Speech Weekly Notes from Stacy Torrence

Speech Weekly 11.20.09

Children who speak two languages

Speaking two languages is like any other skill. To do it well, children need lots of practice, which parents can help provide. Without practice, it may be difficult for children to understand or talk to people in both languages.

How do I teach my child to be bilingual?

There are a number of ways to teach children to speak more than one language. You can do the following:

Use two languages from the start. Many children grow up learning two languages at the same time.

Use only one language at home. Your child can learn the second language when he or she starts school.

Give your child many opportunities to hear and practice using both languages in everyday situations.

Will learning two languages cause speech or language problems?

No. Children all over the world learn more than one language without developing speech or language problems. Bilingual children develop language skills just as other children do.

What should I expect when my child learns more than one language?

Every bilingual child is unique. Developing skills in two languages depends on the quality and amount of experience the child has using both languages. The following are some basic guidelines:

Like other children, most bilingual children speak their first words by the time they are 1 year old (e.g., "mama" or "dada"). By age 2, most bilingual children can use two-word phrases (e.g., "my ball" or "no juice"). These are the same language developmental milestones seen in children who learn only one language.

From time to time, children may mix grammar rules, or they might use words from both languages in the same sentence. This is a normal part of bilingual language development.

When a second language is introduced, some children may not talk much for a while. This "silent period" can sometimes last several months. Again, this is normal and will go away.

This week at Bright Beginnings Mill Creek…

The Penguin Class

We are back for more fun with the Penguin Class. This week we talked about the different textures. We discussed about the letter “k,” painted with watercolors, tissue paper art, and painted to music! For our cooking project, we made some yummy sugar cookies! We also explored the wetlands for our project green. We had a great time climbing up and down stairs, and making sound bottles to add to our musical instruments! It is important for us to work on our building skills, which we did this week by building a pretend house in our wood working station! We also worked on our listening skills by listening to things outside like birds, cars, and airplanes.

As a reminder, please do not forget about the Harvest Friendship Feast on Monday 23^rd, and Tuesday 24^th , and the center will be closed on Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving!

Ms. Daniele and the Penguin Class

The Sea Turtle Class

Hello again! This week was full of exciting activities! We learned about the letter K! We learned about that words begin with the letter k such as kite, kitchen, and kids. We read the story David’s Senses to help us review our five senses. For our project green this week we learned about the forest and what animals live there! We have started to talk about Thanksgiving and the fun activities we do with our families, as well as the yummy food we eat! For art we did texture art, which they used cotton balls, we colored the letter k, painted with water colors, made drums, and we painted with the sound of music! The students also made smores for our cooking project! What a week, see you next week!

Ms. Erin and the Sea Turtle Class

The Starfish Class

This week we explored our sense of sound- what do we use to hear and what can we hear? We made music makers with dry rice, beans, and recycled food packaging. Each day we made familiar sounds at different decibel types- loud and quiet, for example. Our favorite sounds to make were weather and nature related sounds, like snow, rain, thunder, and lightening. We also enjoyed pretending to be fire engines, buses, cars, planes, trains, and boats. We completed a lot of art this week. With watercolors, we made “I” is for igloo, “J” is for jelly beans and “F” is for fish, to add to our alphabet books. The students also made a lot of colorful finger paintings and used items around the classroom to create decorative junk-prints. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we painted our hands to make turkeys. Our favorite book this week was, Me Hungary, by Jeremy Tankard.

Ms. Victoria and the Starfish Class

The Seal Class

Hello again from the Seals. This week the skills we have been working on were sorting, gentle hands, self help, manners, counting, colors, abc’s, fine motor and gross motor. This week we talked about using gentle hands with our friends, using manners, washing our hands, and going potty. We read some potty books and a book on manners. For ABC’s we used flash cards to quiz the children on what the object were and what letter they started with. The children got to make a yummy cooking project this week. I want to wish a Happy Birthday again to Piper! I hope you had a great birthday! This week we played follow the leader to help the children practice following directions. We played with blocks and built castles. Building castles helps the children with gross motor and some fine motor skills. Some of the other games we played that helped with gross motor are racing, tag, and ring around the rosy. In art we made a texture collage to experience different textures. To put the objects on the children had to use fine motor skills. We also reviewed colors by me asking what color the objects were. We played with playdough which also helps with fine motor skill. To review colors we also made a picture with rainbows. Since the children love music we made instruments. This helps them with fine motor skills. They get to decorate the instrument and use it. The last thing we did was paint while music was playing. Some of things we pretend to be are animals, firefighters, and living in a shoe. We did a lot of fun activities this week and I hope the children had as much fun as I did. Parents please sign up to bring something for the Harvest friendship feast. The feast will take place on Monday Nov 23 and Tuesday Nov 24. Have a great weekend everyone! See everyone next week.

Ms. Cheri

The Dolphin Class

This week, the Dolphin Class felt our way through some many senses! We did everything from texture trails to painting to music. We also learned about branches of the military and had a cooking project! November is a big time for eating and we are going to join in here at Bright Beginnings!

The Harvest Friendship Feasts are coming up and we need everyone’s help! Please make sure you bring in what you signed up for on the day we are having them or on Monday. We will be making the dishes here at school! Please feel free to stop in for either morning snack (10:00-10:30) or afternoon snack (3:15-3:45). We look forward to seeing you!

In math, we went on a texture trail, felt outdoor textures, talked about grasslands for Project Green, had sound show and tell, and went outside and listened to different sounds.

In letters time, we had a read aloud and talked about the first letter in the title and rhyming, made a list of “k” words, wrote in journals and read our “k” book.

In art, we made texture collages, did sponge painting, painted with water colors, made marble paintings, and painted to music!

In social studies, we talked about the army, navy, air force, and marines, and what they do. We also talked about veterans and who they are. In humanities, we finished up with puppets, made instruments, and had our cooking project! It has been a crazy, fun-filled wee and we have enjoyed every minute!

Ms. Kimberly and the Dolphin Class

The Walrus and Octopus Classes

Hola, from the Walrus class!!

I can not believe how fast these weeks are going! Thank you so much to everyone who signed up for the Harvest Feast! The Walrus class loves to eat, so we are really looking forward to it! We continued with our line graphing this week to help with our counting and to get the students familiar with different graphs, and how they are set up. The topic for our graph was our favorite thanksgiving foods! Some of our favorites were macaroni and cheese, turkey, stuffing, and apple pie! The Walrus students love interacting with one another and this week we were able to interact a lot through music! We made more instruments, played with the instruments we had in the class already, and found different objects around the room that helped us make music! It is important for the students to recognize loud and soft noises, and to be able to make loud and soft noises themselves. As we practiced some rhythms, the students were able to make up their own!

Music can be incorporated with everything and this week we painted to music. The students could paint fast or slow, depending on the speed of the music, or paint a picture on how the music made them feel.

We focused a lot on textures and sounds this week and worked on our descriptive words. The students were able to work with textures inside and outside of the classroom. It was great for the students to think about the sounds that they liked to hear, and the sounds that they did not like to hear. Most of the sounds that students did not like hearing were loud sounds like fire trucks, everyone talking at once, and dinosaurs! The sounds that the students did enjoy were soft and gentle sounds like the sounds of puppies!

Thanksgiving is a holiday that helps remind all of us of the things that we are thankful for. The students made some great place mats with pictures and writing to help remind them of the things they are thankful for!

Everyone seems to be adjusting well with the new changes in the classroom. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!

Thank you so much!

Ms. Ryland and the Walrus Class