In Spanish, Julie Mills led a room full of wide-eyed preschoolers through a familiar childhood game.
“Simón dice tocar la naríz,” Mills, a dual-language specialist at Sarah J. Anderson Elementary School, instructed her students on Monday. Their hands flew to their faces.
Translated, “Simon says touch your nose.”
This is a typical scene at Vancouver Public Schools’ evening preschool program, a free session for young children. The programs, scattered at different schools across the district, typically run for a few weeks after the school day has ended.
Kindergarten teachers from participating campuses lead small groups of 4- and 5-year-olds through a brief class, reading books, coloring, sounding out letters and playing.
The current session running at Sarah J. Anderson Elementary School is the first that the district has hosted with a class entirely in Spanish as well as English. The campus is home to a dual-language program for its students, where half the curriculum is taught in English and half in Spanish.
About a quarter of the school’s students are English-language learners, compared with 13 percent in the district as a whole, according to the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
At other schools, the district has offered free meals to families who attend.
The goal, district mentor teacher Kendra Yamamoto said, is to reach families whose children may not have been in preschool, particularly low-income families whose children are disproportionately unprepared to enter school by the time they turn 5.
State data suggest that about half — 53.1 percent — of Clark County students met all the physical, emotional and academic standards for kindergarten readiness upon entering school.
But low-income students fare worse, with 38.7 percent meeting standards set by the state.
Still, Yamamoto said, the program is available to all families, regardless of income.
“If you want it, we’re here for you,” said Yamamoto, who helps oversee the after-school preschool sessions.
Katie Arkoosh, the school’s principal, said the program helps give students exposure to the routines and activities in a classroom so the transition into school can be less overwhelming for them and their parents.
“They’re just getting a little bit of exposure,” Arkoosh said.
Abby Cisneros, another kindergarten teacher, echoed Arkoosh. She huddled with her students as they colored books full of pictures of animals.
“It gives them an idea of how school looks, see what a classroom looks like,” she said. “It prepares them to see what their day is like.”
Speaking through an interpreter, Vancouver mother Reyna Garcia said she was glad for the opportunity to bring her 4-year-old daughter, Emily, to the evening preschool program.
Emily, a shy girl, stuck close to her mom during the session, but Garcia said she hopes her daughter will be more successful in school thanks to her preschool experience.
“She’s going to be better prepared,” she said.
For more information about Vancouver Public Schools’ early learning programs, contact Yamamoto at kendra.yamamoto@vansd.org
