Today I returned to our Pre-school in Aththudawa for the first time since the opening ceremony. As we were driven through the paddy fields, towards the village, I was reminded of the warm welcome we had received on our first visit and became very excited to be finally teaching there.

The pre-school itself has changed considerably during the previous weeks of the programme. The interior walls are now decorated with numerous artworks produced by the children and the outside walls have been painted by the team with a fun design based on children’s nursery rhymes. The children themselves also seem to have ‘come out of their shells’ and have grown much more confident around us.

We began by singing various songs which the children have learnt over the course of the programme such as ‘Incy Wincy Spider’ and the famous ‘Peanut Song’. Our main activity of the day was an art based one which had the children making and decorating fishes to hang from the ceiling of the school. We then continued with the ‘Fish’ theme and sang the song ‘1, 2, 3, 4, 5, once I caught a fish alive’. At 10.30am the children had their interval while we were treated to tea and cake. In the remainder of the preschool session we read stories, played games such as ‘pass the didgeridoo’ and played with the inflatable balls outside.
For lunch, we were taken to the family home of one of the girl’s from the Pre-school. It so happened that today was her 4th birthday so when we arrived at the house we were greeted by numerous members of her family who had gathered to celebrate. While we were having lunch I was introduced to a thirteen year old girl who spoke very good English. Among other things she told me that she wanted to be a doctor and also that she is a fan of Lady Gaga! She also told me that she already has a German pen-pal but would really like an English one too. On hearing this I decided to give her my sister’s address as she is only 14 and is also a fan of Lady Gaga. I am sure that my sister will be very excited when her first letter arrives from Sri Lanka and hopefully they will both enjoy keeping in touch and discussing their shared interests.

After a delicious lunch followed by a very impressive birthday cake and lots of photos taken with the birthday girl, we returned to the Preschool for the afternoon club. About 10 pupils came along and we had a very fun afternoon playing musical statues, learning the English words for various items of clothing (which involved me trying to put on as many clothes as possible while the children shouted out the correct words for them) and making paper snowflakes.

Overall, today has been a great deal of fun and very rewarding. Teaching in all the Pre-schools has been an amazing experience, but working at Aththudawa is particularly special because after having spent months raising money to build the preschool we can not only see the results, but also use it for its intended purpose as well as build friendships with the members of the community who will benefit from it in the future.