This week Hannah, Sarah and I are working in Project Sri Lanka’s newest preschool, Aththudawa.
I visited the preschool last Thursday and Friday, and Sarah visited there on Friday too, so on Monday we felt more than able to pick up where Ed and Sabina had left off.

That being said, Monday was a slower day than we had expected. The activities that we provided didn’t seem to engage the children very much. Moreover, we alighted the bus far too early and so arrived into Aththudawa on foot and later than we had hoped.

That night, in a flash of inspiration, Hannah G conjured up an exciting project for the week that would captivate the children and aid in their understanding of the target vocabulary; types of weather. She suggested that they create weather symbols out of art and craft materials, which they could then use in a play to be performed at the end of the week. Creating the symbols proved hugely successful on Tuesday. The children loved cutting and sticking bits of paper to create a sun, raindrops, snowflakes and clouds and tying ribbons onto sticks to represent the wind. We also drew numbers onto the floor of the school so that we could play hopscotch with the children. For lunch on Tuesday we visited the house of Teacher’s father-in-law. He owns a cinnamon plantation in Aththudawa and we were lucky enough to see cinnamon being made at the house. For a bit of light post-lunch entertainment we were allowed to hold a bird that Teacher’s brother-in-law had found.

Due in large part to Hannah G’s great idea, Tuesday was a very rewarding day. Aththudawa school was closed on Wednesday because the teacher was away at an education conference. This meant that we had to introduce the children to a great deal of new vocabulary today, to complement the types of weather, in preparation for tomorrow’s play. The new vocabulary was some items of clothing that one might wear in different weather conditions, for example “sunglasses” for when it is sunny and “an umbrella” for when it is raining. To introduce these terms we dressed up in the different items of clothing – there is a funny photograph of Hannah G wearing them all at once – and did a bit of acting. We even found time to teach the children the ‘Hokey Cokey’ song.

We ate lunch today at the home of the director of Sarvodaya for the Aththudawa region. It was a delicious daal and potato curry, as all of our Aththudawa lunches have been, and whilst we waited for it to be cooked we played with the host’s two adorable kittens (which Hannah G later regretted when she had a mild allergic reaction!) After preschool we stopped by Jez’s son Ramzy’s recording studio. There we heard him play some Sri Lankan pop songs and had a bit of a sing ourselves! He offered to lend me an expensive electric guitar but I politely declined, not having anywhere to keep it.

We’re very much looking forward to tomorrow now and we hope that all of the preparation comes together nicely and the children make their parents, and their teachers, very proud.