Help 30 first-generation learners begin school

The AIC playgroup has been in full swing since June, and the children have gradually been acclimating to the new environment since the school year started. By mid-December, playgroup teacher Vaishali and volunteer Valerie started to see even more significant changes in terms of the children moving from the observation stage to hands-on exploration and expression. This dynamic duo selects monthly curriculum topics and themes to maximize opportunities for discovery, language, and vocabulary, through which the children are starting to use more and more English words as the year progresses.

Both Vaishali and Valerie feel passionately about the important pedagogical aspects of the curriculum they are implementing - developing gross motor skills (indoor basketball, hoopla rings, soft balls, animal movements), pre-literacy skills (story books and story-telling), numeracy skills (counting, sorting objects, talking about bigger and smaller items), social skills (sharing and interacting with other children, easing separation anxiety), fine motor skills (scribbling, slate work, filling bottles with small objects, finger painting, playdough), and conversational skills. They are especially talented at capturing their young audience's attention through dramatics - skits, conversations, rhymes, and song - resulting in an entertaining, engaging session for all. 

The playgroup curriculum also places significant emphasis on experiential learning, and over the course of the past few months, the children have been able to participate in activities like making fruit salad, tasting various foods, making vegetable salad, rolling dough and making chapatis (flat bread), and other things that develop their motor skills, expand their vocabulary, and provide important real-life learning moments.

Valerie, the volunteer who has been with the current playgroup children since they started the school year, reports that the their favorite activities are rhymes, snack, free time with the books and toys, stories, play dough, and coloring. Upon arrival, the mothers enjoy chatting and catching up, looking at books with their children, and helping their little ones try out the toys.

With our donors' support, we are proud to be able to offer these extremely underprivileged children a playgroup experience comparable to the highest-quality programs in the city, and can't wait to see them continue to progress and grow!