Share your Signing Activities

[Admin]

Hi all - Karen From Signing Time here...don't forget to submit your signing activities on the signing time website. These are your "real life" suggestions on how you incorporate signing into everyday life with your children....

http://www.signingtime.com/contact/activitysubmit.html

Every month a new winner is selected to receive a $10 store credit good on anything in the Signing Time Store!

-Karen

[Admin]

Bubbles…Bubbles…And More Bubbles!!!

I love pulling out the bubbles to promote signing. To begin, I show my children the bubbles and they instantly sign 'bubbles please.” Then, after we start blowing, out comes the “more” sign. It is also the perfect opportunity for reinforcing signs like “up,” “down,” “many and any object the bubbles land on (dog, flower, grass, and shoe). We often sing songs about the bubbles that we make up as we go along. We also use the signs “jump” and “catch” to see if we can jump up and catch the high bubbles. When it’s time to put the bubbles away, we sadly sign “finished.” This is the perfect activity for busy moms because you don’t need a lot of materials. It is also a great way to gather little ones to a "circle time activity" in a preschool environment.

-Submitted by K. Stein

[Admin]

I Spy - In 3 Languages!!

My son Joshua, who is two, knows his colors in English, Sign/ASL & Spanish thanks to the colors of the rainbow song. We now like to use them to play a version of I-Spy. I start by saying a color (red) and then he will find an object of that color and sign the color and the object if he knows the sign. {He signs red and then signs apple). I then ask him if he knows the color in Spanish (rojo). Having the signs to tie the English and Spanish words together has been a great way to help him become multi-lingual with very little effort. He just thinks he's having a great time. It won't be long before his little sister Keli who is one is right there with him. She signs eat, more, milk, and her favorite cookie already!

-Submitted by Julie Yilek

[amiller]

Every day over breakfast, the girls choose a new word and we show them the sign for the day. Each time they can show it to us at dinner, they earn a point. Points are redeemed for getting out of chores, staying up 5 minutes late, or other rewards.

They LOVE it and have really increased their sign vocabularies!

[Teresa Jo]

I've been doing an activity similar to the "I Spy - In 3 Languages" mentioned above. I use the DVD "Brainy Baby -French" and say the word in French while also doing the sign. Then I repeat the word in English and do the sign again. I am teaching my son ASL as a second language and wanted to expose him to a second spoken language as well too.

[HopesMommy]

After using an object sign with my 15 month old daughter for a while, we play the "Where is" game. I'll ask her "Where is (insert sign for object)?", but do not use my voice when making the sign. She goes and finds the object and brings it back. It's kind've like hide-n-seek with her toys! She loves this game and it keeps her busy for at least 30 minutes each time we play.

[momgael]

...our "fun" theme has been snow (we don't have any real stuff here in our part of NC). Each week we have developmental themes and 5-7 signs we focus on. So, this week we worked on body parts. I got some bags of fake snow and put it in a sweater box with a bunch of Mr. Potatoe heads. During large group we got a sensory experience and worked on labeling our body parts in sign language (plus worked on fine motor skills putting him together.) We also read "The snowman" and sang the snokey-pokey (body parts again).

Next week is snowflakes...I will post more later.

Nickie, nc

[lookwhossigning]

We sing lots of songs. I sign to ds whatever songs we are singing. He loves that and now at 18 months, he has more than 200 signs and signs songs by himself!!!
We also sign all of his books. I tell parents who are just starting to start with a few signs that they know so they don't get overwhelmed. But, it really works!!! I love watching him "reading" and signing at the same time!!!!

[amiller]

We sign books too, as much as possible. It has really helped reinfroce the vocabulary we have!

[Admin]

Congratulations to our Signing Time Activity winners for November and December for submitting these great activities. Each month we pick an activity submission and award a $10 gift certificate! The winning submissions for November and December are:


November 2005:
Teaching signs to groups of children

Materials: Crackers, Juice or Water

I used this activity with a group of about 6-8 kids--toddlers, preschoolers and kindergartners. After they were all seated, I handed out one cracker to each child--showing them the signs for eat cracker before and after I gave it to them. I did the same for juice. Then I sat at the table with them and when someone asked for more, I showed them the signs for more and please. While they ate, I repeated the signs to each child--always establishing eye contact-- and ate some crackers myself. The children needed to repeat the signs before they got a cracker or more juice. I only gave them one cracker each time they asked for more and we laughed and laughed, while they gobbled crackers and made their hands dance.

-Submitted by Pilar Olivio


December 2005
Simple practice songs

Sing the song "I LIKE to EAT, EAT, EAT, APPLES and BANANAS..." very simple way to practice these signs from some of the first volumes.

-Submitted by Laura Abramson

[Admin]

Congratulations to our Signing Time Activity winner for January for submitting this great activity. Each month we pick an activity submission and award a $10 gift certificate! The winning submissions for January is:

January 2006:
Start an ASL After School Club

What we have done..
It started last year when my son was in first grade. He was telling her about ST., she was interested and borrowed some of our videos and used them in her class. I also provided other ASL resourses to her like animal signs for the zoo trip. We heard great things from parents, like one parent that had her daughter use fingerspelling to practice her spelling words while eating breakfast. Over the summer the kids continued to show interest. So another parent and I got together and talked, desiding that this could work for an after school club.
We have gotten the teacher that used the ST videos (which she is using again this year) to be our sponsor teacher, my 15yr old daughter is one of the leaders, and we have contacted our local community college ASL dept. and have found at least 3rd year ASL students to also help lead and bring in more of the deaf culture. We are charging a small fee to pay the college students a small stipend, and cover minimal costs of running a club. Our vision is to build friendships with California School for the Deaf (they are located close to our campus) via pen pals and eventually getting together and using our ASL. As of today we have 30 students enrolled. This is open to the entire school of K - 6th grade.

