Auslan Report

During this fortnight, Grade Preps will learn about WH Questions and Handshapes. Grades 1-6 students will learn about Nature and Auslan Structure. When Grade Preps learn about WH Questions they will learn to sign the following:

• who? 

• what? 

• when? 

• where? 

• why? 

• how? 

• because, 

• how many? 

• how much? 

• how old? 

• want

• don’t want

• question 

• ask.

The learning activity will involve practising asking and answering questions and then playing a hidden object game. Students will need to close their eyes while an object is being hidden and then students will ask questions using Auslan like “Where …?” When the student answers correctly they will also have a turn at hiding an object and the game continues to give students an opportunity to practise their Auslan questions. Grade Preps will also learn the ‘Question Poem’.                                                                 

When learning about Handshapes, Grade Preps will learn the following shapes: Flat, Good and Spread. Students will work with handshape cards face down on the floor and as the cards are turned over, one student will form and name the handshape. Grade preps will continue with turning the cards to practise these three significant handshapes. 

When learning about Nature, students in Grades 1-6 will learn to sign the following words:

• Nature 

• walk 

• See what? 

• Tree 

• mushroom 

• flowers 

• rock 

• river 

• birds 

• leaves 

• path 

• soil

• mud.

Grade 1 and 2 students will focus on playing a ‘Guess the picture Game’. This will involve the teacher drawing a picture on the whiteboard of one of the signs e.g. tree, mushroom, flower, rock, river, bird, leaves, path, soil or mud. When students recognise the picture, they will answer in Auslan. Grade 3 and 4 students will do a ‘Snowman’ activity which is based on the ‘hangman’ game. They will use the 6 words in this lesson and use the Auslan alphabet to indicate a letter. For each wrong letter given, a part of the snowman will be drawn until the correct word is guessed or the snowman is fully drawn. This activity will provide great practise for students to improve on their fingerspelling. Grade 5 and 6 students will play a ‘Circle Game’ which will include fingerspelling and signing. This activity will involve students sitting in a large circle, a student signing one of the signs taught and the following student fingerspelling the word e.g. sign - walk, then spell walk. This activity will continue around the circle until all the signs are practiced.

When learning about Auslan structure, Grades 1-6 students will learn about the sentence structures and how they are different from regular English sentences. A simple sentence example - English: The dog is eating dinner. Auslan: dog dinner eat. Grades 1-6 students will use reference pictures during this activity. For example, the teacher will show a picture of a dog eating its dinner and write it in english on the whiteboard. The students and the teacher will discuss how to change its structure to Auslan and practise communicating with the correct Auslan grammar. This lesson will entail looking thoroughly at all reference pictures and converting all english sentences into Auslan sentences including practising the signs for each of these sentences. 

As our students build their repertoire of words, engage in conversations and enjoy practising signs together as learnt by our students! Please scan the QR Code below which will provide you with YouTube videos to assist in practising together at home. 

Keep updated on learning Auslan each fortnight in our Partners in Learning Newsletter during Term 3! 

Mrs Jessica Pfister