This fortnight in Auslan, Grade Preps will be learning the topics Greetings and Questions and Things Around the House. Grades 1-6 students will learn about Medical Signs and Fingerspelling. When Grade Preps are learning about Greetings and Questions, the signs taught will be:

hello
goodbye
good morning
good afternoon
My name is ..
good to see you
haven’t seen you in a long time
What's your name?
Is your day good?
Ready to learn?
How do you feel today?
Good to meet you.

Grade Preps will practise the song ‘Good Morning How are You? Students and the teacher will sit in a circle (or students in pairs) and practise signing ‘Good morning’ and ‘Good afternoon’. Students will ask each other ‘How do you feel today? and the other student will answer with a feeling sign taught in previous lessons.

When learning about Things Around the House, Grade Preps will learn to sign the words:

House
home
window
door
stairs
lounge room
TV
couch
kitchen
microwave
oven
cupboard
fridge
drawers
dining room.

Grade Preps will participate in an activity where they will need to choose four different things around the house (e.g. fridge, TV, window, door). Each student will be labelled with a ‘Thing (or place) around the House’ and students will need to sign one of the four items. Students will also practise a poem called ‘Welcome to My House’.

Grades 1-6 will learn about Medical Signs and the words they will learn to sign are:

Dr
ambulance
nurse
hospital
medicine
tablet
bruise
headache
X-Ray
exercise.

Grade 1-2 students will play a constructed Action/mime Game. This will involve the teacher signing simple Auslan phrases and will select students ‘to act it out’. Grade 3-4 students will do a similar activity involving constructed action. In small groups the students are to create a scene using the Medical Signs taught. They will select one student of the group to ‘narrate’ in Auslan either at the start or end of the scene and each small group will perform for the class. Grade 5-6 students will work in groups of 3, (2 actors and 1 narrator) and are to create a short scene using role play related to the Medical Signs taught.The role play will include using some Auslan dialogue and students in groups will share their role playing scene with the class.

When learning about Fingerspelling, students will focus on fingerspelling words from different categories such as animals, things around the house etc. Grade 1-2 students will participate in an activity where the teacher chooses a category such as colour and spells a word e.g. red. Students will need to put their hands up when they recognise the word. The teacher will select students to fingerspell a word and students will continue to engage in recognising the words being finger spelt. Grade 3-4 students will be required in their activity to break into small groups of 4-5. They will decide on categories e.g. colours, which will involve fingerspelling to the person beside them, who will read back and identify the word. Fingerspelling will continue until the group is ready to select a new category. Grade 5-6 students will do the same activity but will be further challenged by combining words from both a colour and a mode of transport, for example, green train or black car.

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!

Jess Pfister

Community