BELLA (Building Early Language and Literacy Acquisition)

Project BELLA, funded by the Nevada Department of Education (Early Childhood Innovative Literacy Programs), was a language and literacy collaborative initiative between the UNLV/CSUN Preschool located in the Lynn Bennett Early Childhood Education Center and the Zeiter Literacy Development Center in the College of Education at UNLV. Project BELLA, a free 6-week Spanish/English bilingual literacy program for children and their parent/guardian, aimed to increase children’s access to high-quality bilingual instruction; (b) children’s language consciousness and curiosity; and (c) children’s language and literacy skills across languages; and (d) the understanding of and advocacy for bilingualism and biliteracy. The first iteration took place Spring 2025; we hope to have additional iterations.