We left bright and early to get to Rassandeniya at 8.15 to take the class today as Miss Felicita is away on a course in Colombo at the moment. As we walked down the road to the school we could see all the familiar faces jumping around and shouting “Suduaka! Suduaka!” (white sister) from the playground!After the children had all played with their toys, we sat them down to do some weaving using card and strips of coloured paper. They concentrated very hard so it was very quiet for a little while. Things got a bit noisy after that when we started playing some musical bumps and musical statutes and got all the children jumping around to a bit of Five and Girls Aloud. They didn’t really understand the concept of being “out”, but had fun anyway! At 10 o’clock it was time for the children’s breakfast which is always brought in for everyone by one of the mothers. Normally we are taken to a family’s house for tea, but because Miss Felicita is away we had were brought tea and roti (a doughy pancake) to have with the children. We all played outside afterwards. The children have swings and a see-saw but love nothing better than us to chase them all around the building going “raaah!!” which they find hilarious, or to climb up this little mound and have us swoop them off it – pretty tiring but lots of fun! After persuading them back inside we settled them down to make some duck pop-up cards with beaks poking out which they enjoyed decorating. We then went through animals using flashcards, and played a game which had the children going round the room making lots of animal noises. We finished off the day by making a circle and singing lots of songs, including all the usual favourites like Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes; the Wheels on the Bus and, of course, the Hokey Kokey! The children always end by singing the Sri Lankan national anthem. Ramesha, a little girl with special needs, always joins in now which is really lovely to see and so rewarding because she never used to speak and is now always very animated and happy in class. Lunch in Rassandeniya is always amazing and today was no exception – we were presented with mountains of delicious food, it was just unfortunate we couldn’t finish it all! The family were lovely and I felt so privileged to be made to feel so welcome in their home. We played volleyball with all the children outside who had come round from the neighbouring houses, and then joined everyone inside again for some dancing, which all the families love to do every lunchtime!In the afternoon session we did some more weaving and drawing with the older children and played lots more volleyball. We also began painting the “under the sea” scene of our mural; all the bright colours on the wall looked amazing and I’m sure the end result will be fantastic!Helen Regan