Really cool crafts!

Everyone likes to make crafts of some kind.  You can use them as an art teacher, and lower level elementary grades for Mother's or Father's Day, or any other holidays.  I really like the idea of handmade gifts from kids, you can keep them and display them from year to year.  I don't think my kids ever get tired of looking at the adorable Christmas ornaments they made for me when they were 1 or 2 years old.  Maybe someday they will, but for now they just think it's funny to see how tiny their hands were or their toddler painting projects.  Again, I cannot tell you enough how much I enjoy Signing Time, and their web site has so much on it.  I found some really cool crafts to share today:

http://c2411672.r72.cf0.rackcdn.com/Sept2011_handycraft.pdf
http://c2411672.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/febhandycraft.pdf
http://signingtime.net/pdf/st/handycrafts/CalendarCraft-November06.pdf
http://signingtime.net/pdf/st/handycrafts/CalendarCraft-December06.pdf

You can also jazz up your holiday/Christmas programs at school.  I enjoy a program with songs and actions and trust me, you can add all the signs you need to the 12 Days Of Christmas, or Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and Jingle Bells.  You can have half of the kids sing, the other half sign....it would be very interesting, and a great moment to capture on film.

I like this example I found on youtube.

Enjoy!

Sign language Apps!

Who would have thought that you could incorportate sign language into your day by adding apps to your phone or iPad?  I really never thought about it until tonight...so I checked around to see what there are for sign language apps.  So here is what I found:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sign-language/id321202730?mt=8
http://www.brighthub.com/mobile/google-android/articles/95734.aspx
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/asl-dictionary/id353574642?mt=8

I thought they posed some interesting ideas for practicing sign language or if you are lucky enough to have iPads in your classroom you can download them, and some are free.  I just searched for sign language apps on yahoo and found a couple that are free, both of which seem quite cool, especially the Signing Time one! Enjoy!

http://apps.search.yahoo.com/profile?p=Sign+Language%21&appid=321202730&appgid=9399505&pf=iphone&pfs=iphone&pd=4
http://apps.search.yahoo.com/profile?p=Signing+Time+Lite+ASL+-+Sign+Language&appid=306355760&appgid=9353697&pf=iphone&pfs=iphone&pd=4

Items for your classoom

I've seen a lot of really cool classroom decorations.  Some classes have painted the state of Wisconsin on the wall, or the entire USA.  Some have hand prints of their students, and others will have sight words or common words they will use throughout the school year.  If you are planning to incorporate sign language into your classroom setting it will be very important to have different sign items throughout your classroom.  Some schools have a rule about how many paper items they can have on their walls, or possibly not allowing this at all. 

If you cannot have a lot of items on your walls, it shouldn't stop you from having flip charts with sign language words and phrases on them.  There are puzzles for the alphabet, and flash cards.  If you use them for math, why not use them for sign language!

I like finding cartoon pictures or icons to use on worksheets or to add to things to make them more cheery.  Since the Smurfs were cool when I was a kid, and the movie is out again...I thought this was a good picture to add to my blog.

I found this great site that has over 40 items that incorporate sign language into them.  Enjoy!
http://american-classroom-supply.ecomm-search.com/search?vwcatalog=yhst-29588664682132&query=sign+language&x=0&y=0

I love silly pizza!

This is one of the top songs when I did sign language at the Montessori school in our nearby town.  Who doesn't love pizza, and a silly piszza is even better yet!  So play this for your kids and see how excited they become.  You'll never see pizza the same way again.  We even do our own pizza once the kids learn more food signs.  I've had pizza with swingsets, swimming pools, puppies, and the color red :)  How delicious!

Can sign language complete a foreign language requirement?

I am a huge proponent of learning a foreign language.  I don't consider sign language a foreign language of course, but in the case of learning something that is not English, and not spoken language, it does fill the requirement of learning something you didn't already know.  Sign language is a widely used language, and if many, many people use it why couldn't it be considered for a foreign language requirement for college?

I read a really great article once that I want to repost on here.  I think it would benefit anyone thinking about foreign language in the school, for themselves, or their children to discuss this with your child's school administration.

A great site I found:
http://www.education.nh.gov/instruction/accountability/sign_lang_comm.htm

Other sites:
http://www.mybrightbeginner.com/about/curriculum.php
http://www.brighthub.com/education/special/articles/5250.aspx
http://www.iasb.com/govrel/alr9613.cfm
http://eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED459557.pdf

Read them at your leisure, but I think you will gain amazing insight into using Sign Language as foreign language credit.

