Mandarin Immersion Parents Council

Sen. Dick Durbin visited Barbara Rose School in South Barrington Friday afternoon to observe a first-grade Chinese-language immersion class and formally present the $1.5 million federal grant that made it possible.

Middle school students from Barrington Unit District 220 also were there to greet the senator with dancing Chinese dragons and share some of their two years of instruction in Mandarin.

The first graders were relatively new to the language, but showed off their early knowledge by holding up the appropriate pages with the Chinese phrases spoken by their teacher. They then played another game by laying out the multicolored pages on the floor and jumping from one to another as their teacher indicated in Chinese where to go next.