SPANISH IMMERSION PRE SCHOOL THROUGH ELEMENTARY
Grow a Stronger Brain through Bilingualism
Our Spanish Bilingual Model is New York State's Finest
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English and Spanish are spoken and taught simultaneously throughout the day and across the curriculum, including most special enrichment classes. Our pre school, lower elementary and upper elementary students are truly immersed in Spanish and English.
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Our Spanish Bilingual model is one language-one teacher. Each classroom is guided by two teachers. One presents individualized lessons in English and the other in Spanish.
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Each child's lessons are presented one-on-one with hands-on materials by either a Spanish-speaking or English-speaking teacher. This way, the child can access concrete understanding in acquiring language as well as learning academics.
Castle Island Montessori: New York State’s Premier Spanish-Immersion Elementary School
Have you heard about Castle Island Montessori? It’s a Montessori elementary school in Albany, New York with a top notch Spanish-immersion program. Our students come from all over the Albany area to attend Castle Island. We employ dedicated educators, all of whom speak English and Spanish fluently.
Our school is an independent, metropolitan Montessori focusing on creating a joyful learning experience for children 3-12 years old. Parents are drawn to Castle Island Montessori because of our unique Spanish-immersion pre school and elementary programs, our convenient location in Albany, New York, and our use of the full Montessori method.
Have you ever wondered how you acquired fluency in your first language?
Humans have the unique communication advantage of having harnessed language over the last 150,000 years. Of course, our human ability to communicate with language brings tremendous advantages since we can collaborate and innovate at high levels of development. Our brains acquire language through living immersed in language that we, at first, hear all around us as infants. Then in the first three years of life, we begin to speak that language that we have been listening to and making connections with. Vocabulary acquisition and grammar rules are learned as we find the need to better be understood by those around us. We develop academic proficiency with language over the next three or four years as we develop adeptness with reading and writing.
What happens to the human brain that learns two languages at the same time?
Imagine a childhood that provides socializing as a member of a classroom community and learning academics in more than one language! Children do acquire two (or more) languages in just the same way we have each acquired our first language and their brains become more flexible and better able to make abstract connections and often excel in areas beyond language including: mathematics, music, engineering, and leadership. Bilingual brains know how to find solutions through making multiple connections to solve complex situations, whether the problem is to find the meaning of a word or the answer to a multi-step algebra problem.
Can children have delays when learning more than one language?
In homes or schools where two languages, such as English and Spanish, are spoken and taught simultaneously throughout the day and across topics of study, children learn both easily and naturally, in the same way the first language is acquired as an infant. Instead of experiencing learning delays, they acquire twice as much vocabular by age six and their brains become permanently “programmed” to operate for higher-level critical thinking skills.
What’s the best way for a child to become fully bilingual in order to have the benefit of a stronger brain?
One of the most effective approaches for providing an environment for children to become bilingual is when a household or a classroom can provide a child with daily access to two adults, each who speaks in just one language with the child. When conversation or lessons are personalized, the child develops a relationship with the language at the same time he or she develops a relationship with the adult. The child can access concrete understanding in acquiring two languages fluently and, in a school, can access learning academics at the same time.