Sweet Treats

Sweets are on my mind because I know I need to eliminate them from my diet but just can't seem to do it! I want to let you know that the signs for sweet and cute are the same, but with different facial expressions. Of course, the context of the rest of your sentence would let the person you're signing to know what you're talking about. I know it's difficult to use expression when you're learning (because you're really focused), but expressions are as important as the signs themselves-- maybe more so!

If you're teaching these signs to children, be sure they respond to you with more than a single sign. If you ask them to tell their favorite kind of ice cream, they should sign, "I like chocolate ice cream." rather than just, "Chocolate."  It's good sign language practice and good practice in speaking in complete sentences.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

Today's lesson requires you to recall signs taught in previous lessons and is a good way to practice what you know. If you've been watching my videos, you've already learned most of the animal signs from the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle. We also already know the color signs, so this should be fairly easy. Of course preschoolers and kindergartners enjoy this book, but older students also love revisiting it as they incorporate the learning of sign language.

To teach this lesson to your class, you could use a felt board and felt characters from the book. I would hold up a character, such as the red bird, teach (or re-teach) the sign, and then hand that character to a student. Reassure the class that you'll re-read the story several times so that everyone will get a turn. After you've handed out all the characters, read the book, asking students to sign along with you. (If you can't hold the book and sign at the same time, put the book on an easel. If you have a reader, they could point to the words as you read.) As you get to each character, the student holding that character can come forward to put it on the felt board. *This could also be a sequencing activity, keeping track of the order in which the animals are mentioned in the book. At the conclusion, review signs by pointing to an animal and having students give the sign for the color and/or the animal.

Putting it all Together

In today's lesson, you'll learn more food signs as well as how to sign a complete sentence. It's great that you've taught the food signs, but it's important to practice the signs while using complete sentences. For a kindergarten lesson, I would ask the class to sit in a circle and then I would hand out a piece of plastic food to each student and them teach the sign for each food. Next, I would sign a food and the student holding that food would stand up and indicate whether or not they like that particular food by signing, "I like __." or "I don't like __."

"I like __." or "I don't like __." (see below)

How do I get there from here?

Transportation is on my mind because I got a new car yesterday, so I thought I'd teach a few transportation signs today. You could teach these signs to children by handing out toy cars, etc, using pictures cut from magazines, or playing a soundtrack with sounds associated with the different forms of transportation. Most kindergarten curricula include a unit on transportation. My lessons are obviously geared toward teaching sign language to hearing students, but I found a great sign language video of The Wheels on the Bus (see below) that your students might enjoy watching after they learn some of today's signs.

 The Wheels on the Bus video

Top of the muffin to you!

That title is in reference to a Seinfeld episode, in case you were wondering. Good morning! Today I'm teaching a few breakfast food signs. I just noticed that I am doing my signs very high on my body, which looks weird, but I am trying to have my black shirt as a backdrop so you can better see what my hands are doing. If you ever have questions about the signs, please don't hesitate to post a comment or to email me. I love questions!!

Summer Activities

Teachers, here's a way to teach some new signs and learn something about your students. Teach them to sign summer activities so they can tell you what they did over the summer. After I teach a new group of signs, I always have students put the signs together into a sentence. Not only is speaking/signing in complete sentences important, but it also reinforces the learning.

Career Day

Happy Monday! I truly mean that. I'm always happy and Mondays don't bother me. Today I'm teaching signs for jobs or careers. The sign for job is the same sign used for work. I've included jobs that kindergarten students most often choose, so if you need me to post any other job signs, all you have to do is ask. :)