Learner Spotlight: Emma

Emma, a kindergartener at iLEAD Exploration and attendee of the iLEAD OC 360 program, dances, volunteers in charity work, speaks three languages, and loves hiking and tending a garden with her friends.

Emma has been dancing ballet folkloric for over a year. Originating in Mexico, folkloric dancers wear beautiful, colorful, long skirts and high heels with nails underneath to hear the tapping sounds it makes. The style, zapateo, means “shoe tapping.” Emma explains, “I like folkloric because it is a fast dance and I love tapping my shoes against the floor and making noise. I love wearing long skirts and my high heels.”

Her favorite books are “Tikki Tikki Tembo” and “Children Just Like Me” from Unicef. This book is filled with children from all over the world and explains how they live their lives in their homes, families, school, church and hobbies, and also describes the foods they enjoy. She also likes to read history. She enjoys learning about different cultures and countries. She speaks Spanish, French and English.

When Emma learned about the Kindness Coins Challenge, she wanted to help. This year’s challenge is to build a school and peace center in Pakistan. Emma located the challenge with a local friend who is from Pakistan. Her kindergarten learning center class has been collecting money for it. When asked why she wanted to do this, Emma replied, “to be nice and for planet Earth to have more schools. I like to help others.”

She likes to learn about history and things that happened in the past. In class, she is interested in inventors and history makers who accomplished something for the first time such as the first pilot and the first astronaut. “I like to learn a little bit about life,” says Emma.

Every month, Emma studies a new country as part of her independent studying. Her favorite country she’s learned about is Canada because her dad is from there. The family’s recent trip to Canada included a learning experience on how maple syrup is made!

Emma is part of a bilingual independent studying group that meets outdoors weekly. Families who are part of the group either speak Spanish or have a desire to bring Spanish into their independent studying. The lessons are all done in Spanish and include a lot of lessons about nature. This year, the group has studied seasons, flowers and butterflies. Since many families come from Latin American countries, they incorporate cultural lessons as well, such as Day of the Dead and Christmas. The children and adults also tend to a garden that is close to the “outdoor classroom” by pulling out weeds, planting and cleaning the garden.

Emma loves independent studying because “I learn new things and I love doing activities.”