Appleton Area School District starting bilingual 4K program this fall, with half of instruction in Spanish and half in English

APPLETON - The 4K students in the Appleton Area School District usually start their day seated at a table, working on a fine motor skills activity to ease them into the day. This could anything from stringing beads to simple puzzles. 

From there, they have a class meeting where they greet each other, spend time reading out loud and then review the learning objectives for the day. 

At the new bilingual 4K program scheduled to open this fall at Edison Elementary School, Suzette Preston, director of 4-year-old kindergarten and principal of Appleton Community 4K, said she envisions the morning meeting being taught in Spanish.

Enrollment for the bilingual 4K is still open. It has the capacity for 40 students — 20 in the morning and 20 in the afternoon — half of which will be native English speakers and half native Spanish speakers. 

The goal is to have half of the instruction in English and half in Spanish. This could be challenging, since most of the instruction at this age comes through playing, so Preston said they’ll need to be strategic with activities to incorporate bilingual education.

The biggest bilingual component of the day is expected to come during the child-directed playtime, when the kids will be working with blocks or some other toys that support what they're studying at the time. Preston envisions this time filled with flowing conversations, questions and instruction in both English and Spanish. 

Although the bilingual 4K will focus on Spanish and English, it's open to students who speak other languages and want to be multilingual. For example, there may be a student who speaks both Hmong and English at home. That student could enroll in one of the native English enrollment spots. 

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New 4K program is offshoot of Appleton Bilingual School

The idea for a bilingual 4K really started with the bilingual charter school, Appleton Bilingual School, that serves students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Bilingual coordinator Amy Swick said the district is always looking for ideas to offer bilingual education to more students. 

“I think it’s also really important that we encourage our opportunities for students to see their bicultural education as a benefit, as a great opportunity,” she said. 

After conversations with the teachers, families and administration at ABS, they came up with the idea to offer dual language education for students from the very start of their education. 

From there, it was a collaboration between Swick, Preston and other people in the district to bring the idea to life.

With almost 20 existing sites, the logistics of the new 4K program like transportation and scheduling were already in place. And the curriculum the other programs use is offered in a bilingual format, so it was just a matter of purchasing those materials. 

Finding the right location to house the bilingual 4K took a little more work. Ideally, Preston said, it would have been in Columbus Elementary School, like ABS is, but Columbus doesn't have the right space for the program. Instead, it will be located at Edison Elementary School since it’s close to ABS.

Children can enroll in 4K for the upcoming school year if they'll be 4 on or before Sept. 1 and are a resident of the Appleton Area School District or were accepted for open enrollment. 

Parents can reach out to community-4K@aasd.k12.wi.us or call 920-832-1742 with questions.

Reach AnnMarie Hilton at ahilton@gannett.com or 920-370-8045. Follow her on Twitter at @hilton_annmarie.