NATCHEZ — Friday was the third Spanish lesson for preschoolers at Trinity Episcopal Day School, and this time Salsa the Salamander taught the 3- and 4-year-olds about Goldilocks and the Tres Osos.

Preschool teacher Skeeter Hutchins said she and teacher Lisa Falkenheiner got the idea to introduce Spanish to the preschool from a parent.

One of the students’ mothers, Mandy Brown, asked if Trinity would consider starting a bilingual preschool program because she saw the benefits of a similar program offered in Memphis, from where her family had recently moved.

“So we researched it,” Hutchins said.

Research showed that learning multiple languages is just as easy as learning one language for children under the age of 9, Hutchins said.

Choosing Spanish made sense because it is the most widely used foreign language in the United States, Falkenheiner said.

Research also revealed more benefits about teaching a second language early.

“Students that learn multiple languages at an early age (tend to) have higher achievement in other academic areas and have higher cognitive flexibility,” Hutchins said.

The award-winning DVD program produced by an educational division of Georgia Public Broadcasting, uses puppets, animation and realistic scenes to introduce Spanish to children in a way that is fun for them.

“All we pretty much have to do is say, ‘It’s Salsa time!’ and they’re ready,” Falkenheiner said.

The children sat criss-cross-applesauce on a rug Friday afternoon, and tuned into Salsa, an animated, Spanish-speaking salamander, and his friend, a golden-haired puppet who tried eating “supa” from “grande” and “pequena” bowls.

Hutchins said each episode focuses on repetition of a few key vocabulary words, which the teachers point out during the lesson.

Each time Hutchins asked the class to give the Spanish word for something in English, at least one and often many children answered the question correctly from their spot on the rug.

By the third lesson, many of the children could recall the Spanish translations for “Hello,” “See you later,” “big,” “small,” and numbers one through three.

Hutchins said she would like if the elementary school started a Spanish program to follow through with the lessons, but in the meantime, the trial run with the preschool Spanish is going well.

Some children were eager to line up to play outside when DVD shut off, but they also enjoyed becoming bilingual.

Hutchins asked the class why they liked learning Spanish.

“Because it’s fun,” preschooler Madison Walker said.

Falkenheiner said the response from parents so far has been that their children are talking about their Spanish classes at home.

“When the parents picked them up from school yesterday the (preschoolers) said, ‘Hola,’ and the parents couldn’t believe it,” Falkenheiner said.