Italian Kindergarten

10/1 - Italian Kindergarten

We do what they call service learning for our program.  It's just like volunteering with different programs that need extra help in Siena, and I will be doing about 4-5 hours a week.  

Today I went with 3 other students to run this after school program for kindergarteners.  We will go every Monday from 4-5:30 and the purpose is to keep them occupied while trying to help them learn English.  It has been a while since I've worked with a large group of 4 and 5 year olds, and on top of it, they obviously don't really get it that we don't fully understand or speak Italian.  We worked with introducing ourselves first, trying to teach them how to say, "My name is…"   We also played some color games, tried to teach them head, shoulders, knees and toes, and taught them a few animals.  

It was pretty difficult at times.  Their attention spans are about 5-10 minutes and then we'd have kids running around, pulling stuff off shelves, etc. so we'd have to switch activities.  The language barrier is pretty hard for me because I still can't understand very much, nor can I speak it very well.  At one point we had a child that was crying and holding his head all of the sudden, and I couldn't even ask what happened, or are you ok?  That kind of thing is frustrating, but I know I'll pick it up quick.  

On the other hand, some of the kids seemed to get it that we were struggling a bit.  We were going around and writing their names on the pictures they colored.  So I would ask their name, but between the fact that they are young children and are difficult to understand anyway, and the fact that I don't know how to spell Italian names at all, I was having a rough time.  This one little girl told me her name about 5 times, and I kept trying to get her to repeat it because it was unusual and I was trying to hear all of the sounds in it, and I think she understood I couldn't figure out how to spell it, so she points to a name tag up on the shelf.  It was a happy moment : )  

I know that it will just get easier every time we go, but it was a challenge today.  I realized I need to learn how to say some important phrases in italian for dealing with little kids.  

And on a side note, this group of Kindergarteners is maybe the cutest group of kids I've ever seen.  They are all just adorable.