The new 2026/2027 school year got off to a flying start in class C1. The pupils already know each other very well, so they had no trouble moving around the classroom to talk about their holidays: who went where, what they did, what they saw and what stuck in their memory the most. They also filled in ‘Find someone in the class who…’ worksheets, which encouraged them to talk to as many people as possible.
Conversations like these are natural speaking practice after the long summer break: freely sharing impressions with classmates helps children switch back into Polish. Talking about the holidays requires the past tense, in which the verb ending depends on gender – ‘byłem’ and ‘byłam’ (I was), ‘widziałem’ and ‘widziałam’ (I saw) – which is valuable practice for bilingual children.
To ease the stress of starting a new school adventure, the pupils made their own stress balls – soft toys made from colourful balloons, on which they drew eyes and funny faces with felt-tip pens. Squeezing a toy like this helps release tension, and making it yourself also exercises hand skills.
What was inside the stress balls? That is the class's little secret. We will only reveal that when some of them unexpectedly burst, there was no end of tidying up.
More photos from the lessons can be seen in the gallery.
