Auslan News
Molesworth St Campus
From Caen Chang, Junior school Auslan teacher
Student Confidence is Growing!
We are already in Week 6, and it has been wonderful seeing students continue to grow in confidence and enthusiasm during our Auslan lessons!
Our Prep students have been learning colour signs, and they have absolutely loved it! We have been practising recognising, signing, and identifying colours through games, visual activities, and lots of movement.
A highlight has been learning and signing along to the Rainbow Song. Combining singing and signing is such a powerful way to support language development. Music helps with rhythm, memory, and engagement, while signing builds coordination, visual attention, and expressive communication. The students were so proud of themselves as they signed each colour in sequence. It has been a joy to watch their confidence grow each lesson!
Through this unit, students are not only learning colour vocabulary, but they are also:
- Strengthening their memory skills
- Improving handshape accuracy
- Developing visual tracking skills
Building confidence performing in front of peers
The energy and excitement during our rainbow activities has been beautiful to see!
Our Year 1 and Year 2 students have been learning mealtime signs such as breakfast, lunch, dinner, eat, drink, and a variety of common foods.
One of the most meaningful parts of this unit has been the discussions about what students eat at home during different mealtimes. Students have loved sharing their favourite foods and learning how to sign them. This has been a wonderful way of connecting school learning with home life, making Auslan feel authentic and relevant.
By incorporating familiar daily routines like mealtimes, students are:
- Making stronger language connections
- Expanding their everyday vocabulary
- Practising sentence structure in Auslan
- Building conversational confidence
Learning to ask and answer simple questions
It has been fantastic seeing students naturally begin to sign about their own lives. These real-world connections are so important in helping language learning stick!
How You Can Encourage Signing at Home?
You can support your child’s Auslan learning by:
- Asking them to teach you the colour signs or mealtime signs
- Signing colours when you see them (e.g., clothes, cars, fruit at the supermarket)
- Signing “breakfast,” “lunch,” or “dinner” at home before meals
Practising signs in front of a mirror to refine handshapes
Even a few minutes of practice makes a big difference in building fluency and confidence.
I will include the colour and mealtime posters in this newsletter so you can use them as a reference at home.Thank you for your continued support. It is such a pleasure teaching your children Auslan and watching them grow into confident little signers!
