BILINGUAL INFANT SCHOOL
Stages
When a baby arrives at our school, we understand that it is a key moment for the family, as they have to leave their most precious treasure in the hands of their teachers. For this reason, we try to promote a calm, welcoming and stimulating environment, which makes the baby gradually adapt to the routine of the classroom, strengthen ties with his tutor and become his second home.
INFANTS 0-1 YEARS OLD
At the infant classroom, the activities are planned in a flexible way, so that they can be adapted to any baby, given the differences in development in this age group, which we can find both at a motor and cognitive level.
During the first months of the baby we work mainly on gross motor skills and in the last stage, approaching one year, we also gradually work on fine motor skills. Specific exercises are planned for each baby according to the maturation stage in which they are, through daily psychomotor sessions, where the two body hemispheres, the baby’s vestibular system, are stimulated to work on aspects such as the acquisition of balance, through turns, and the contro-lateral patterns (turning, crawling, crawling), when the time comes, helping them in the first steps, working on postural control, their muscle tone, until they reach, for example, a gait or sit on their own.
The transition from the infant classroom to the 1-2 year old classroom is significant, as we have to teach children new routines. For this reason, we work daily on the autonomy of the children, because in addition to attending to the care part, which is still extremely important because they are children who still require the use of diapers, covering their basic needs, we are already beginning to work on hygiene, sleep and feeding routines.
1-2 YEARS OLD
The 1-2 year old class is characterized by being a level where the autonomy and emotions of the children are especially important.
Given the bilingual nature of the school, in the classroom the linguistic immersion in English is real and active, starting from the beginning of the school year, once the adaptation process after the summer has passed. The tutor communicates with the children throughout the day in English, so they are able to understand the routines, the rules and distinguish the different times of the day in this language and, by doing so in a natural way and in all situations of the day, the children internalize it positively and they normalize it. In addition, we have the help of our Native Teacher who helps us.
In addition, the 1-2 year old teacher gives special importance to emotions, and although they are small, through songs we know how to distinguish different emotions and we begin to work on empathy.
The arrival of 2-3 year olds in the classroom implies great changes in terms of routine, with concepts such as graphomotor skills, the development of creativity and socialization of the child and, in the case of our school, real linguistic immersion.
2-3 YEARS OLD
On a daily basis, we work with the children on fine motor skills, which will help them to strengthen the digital gripper, the muscle tone in the forearms and the pressure for the correct holding of the crayons for subsequent writing. We use techniques such as paper tearing, plasticine, kneading, skewers, punch technique, etc., all aimed at helping them when they start reading and writing.
Jolly Phonic Project: as an innovative project that distinguishes us from other schools in the 2-3 year old classroom, our children work with their tutor on the Jolly Phonics project for the introduction to reading and writing in English, for learning in English by associating sound and their English phonemes, using fun “finger-books” and learning fun songs.
