Auslan News

Errol St Campus

From Simone McGenniskin, Senior School Auslan teacher 

Outside the house

Every week in Auslan, the class begins with a fingerspelling race, wherein students go around the circle fingerspelling their names one by one. With another term behind us, Term 3 is amping up the pressure as 3/4s have to spell their last names, and 5/6s are spelling their first and last names. Our double-barrel named kids sure are having a challenging time! 

This fortnight in Auslan, students have been learning signs for items commonly found outside the home, expanding their vocabulary with the signs for backyard, grass, fence, gate, barbeque, shed, letterbox, bucket, hose, garage, lawnmower, garden, trees, and flowers. 

Building on last term's project, where students designed a house for a Deaf family, they have continued their illustrations by creating a detailed backyard that includes all 14 of the newly learnt signs. At the end of each lesson, students worked in table groups to share their drawings and check for each item by signing phrases such as "Lawnmower you have" or "Hose you don't have", using Auslan grammar rather than English word order.

This encourages students to communicate in full sentences while applying their language skills in an authentic group setting. Some classes chose to share their work with the whole class instead of table groups, providing an opportunity to build confidence when signing in front of a larger audience while learning from one another's ideas and feedback. 

Early finishers enjoyed an iPad fingerspelling challenge which you can access from home here. 

Print and practice: 

Put up this fortnight’s signs on the fridge to help keep your children’s memory fresh. 

Print and play this week’s new boardgame together! Each fortnight a more difficult game will be included below.