Once a group of children has learned more than a handful of signs you need more challenging games and activities for them to learn vocabulary with.
Building children's vocabulary while teaching them sign language will eventually lead them to sentences and phrases. Use fun group activities and games to introduce new words to them and help them practice the ones they've already learned.
If your group is just learning sign language, start out teaching them easy signs and games. Then move onto more advanced activities such as the ones listed below.
- Go Fish: Teach the children various nouns. Make up decks of cards that include two of each sign you know. Divide the children into groups of five and have them play “Go Fish,” but they have to sign the card they want.
- Alphabet Groups: You can play this after you've learned a variety of signs. Secretly give each child a slip of paper with a letter on it. Choose only a few letters for the whole group. They must think of a sign they know that starts with that letter. When you say “Go,” the children walk around doing their sign and try to form a group of children with the same letter.
- The Teacher's Cat: Teach the children descriptive words such as colors, sizes, emotions etc. Sit in a circle. The first person says, “The teacher's cat is a _________ cat,” filling in the blank with a sign. The next person has to think of a different adjective to use. Another variation is to have the first person use a word that starts with “A,” the second “B” until you've gone through the entire alphabet. A third version is a memory game. Each person must use all of the signs from the people that went before him, as well as adding his own sign.
- Emotions: Teach the children different emotion signs. One child stands at the front of the group and signs an emotion. Everyone else must act out that emotion. The first person to recognize and do the emotion gets to come to the front. Another variation is to have the person at the front act out an emotion and the first person in the group to sign it gets to come to the front.
- Reading a Book: Teach the children a handful of signs from a particular picture book. Read the book and whenever you get to a word you know the sign for, let the children sign it. Another way to do this is to let each child take a turn standing up for one page, and they must remember which words they know and what the signs are for them. The other children can help if needed.
- Sign Master: Teach the children the alphabet and a handful of other signs. Children sit in a circle. One child (the detective) leaves the room. You pick a “Sign Master.” That person picks a sign to start and everyone repeats it over and over until the Sign Master changes it. The detective comes into the room and stands in the middle of the circle. They must guess which child is the Sign Master by trying to catch them changing the sign.
- Alphabet Dice: Roll an alphabet dice (or draw a letter of an alphabet from slips in a jar). The children take turns coming up with signs that start with that letter. The last child to think of a sign when no one else can, gets to roll or draw the next letter. This game works well with a big sign vocabulary and is great review.
Once the children have mastered these games you can teach them new games and activities to help them learn conversation and phrases. Children learn very fast, so you can teach them five to ten different signs a day.
Copyright Crystal Smith. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.
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