Languages- Auslan

Communicating with the Specialist Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2025, and welcome your input:

Amanda Oakley (Languages- Auslan) Amanda.Oakley2@education.vic.gov.au

Shar Stjerne (Languages- Auslan) Shar.Stjerne@education.vic.gov.au 

 Term Two 2025

Our Term Two focus is 'Travel'

                                          Foundation

The Foundation students have been introduced to numbers 0-10 and have been practising these number signs in a variety of activities such as 'I spy', counting objects, magnetic fishing games and matching cards. Using manipulatives and loose play items, such as the farm animals, enabled the students to combine their past knowledge of animal signs and new number signs into the one activity, continually revising and building upon prior learning.

All students celebrated 'Wear it Yellow Day' during Reconciliation Week. We discussed the Auslan signs for Australia, signs that non-Indigenous people use and a sign that Deaf Indigenous people use in different communities. Students are pictured communicating the sign "yellow". Together as a school we raised $445 for the Children's Ground Foundation. This organisation supports the education and health of young children in Indigenous communities to access education, literacy and learning in their own community language, providing opportunities to create strong identities and a sense of belonging.

Year One

Year One students watched the Auslan interpreted story 'The Truck Cat', which was this year's National Simultaneous Story time book. You can find a version of the story in the following link. You can also access the Auslan interpreted version via Story Box Hub using your library card membership and number via https://storyboxhub.com/

The students learnt about how we can use our signing to indicate how, what and where an object is moving, such over, under, in front and behind. The story 'The Truck Cat' also opened up discussions and helped to make links about how language is important for our identity and sense of belonging. 

Students drew items in their own truck and practised signing "I have......in my truck" using the sign for the number of objects and the object names, in Auslan.

Year Two

Year Two students have been revising and expanding their knowledge of handshape names. Every sign uses a particular handshape, orientation, location around the body, movement and may have a facial or body gesture associated with it. Using this knowledge they are linking the signs they know and thinking about what 'handshape' it uses, such as the colours yellow and white use the 'ok' handshape. Soccer uses the 'fist' handshape.

Opportunities for students to extend their visual reception skills are continually being supported by signing in the classroom and watching short Auslan stories that they are familiar with. One example is the story 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff'. They watched this story without voice and many surprised themselves with the amount that they could understand. Some of their comments included;

"I got to see the words in my mind"

"I understood a lot"

"I loved it and wanted to watch it again"

"I understood all of it".

The story link is below if you would like to watch it again with your child.

Year Three and Four

The Year Three and Four students have been hard at work learning vehicle signs, responding to Auslan stories and describing different objects. We watched the simultaneous story time book, The Truck Cat and filled our own transport truck with things to carry across the country. 

Our towns are coming together, with packages and vehicles getting ready to deliver things across the room. 

Year Five and Six

The Year Five and Six students are continuing their travel and transport work with the different National AFL Football team names. Working on the team names to keep the ladder correct has challenged the students to remember various signs for our different teams. This is whilst working alongside reading a novel, talking under water, in which a hearing boy meets a deaf girl and the challenges that they face in communicating.