Every Thursday morning Dante holds a playgroup in Auckland for babies and toddlers where they can play and sing songs in Italian. It is open to everyone - you don't have to speak Italian, though most of the children have at least one parent who is Italian. There are two teachers who lead the activities, but most mums and dads stay with their children and join in with the songs and games.
Il playgroup della Dante e' per bambini italiani e per bambini kiwi - la maggior parte ha un genitore italiano e uno kiwi. Ci incontriamo a Freemans Bay tutti i giovedi'.
Each session begins with some free play - the kids love the toy kitchen and the books - then we all sit in cicle to sing our favourite children's songs. The songs are great for learning and reinforcing vocabulary in Italian with lots of repetition of key words, especially colours, numbers, parts of the body.
Ci piace cantare Nella vecchia fattoria (ogni bambino sceglie un peluche da tenere durante la canzone), La bella lavanderina (a ogni bambino viene dato un foulard colorato da 'lavare'), Farfallina bella e bianca (un bambino tiene in mano una farfalla e balla nel centro del cerchio mentre gli altri hanno tutti un fiore), Se sei felice e tu lo sai batti le mani, Cappuccetto Rosso (un bambino fa cappuccetto e uno fa il lupo che cerca di acchiapparla) e tante tante altre!
We stop singing for merenda (morning tea) - every child brings a lunchbox - and the mums, dads, grandparents and teachers have a chat over some coffee. Then there is usually time for one or two games, and a chance to choose a children's book or two to borrow for the week.
After everything is packed up, most of us meet again at the playground just outside the room we use for the playgroup for some extra playtime (and chatting time).
Venite a giocare con noi! Ci divertiamo tantissimo.