Five Little Monkeys!

Since my multi-lingual class in the Tenderloin regularly sings "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed..." with the City College Childhood Observation Class teacher - this week's story was easy to read in English for all children to enjoy. I have been alternating a story in English with a story in Spanish each week - trying to translate one direction of the other bits and pieces of the story to maintain the interest of all my students. If I spoke Chinese and Vietnamese as well, I could be reaching each and every one of my students in their mother tongue!

-Dawn Noelle

Growing and Changing

It always amazes me to see the development in the toddlers who have been with us since their first months of life. This week I found myself in conversation with three of our toddlers at Good Sam. These three are at similar developmental stages both in language and in large motor skills. When we played the "Guess what's in the bag?" game, we not only made the sound, but we scattered like a mouse, prowled like a lion, waddled like a duck, scratched like a hen...all of this back and forth across the mat. It was a lot of fun.

-Dawn Noelle

Which language?

I was amazed to see one of our English speaking students completely engaged in singing this week. At The Tenderloin Children's Playground I adapt our original Spanish curriculum to a bilingual platform. At this center, in addition to the majority of Spanish speakers, we also serve Vietnamese, Chinese, Hindi, and English-only speaking families. My language skills only allow me to interact, sing, and tell stories in both English and Spanish, but little by little, all of the children are learning both the English and Spanish songs. The student I mentioned above is usually one to lose interest very quickly no matter what language is being used. It is great to see the developmental milestones in children after only five months of singing, working, and reading with them.

-Dawn Noelle

Saying Goodbye

I was sad to find out that one of my students, who has been with our class since he was a tiny baby, will not be coming back due to scheduling conflicts. But it was a good last day together as he "read" to me from Good Night, Gorilla. He doesn't even have an inteligible vocabulary yet, but knows how to flip through a book, and gurgles word like sounds out at each page, smiling as he goes along. This is what our class is all about. Tomás is barely walking, but he really can "read". Interpreting the pictures is just as much a part of reading as decoding the printed word. It was highly satisfying to see the fruit of my labor manifested in this little one today.

-Dawn Noelle