I don't know about you but in my classroom we use many different ways to communicate with each other. Of course my kinders think they have to use their voices to communicate everything at the beginning of the school year, but they quickly learn in my classroom that there are other ways to communicate with me and my assistant.
For example, we use the sign of crossed index and middle finger raised in the air to let us know when they need to use the restroom. Then one of us will nod and they know they have permission to get up and go. All of this happens without saying a word. It helps tremendously to cut down on the excess noise in the classroom especially during quiet times like Daily 5.
In my classroom I have two students who speak Spanish as their first language. They are enjoying teaching our other non-Spanish speakers tidbits of the language. It is a great compliment to my lessons and helps me tremendously because I do not speak Spanish myself.
For my parents who do not speak English as their primary language, I have found this translation website to be very useful: Smartling. This website translates other websites easily and quickly. It is definitely one to check out if you don't know about it already!
Now here's the question for you...Do you have any non-verbal language cues that you use in your classroom or do you teach your students another language?
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