Language Immersion Kindergarten is a "Splash!"

After eight months, the kindergarteners in Mirabella Mabe's class are way out in front academically.
Mabe and her assistant, Diana Salcedo, speak exclusively in Spanish from the very first day of class. (With the exception, said Mabe, of cases of emergency or if a child is sick or in distress.)
It's challenging for the children, and it's supposed to be. Native English speakers often say they think they could understand Spanish better if it was spoken slowly, but that's not Mabe's technique at all.
Yes, she uses a tone of voice one might use with small children, but she makes no effort to slow her speech or enunciate in a way to be better understood by English-speakers. Her cadence and rhythm is the natural tone of formal, educational, Latin-American Spanish.
"Mui bien, ninos," she praises the students. "Fantastico."
The 21 students were on tiptoes, leaning forward to give her their undivided attention when The McDowell News visited last week. From one activity to the next, the kids were in their places and paying attention, following directions.
Is it Mabe's style of teaching or the Splash! curriculum that gets them so geared-up to learn? Apparently both.
She said the learning activities like the reading and naming of shapes and arithmetic are limited to 20 minutes or so. Then she has them get up for singing and dancing.
The music is Latin and high-energy. The kids have learned some very graceful Latin dance moves, and are obviously delighted to shake off the tension of the intense academic exercise.
Then it's off to learning stations for activities in groups of seven. These stations might include guided academic exercises, such as reading or math, and an artistic or creative project, allowing that group a less structured chance to express themselves and apply what they have learned.
Principal Susan Pool said the performance of the new program has exceeded all expectations.
"The 'Splashkins,' as I call them, are amazing," she said. "In my 18 years of teaching in the classroom, I have never been so impressed by anything as I have by the Spanish immersion classroom."
The North Carolina kindergarten academic requirements are higher than they were in decades past, as kindergarteners are expected to begin reading complete sentences and performing simple arithmetic operations. The kids in Mabe's class may have a distinct advantage in that they seem always in a state of alert attention in order to overcome the language barrier.
Mabe, in her first year at the head of Eastfield's program, was selected as the school's Teacher of the Year last month.
The program will add a class next year, as the current cohort will continue in a language immersion first grade and a new group of kindergarteners take the plunge.
Last spring, when the program was announced, Pool and Superintendent Ira Trollinger held an information night to explain and answer questions from interested families. Currently, Pool said, she is scheduling parent information meetings and visits for next year. Parents interested in having their children in the Splash program can call the school office 652-3730.
New enrollment is open to kindergarteners only. The new school year at Eastfield begins in July.
The language immersion kindergarten class, as detailed in previous stories, began last July at Eastfield Elementary, using the curriculum provided by Splash!, a North Carolina-based consulting firm that has established language immersion classes in several metropolitan communities throughout the state.