French

The Preschool Discovery foreign language program is designed to help prepare children for the “Accelerated Integrative Method of Language Learning” which is implemented more fully in Kindergarten and with increasing rigor in first through fourth grades. This involves getting children used to the use of gestures associated with certain basic classroom vocabulary words and speaking in complete sentences with the aid of gestures. It also involves covering some basic vocabulary that involves memorization through the use of songs (such as numbers, days of the week, the alphabet, colors, etc.)

The curriculum used for kindergarten is the “Accelerated Integrative Method of Language Learning” found in the Histoires en Action curriculum. This method is also known as the “Gesture Approach.” All the work done on this level is essentially oral, with some exposure to French words through visual aids. The ocabulary introduced in the Preschool Discovery classrooms is also used and reviewed in kindergarten.