This semester we have a small service group with only five girls. Since there are only ten children from the Temple School, each service member was put in charge of two children this makes it easier for us to spend time with the kids and give them more attention. Service this semester started off with a planning session. We looked at what we needed to improve on, what we could to improve and set goals for this semester.

One of the girls is to visit the Temple School more often, at least once a month and help the school grow. We have been able to see the way the school has grown with our help. We were informed that the school built a library so our service group decided to purchase picture books with the money that we collected from the drive. We also plan to visit the school and do activities such as painting, reading and sports activities with them.

Week 1: We painted with the kids and taught them to do crayon resist art. they were surprised and amazed when we taught them how to do it and excited for the next service session. After they were done, the children got to take their artwork home.

Working with paints
Photo credits: Hamda Al Shehi

Week 2: This week we made roti with coconut. This is a common meal in Sri Lanka which is usually had for breakfast. Each service member was in charge of bringing an ingredient each. We first divided the ingredients in half so that we could demonstrate the process of making roti to two groups of children. Two Sinhala speakers were in charge of teaching the kids the process while also teaching them to say the ingredients in English. Later, each child got the opportunity to roll out their own roti. After frying it in the pan, we spread Nutella over it and had it with the kids.

Week 3: The activity that we had planned for this week was to make play-doh from scratch and create different characters.  The learning outcome of this activity was to teach the children to identify and name animals. Firstly, we showed the children a couple and animals and helped them to learn their names. We then let them create those animals with play-doh. This was a fun activity to do and a good opportunity for the children to actively learn the names of animals and name them.

Making Play-Doh
Photo credits: Hamda Al Shehi

Week 4: We have been wanting to visit the Temple School to see the progress the school has made with our help. At the beginning of this semester we planned to visit the school during the first week of March. We wanted to do a fun activity with the kids so we thought of doing a puppet show. I was the narrator of the story Goldilocks while the other service members were the characters in the book.  I read parts of the story in English first and translated it to Sinhala later. After the puppet show we shared some chocolate cake with the children. I was very surprised to see the children waiting for us to come and they didn’t want us to leave which really warmed my heart.

Visit to the Temple School

Again, due to the closure of the school because of COVID-19, I won’t be able to continue my duties as the service leader till April. This was a wonderful opportunity for me to develop my leadership and communication skills. It really helped me to directly engage with the local community and identify their needs and help them as much as we could.