The West Wing has started to introduce American Sign Language to the children. At first it was used as a tool to support the meetings; teachers would sign to children little reminders like “sit down” and “listen”.
But as we noticed the children sign these same ‘reminders’ to their peers, we realized there was a strong interest in learning more vocabulary. Now on every Thursday afternoon, we have an ASL Meeting time where we play simple games, sing songs and have even attempted to tell stories in ASL. Some of the words that we are practicing are:
Animals: Cat, Dog, Elephant, Giraffe, Wolf, Turtle, Fish, Lion, Shark, Mermaid, Duck, Bird, Frog, Pig
Colors: Red, Black, Blue, Green, Grey, Yellow, Orange, Pink, Purple, White
Feelings: Mad, Grumpy, Sad, Happy, Scared, Excited
Other Words: Stop, Quiet, Listen, Sit, Hurt, Help/Support, Crying, Sick
Food: Water, Drink, Hungry, Lunch, Chocolate, Cake, Ice Cream, Book, Shoes
People: Mom, Dad, Witch
Movements: Jump, Stand up, Fall
As the children are becoming more comfortable understanding and communicating through Sign, we are seeing that many of them are using it to express their needs and boundaries assisting them as they work through conflict. The word “stop” is one of the most common signs used.
Other uses of sign have been to label things in their environment. On a recent walk in the neighborhood, Dashiell and Isla noticed a cat.
Mila: ‘Cat’ (ASL)
Dashiell: “Cat’ (ASL)
The wind scared the cat.
Dashiell: It worked! (Started tapping his leg with one hand.)
Group: That’s the sign for dog.
Dashiell: But it works for cats too.
Dashiell then uses his hands and arms to motion the cat to come towards him. This motion is very similar to the sign for ‘come’ (which was not formally introduced). In this moment, Dashiell is in a sense creating a sign for what he wants to communicate.
-Teacher Jennifer