Sign language is a very interesting thing to talk to your students about. This can come in handy some time in their lives. Here are some great activities to incorporate into your lesson plans all about sign language.
To start off a unit on sign language you are first going to want to teach your students the sign language alphabet. Print offs to hand out to your students can easily be found online by going to Google and typing in sign language alphabet. Then give each of your students a sheet with the alphabet on it to practice. Then start to teach them simple signs such as colors and parts of the body. You may also want to teach them some greetings such as hello and goodbye. You may also want to teach them directions such as the sign for left and right.
After teaching your students colors, parts of the body, and directions you can then proceed to play this sign language game. This game is called sign language twister. Pick one student to be the person that spins the spinner. All the other students stand around the twister mat. This game is played like the normal twister is however with a twist. Instead of the person with the spinner calling out the color, direction, and body part they must sign it to the other students. Then the students must read what that person is signing and place their hand or foot on the right color. As with normal twister if anyone falls or touches the ground they are out. Play until there is only one person left in the game. That person is the winner and gets to be the spinner in the next game.
Another great activity is to teach your students to sign a book. Then go to a local children’s hospital or school for the deaf and have them sign out the story for the children. Then they can visit with the children and can talk to them using the sign language that they learned in class. Not only will they make new friends they will also be learning a skill that can help them throughout their lifetime.
Another great activity for a unit on sign language is to have a sign language day. During this day your students are only allowed to talk using sign language. You should teach them that day using sign language. If they do not know a lot of words that is okay you can teach them the ones they do not know. You can draw pictures of the things you are saying and then teach them the corresponding sign language action for that picture. Your students will have a lot of fun using just sign language for a day.
By incorporating these activities into your sign language lesson plans your students will have lots of fun. They will learn sign language while playing fun games and doing rewarding activities. This subject is something that will be truly rewarding for them to know as they grow older.