Have a wonderful weekend!

BINGO

Who says BINGO can only be done using words and numbers that are said out loud?  Not me!  I love playing sign language BINGO.  You can create your own cards, or you can find templates online:
http://www.bingocardtemplate.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/bingo_template_black.pdf

Then you can have your student glue pictures of animals, or you can have them write letters and numbers in the spaces.  You then sign each number, letter, or animal and the first student to have a BINGO signs it.  To sign BINGO you have a flat hand and touch your palm to your nose.  I'm not sure if this is how everyone signs it, but I was taught this by a few students and thought it was really cute.  So now it's the only sign I use.  I also google "cartoon animal pictures" for my BINGO cards.  I think the kids like them, and they can color them how ever they would like.  Plus if you want to laminate them you can use them all year.

  I thought this cow was so cute, I had to post him.

What can you do in Kindergarten?

I am subbing tomorrow in a Kindergarten class.  I'm planning on doing a number of the ideas I have posted during the past couple of weeks.  I know they will love the calendar idea, as well as pretending to be animals and mooing around the classroom.  I was trying to think of something else that would be exciting and something new.  I've been at this so many years that I (at times) forget to try something out of my comfort zone in classrooms.  What better time to try than tomorrow?

My ideas will involve teaching signs for "Help", "playtime", "quiet time", "recess", "stop", "lunch", "drink", "bathroom", "paper", "crayons", and "fall".  Using the signs will help to keep the class noise level lower and to see how many signs the kids can use in place of yelling for things, who knows it may work exactly like I think it will...

I also like this link from signwithme.com.  I think it shows some great signs you can use with kids ages 8 and younger.





For a reference on the kids signs, check out the online ASL dictionary.  http://handspeak.com/word/index.php.  You can download if you'd like!

Animated Sign Language Alphabet

I love powerpoint presentations!  When I was a public speaker these were my favorite tools for getting my message across.  I always told the kids I was talking to that the power point was there to keep them from staring at me for 60 minutes.  Looking at the same face for that long can become very boring.  Kids need constant change and stimulation, that's why they like video games and cartoons with lots of color.  How many adults do you know that like to stare at one face all day or the same black and white screen on their computer?  I am one to change my wallpaper a couple times a month and the color of my yahoo email page.  Sometimes it's pink, or blue, and I've also had black.  When you plan ideas for your students power points and other "technology" can be a life saver.  I found this very cool power point today and thought I would share it with you.  It's taken from the main website, listen-up.org.

http://www.listen-up.org/dnload4/fingerspelling.ppt

Open it as a power point, view the slide show in it animated form, when it asks for a password, just click on read only.  I think you and your students will really enjoy it!  I know I did!

Using Sign Language with Kids in Upper Grades

I subbed in a 4th grade class last week and found a few situations where sign language could be appropriate.  I think about math.  Why couldn't you incorporate sign language numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division signs and find a way to help kids remember the phrase "Factor Fireworks"?  Or when working with story problems sign "car", or "teacher", or any other important word in the story problem?  Any visual as well as oral help would only boost the ways you are teaching your students!

I found this video on youtube and thought it would be of some help!  Enjoy

Calendar time

Mornings in many elementary classrooms open with discussing calendars. You talk about the day of the week, the year, month, the weather, what the weather "bear" should be wearing, and even what day of school it is (i.e. 100th day of school). Teaching your students how to sign the different days of the week can help them learn what letter each day begins with, and with the visual nature of sign language, they will learn the days of the week in order. I've heard songs such as "There's Sunday, and there's Monday, there's Tuesday, and there's Wednesday, there's Thursday, and there's Friday, and then there's Saturday. Days of the week (snap, snap), days of the week (snap, snap)..." You can easily incorporate the signs into your song! Plus, you can even sign the song without using any words, making for a quiet start to the day

Here's a link to a quick peek at the Signing Time video from Youtube, enjoy!

Games using sign language in your classroom

When my daughter was in kindergarten, I asked if I could help out in her classroom.  Her teacher was amazing, she taught the kids Spanish words to go along with the words she was already teaching in class.  Words like red, blue, family, grandma, etc.  I asked her if I could also teach the students sign language to go along with color and family words.  She thought it was an awesome idea!  So that started my 4 year run of teaching sign language at my childrens' school!  I loved it! 

