American Sign Language
This week one of our Reading stories was called "The William Hoy Story" by Nancy Churnin. It was a biography about a deaf boy who changed how the game of baseball was played. We learned that he used sign language to communicate with his family, friends, coaches, and teammates. We have a sign language alphabet poster and several books in our classroom to go with this story. The children were excited to practice the alphabet in sign language and learn how to spell their own names. Xander shared that he uses ASL and lip reading to communicate with him Mom, Stephanie, who is also a paraprofessional in the preschool room.
This morning we invited her and Mrs. Jansma, who offers sensory room support at our school, in to our classroom to share their knowledge about signing. We learned that Mrs. Jansma became interested in ASL when she was in 2nd grade, babysat for a small child from her hometown who was deaf, and went to Augustana College to learn more about teaching sign language. She used to be a teacher at a deaf school in Sioux Falls and enjoys interpreting. The children were very interested in learning how to sign words such as: yes, no, hello, goodbye, friend, mother, father, grandma, grandpa, sister, brother, teacher, pencil, bathroom, drink, juice, calm down, quiet, relax, applause, please, thank you, sorry, and Mrs. Jansma's personal favorite....turtle. Our favorites were bathroom and applause as we use them every day in our classroom. Thanks for being an inspiration to us today, Mrs. Jansma and Miss Stephanie. Sign language sure is interesting!
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