This was our 3^rd day at Kirelawela pre-school so well felt much more prepared and knew what to expect when we arrived. We were welcomed warmly by the children and teachers into the preschool…

To start the morning the children sang the good morning song. The good morning song consists of the children singing good morning dear teacher to the tune of happy birthday and the teachers replying back in song singing good morning dear children. The morning activity for the children was to make fishes out of triangular coloured paper. We noticed that the morning activity for the past two days had also been making or colouring in fish. Perhaps it is a new word they have learnt. Today was one of the boys birthdays, Dishlan. We all sang for him before the children had their lunch. We always get offered to eat with the children which is lovely and today had the added bonus of cake to celebrate Dilshan’s birthday.

After their break the children went outside to play. They love the inflatable beach ball we have been bringing to the school so we played catch with them. A few of the children stayed inside so we got out some of their books and read stories. The children really got involved repeating the words after us. The children especially loved the interactive Winnie the pooh book where they could choose sounds to help tell the story. To finish preschool the children stood in a circle and sang the national anthem. This was followed by a prayer giving thanks to their parents. As the children left the classroom they bowed at the teachers and our feet.

After preschool we were given lunch in the school then one of the preschool teachers took us to see a temple up the road from the preschool. It was amazing to see especially the elephants in the temple garden.

For our afternoon class we decided to make animal masks with the children using paper plates. The children really enjoyed this and it was a huge success. The older children made their masks first then helped the younger children with theirs. Before we left the teacher stuck the masks on the classroom wall for all the children to see.