Little Sponges is the first and only interactive bilingual curriculum that leverages the power of real-life videos and interactive games to teach young students listening, speaking, and reading skills in multiple languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, French, German, and Russian. The web-based platform enables personalized learning on any device for children ages two to eight. The research-based curriculum integrates language learning and academic content across the main learning domains.
Little Sponges is unique because it teaches in the way young children learn best. It engages young minds by using real-life videos from around the world, interactive games, engaging characters, memorable songs, and native audio and subtitles. Little Sponges utilizes a two-way dual-immersion method of teaching, where students are taught in both their native language and their second languages. This method has been proven to be more effective than one-way dual immersion and full immersion.
Each language track includes English and a second language. The main characters of the program, Mishka and Frog, take children on many adventures that cover key educational topics. While Frog always speaks English, Mishka always speaks the second language, and the two languages mirror each other as vocabulary is presented. This gives students comprehensible input and accelerates their learning. Teachers can personalize the learning experience by allowing students to select the language track that incorporates their native language and the target language.
This level of customization is impossible to achieve in the traditional classroom as most teachers do not speak multiple languages, nor can they personalize their instruction for all students simultaneously. The child-friendly interface allows even the youngest students to navigate the program on their own. The on-demand content allows each child to learn at his or her own pace by pausing and/or repeating learning modules.
Through creative use of technology, Little Sponges makes bilingual learning more accessible, effective, and equitable than the traditional approaches. Providing personalized dual-language instruction is more important than ever before as the number of dual-language students continues to grow in U.S. schools. www.little-sponges.com
