It's spring and many Perkins kids are studying units about plants, the earth, water and how things grow. Imagine trying to understand all these new subjects when you have to learn the words that describe them at the same time. That's what's going on in Ms. Enos's class of English language learners. Many of these kids are newcomers to our country and to English. So there's a lot of learning going on.
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Here are some of the new vocabulary words they must learn to even start their units.
Sometimes it's easiest to connect a word to a picture.
A simple sentence in English often starts with the subject (I, in this case), follows with a verb or two (can pick), an article (the), and noun (carrot). It seems simple when you grow up with this pattern.
Most languages have different forms of every verb and you must learn which one is used with which subject. Some languages often don't bother with the subject because they just change the verb. Still other languages think of nouns as feminine or masculine and you must know which they are to put the feminine version of "the" or "an" in front of them.
Sounds hard, doesn't it? Any language is hard when you don't know its rules (or its words!).
Luckily the English language learners at the Perkins have plants to look at as they study how things grow.
They also have Ms. Enos to help them study English and watch their skills grow.
