Partner with families to learn about their language practices, stories, and literacy-related interactions at home, recognizing that children bring rich knowledge and skills from their first languages and cultural experiences. Dual language learners should have opportunities to demonstrate proficiency in the standard in both their first language and English, with supports such as first-language use, cross-language connections, gestures, visuals, and props. These opportunities allow young dual language learners to build on what they know and can do in their first language as they continue to develop communication, language, and literacy skills in all their languages.
Provide a box of animal costumes, and help the children create different voices and sounds for the animals. Read books related to animals. The children may provide sounds for the animals while the book is read. Encourage the children to make animal sounds when reading Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle. Assign animal roles to each child.
