be more interested in protecting the earth and not wasting energy.

Thousands of people in Singapore switched off their lights for an hour during Earth Hour 2009. Both individuals at home and organisations participated. Many parts of Singapore were in total darkness until 9.30pm. Some hotels in the Marina Bay area also switched off their lights at 8.30pm.

My family and friends can have candle-light dinners, light tea-lights in the house to appreciate the natural light and walk around the bungalow, condominium, HDB flat or terrace house with candles that are lit.

Some problems are global warming, food shortage, life style getting costlier, people littering and air pollution. Don't litter!

6 lessons from the book "The Smart Surfers'

1) The first lessson: You should not use another person's E-mail account without permission, you should not read other peoples' E-mail and you should not spam other peoples' E-mail.

2) The second lesson: You should study hard for your exams, not cheat and you shouldn't believe websites that teach you to cheat.

3) The third lesson: You shoudn't copy things from the internet that are copyrighted. You should also use original software.

4) The fourth lesson: You should not engage in cyberbullying such as using vulgar words or words that will hurt other people.

5) The fifth lesson: You should not get addicted to video games. For example: when you get a game to play with, you shouldn't keep playing until you fall asleep in class or fail your exams.

6) The sixth lesson: You should divulge too much detailed information of your family and you on the internet. Don't make friends with strangers on the internet.