Spanish in Early Childhood

In our Early Childhood community, Spanish is part of our lives! The children are exposed to Spanish from the beginning of the day when we greet them during carline with, "Buenos Dias. Como estas? Camina cerca de la verja."

Once in the classrooms, children learn Spanish by listening to the language and receiving lessons with many different materials informing a variety of subjects. We use Total Physical Response (TPR) to teach commands, such as: poner las zapatillas, lavate las manos, sientate correctamente, caminar despacio, tocar el hombro a la maestra, la clase se levanta, la clase aplaude cinco veces, etc. We reinforce language lessons by creating physical actions involving our entire bodies, which duplicate our messages.

Children learn sounds in Spanish through "El sonido de la semana" - the sound of the week. We choose a Sandpaper Letter and we find three objects from a little box that start with that sound (e.g.,"s" - sarten, semilla, sandalia). The children love this activity and look forward to it every week with intense curiosity!

The Spanish-learning activities allow for a developmental process in which children listen to and absorb the sounds of Spanish through songs, rhymes, and finger plays!

Our goal is comprehension at all times and every child accomplishes this at his/her own pace. Spanish is not only interesting, it is also fun and exciting! It's very common in our Early Childhood classrooms when a guide gives an instruction in Spanish, "Regresa y camina despacio," and one child turns to another and says, "She means you have to go back and walk slowly."