This school is a public elemetary. We have special ed, but no deaf students. We are a Spanish Bilingual school, and have Spanish imersion classes.

We are looking forward to a great year.

- Sherry Anderson

[sherry3995]

for the recognition of the After School Club. I wanted to update you that we are now at 44 Students! We have been asked by the school's Variety Show Director and the Principal, to prepare a song in ASL and to be in the Annual Variety Show.

Sherry :)

Trying to decide if we do Silly Pizza or Colors of the Rainbow??

[c01dunlap]

How cool is that! Sherry, great job at gaining such interest and recognition!!

[andrealynnj]

After using an object sign with my 15 month old daughter for a while, we play the "Where is" game. I'll ask her "Where is (insert sign for object)?", but do not use my voice when making the sign. She goes and finds the object and brings it back. It's kind've like hide-n-seek with her toys! She loves this game and it keeps her busy for at least 30 minutes each time we play.

My daughter invented a similar game for herself. I was slower on the uptake, it took me a while to realize she was playing. She will sign "WHERE _____" (usually something in plain sight, often the moon or a plane) and My job is to then voice "Where is the moon?" then she points to it with great triumph and I say "There is the moon!" So simple, but she just loves it. She will usually repeat the same object three or four times.

[lletiecq]

My HOH fourteen month old daughter likes to play "where is". She will sign where and then hide her water cup next to her in her high chair. Then I am expected to say and sign "where is Marian's water" three times and then find it. She will play this over and over. She also will sign "where L" for "where is Lillian (her sister)."

It is really exciting to have her communicate the want to play a game when she is not old enough to talk to tell me yet.

Laura in Manassas, Va

[Teresa Jo]

for the recognition of the After School Club. I wanted to update you that we are now at 44 Students! We have been asked by the school's Variety Show Director and the Principal, to prepare a song in ASL and to be in the Annual Variety Show.

Sherry :)

Trying to decide if we do Silly Pizza or Colors of the Rainbow??

Congratulations Sherry on a successful and wonderful group!! :)

[andrealynnj]

Trying to decide if we do Silly Pizza or Colors of the Rainbow??

Both are great but I vote for Silly Pizza. It is more fun, and more impressive. And people in the audience can try to follow along as the repetition teaches the signs.

[Mom2ckc]

I think the pizza song would be a lot of fun but a lot of work too. What a wonderful idea.
Mary
Caitlyn 3yr
kyle 2yr
Carmelle 6months
:)


for the recognition of the After School Club. I wanted to update you that we are now at 44 Students! We have been asked by the school's Variety Show Director and the Principal, to prepare a song in ASL and to be in the Annual Variety Show.

Sherry :)

Trying to decide if we do Silly Pizza or Colors of the Rainbow??

[theresa]

for the recognition of the After School Club. I wanted to update you that we are now at 44 Students! We have been asked by the school's Variety Show Director and the Principal, to prepare a song in ASL and to be in the Annual Variety Show.

Sherry :)

Trying to decide if we do Silly Pizza or Colors of the Rainbow??
Dear Sherry, great work!! I vote for the Rainbow song. It's a nice tune and you can point to people in the audience ( do you know the colors....), plus you can say some of the students names (Mary knows the colors...)Good luck in whatever you choose!

[sherry3995]

Here is our response from CSD! This is going to be fun!

How exciting to know that many children are still interested in learning ASL!



Some teachers in my department are interested in forming a partnership between your school and here, but they do have some different ideas. 1st grade teachers would like to do some kind of ASL videos for the penpal program. 2nd grade teachers are interested in letter writing and the “Reading in the Park” event. 3rd grade teachers are interested, too. A 4th grade teacher is interested in having her students team up with your younger students for read alouds in ASL at the “Reading in the Park” event.



How do you want to work this out?



Adele Ann Eberwein

Elementary Principal

California School for the Deaf

[alices_dad]

Characteristic of the terrible two's, Alice favorite spoken word became 'no'. We made up two songs, the no song and the yes song.

The no song is the Toreador's March from Carmen with 'no' for every syllable except for one stanza that I make 'yes'.

The yes song is Camptown Races with yes for every syllable except for the 'doo-dahs' which are 'no-nos'

Care to guess which is her favorite of the two?

[Emilys_Mommy]

We like to sing in our house! (Even though neither one of us can carry a tune in a bucket! ;) ) One of Emily's favorite games is "What does Mommy have?" - where I will choose an item that she knows the sign for and sing to her until she signs for the object. I sing the following song:

What does Mommy have?
What does Mommy have?
What does Mommy have in her hand?
Tell me Emily
What does Mommy have?
What does Mommy have in her hand?
** to the tune "O My Darlin Clementine" **

When Emily can tell me what I have, I give the item to her and sing the song with HER name instead of Mommy :)