Not only did I teach color and family words, but I branched out into animals.  Of course kids love animals.  I would sign a word and they would have to crawl around the classroom and walk, sound, and/move like the animal I was signing did.  It was a hit.  I also used these same methods at the local Montessori School for 2 years.  I'm not sure how old the kids would have to get before they would dislike mooing like a cow, or snorting like a deer with hands on their heads in the shape of horns....but it's worth a try.  If nothing else, it would be a really fun brain-break for kids after or even before a big test.

This website can give you some signs you can use in a variety of ways.  It has different units with colors, family members, and today/tomorrow/yesterday.
http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/ or http://www.lifeprint.com/dictionary.htm

Some quick signs for you today:

deer: make both your hands into the number 5.  Put them on top of your head like deer antlers.  There you have it!  I would have the kids say "snort, snort", to sound like big, tough bucks.

dog: I do this in a couple of different ways, take your open hand and pat your thigh like you are calling a dog to come to you.  Or you can pat your thigh, then snap your finger.  Either way is fine.

cow: Make the letter "y" and bring it up to your head like you are making a horn on a cow.  Now twist it up and down.  You can even moo if you want!

You can have a lot of fun with animal signs, remember just try it.  Kids in 5th grade can learn a couple signs everyday and in fact, may look forward to your brain-breaks before big tests.

I found this cool download site that could be useful in a classroom.  Check it out, as it has many downloads to change pdf's to sign language to create communication boards, or BINGO.

http://www.freevector.com/sign-language-vector/

Baby Signing

I started to teach my children sign language when they were basically born.  Before having children I was an Educational Interpreter for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.  I worked in all grades between PreK and senior in high school.  I interpreted Dr. Suess books (very challenging) and CAD classes (just as challenging).  In the end, I found sign language to be a wonderful tool for me to use with my own children.  It limited their tantrums because I knew when they were "finished", needed "mom, dad, food, or a drink".  It really takes very little time because your child is a sponge!  My sister-in-law is now enrolled in a baby sign class with my 7 month old niece. 

Signing Time www.signingtime.com has been my website of choice when I have worked with classroom teachers or local parent/child groups on incorporating sign language into their daily lives.  They also have a great list of National Educational Standards http://www.signingtimekids.org/uploads/images/lessonplans/NationalEducationalStandards.pdf

When discussing Baby Sign the site states:

Your baby can communicate with you before he can talk. Children learn to point, wave goodbye and blow kisses before they speak. Your child uses gestures to communicate while his verbal abilities catch up with his intellectual abilities. Baby sign language enables your child to tell you if he is hungry, thirsty or needs a diaper change. Baby sign language research suggests that infants who use sign language speak sooner and score higher, when tested after second grade. Baby Signing Time encourages signing and speaking together. hear the word, see the word, say the word, and model the word with their hands. You do not need to become fluent in baby signing, even learning a few signs like ‘milk’, ‘more’ and ‘diaper’ can help. Baby Signing Time teaches American Sign Language signs because if you are going to learn signs, you should learn signs for a real language rather than a made up signs. Learning ASL will enable your child to communicate with thousands who are hard of hearing or deaf. ASL signs are natural, easy and fun for babies.

Baby Signing Time is recommended for babies 3 to 36 months. Our baby sign language DVDs are educational. Infants and toddlers learn about mealtime, sharing, manners, animals, feelings and more.

Sign language in the classroom

Sign language is something that people are interested in, but don't necessarily know very much about. Did you know that American Sign Language, or ASL, is not a form of English. It has a specific grammatical structure that a person must master in the same way as one must master the grammar of any other language. ASL is visual and composed of handshapes and movements rather than auditory language.

Sign language can be used in a classroom setting in a variety of ways. Elementary teachers can best use sign language with spelling units or with morning calendar time. Children absorb language very quickly and sharing the ASL alphabet is a great way to start. I have attached this link also helps to see the shapes of the signs and one for a sign language online disctionary. If you have access to a SmartBoard, this would work perfectly. http://www.terpnetwork.com/docs/abc_hands.pdf, http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro.cgi

Each day I will post different video clips, stories, games, and many other ideas for classroom sign language useage.  I hope you will find this useful.  You can come back each day, or once a week.