Auslan Report

Grade Prep

In weeks 3 and 4 of Term 3, Grade Preps will learn about WH Questions and Handshapes. When learning about WH Questions students will practice asking and answering questions, for example, Boy cry why? Answer: Because boy fall over. Grade Preps will continue to play a Hidden object Game where they will close their eyes and a toy or object will be hidden. When ready, students will ask what and where the object is using Auslan and also fingerspell the name of the objects if required. Students will also practise The Question Poem.

In the Handshapes lesson, Students will play a game where they will work together in a circle. The handshape cards will be faced down on the floor and the Teacher or a student turns over one of the cards. Every student will need to form and name the handshape as they practise.

Grade 1

In weeks 3 and 4 of Term 3, Grade 1’s will learn about a Nature Walk and Auslan Structure. In the Nature Walk lesson, students will play a ‘guess the picture’ game where the teacher will draw a picture on the whiteboard of one of the signs that students are learning in this lesson, e.g. tree, mushroom, flower, rock, river, bird, leaves, path, soil or mud. Students will need to recognise the picture and answer in Auslan. The teacher or a student will continue to draw other pictures until all the signs are covered and practised.

When learning about Auslan Structure, Grade 1’s will discuss some differences between Auslan structure and English sentences (grammar). For example, the teacher will show a picture of the dog eating its dinner and write on the whiteboard the English structured sentence ‘The dog is eating its dinner’. Then students will learn how to structure this same sentence using Auslan structure which entails the topic first (dog), what does he have? (dinner) and what is he doing? (eat) which is signed as dog dinner eat. Grade 1’s will continue practising Auslan structure by referring to different pictures and creating sentences.

Grades 2-6

In weeks 3 and 4 of Term 3, Grades 2-6 will learn the topics Aboriginal Signs and Occupations. In the Aboriginal signs lesson, Students will watch a short video based on different signs. Grade 2’s will watch ‘Yolngu Sign Language by Henry Dhawuti’ which focuses on family and animal signs. Grade 3/4 ‘s will watch ‘Aboriginal Hand Signs by Clifton Bieundurry’ which shows signs used in the past and still today. The handsigns that will be demonstrated are useful for when silent communication is needed. Grade 5/6 ‘s will watch ‘Marumpu Wangka! Kukatja Hand Talk’, which shows signs from the remote Aboriginal community of Balgo, WA, used in the past and today.

When learning about Occupations, students will play games to help them practise and engage in Occupation signs. Grade 2’s will play Pac Man where students will spread around the room and the teacher signs one of the occupation signs. The first student to answer correctly gets to step forward toward another student to tap them out. Grade 3/4 students will play a Hot Seat game where the class is divided into two teams. The student who can show the correct sign for the occupation the teacher says, gets to sit in the Hot seat for their team. Grade 5/6 students will play a Rapid Fire game where students line up in two single lines in front of the teacher and the first student to sign the correct occupation said by the teacher gets to stay in the game. All games will provide opportunities for practise and learning occupation signs.

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

Mrs Jessica Pfister