Countryside, IL school offering dual language programs to elementary school students.

Preschoolers looked up shyly from their tables as they put away papers and paints from an art project at Ideal Elementary School in Countryside.

But the children's faces lit up as they spotted their sixth-grade reading buddies enter the bilingual preschool classroom. Most pairs selected a book to read together in English, but a few sixth-graders read to their young friends in Spanish.

The match benefits both classes, challenging the sixth-graders to read with expression and engage the preschoolers with questions about the book, said sixth-grade teacher Libbi Christman.

"The preschoolers get to know somebody else in the building," Christman said. "We have a lot of bilingual students. It's a good connection."

Sixth-grader Jeremy Lonsway said he has enjoyed reading to a different preschool student each time.

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