Storytime: Sing, Sign, and Storytime

SING, SIGN, AND STORYTIME
(American Sign Language)

Ages 0-6

BOOKS

A to Z Sign with Me by Dawn Babb Prochovnic (optional)

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow

Five Little Ducks by Anthony Lewis

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

OPENER

Previously, I had taught my kids "The More We Get Together" with signs. They picked up quickly and really enjoyed singing and signing along! The first book, A to Z Sign with Me, I only used with my older kids because I knew some of them already knew the alphabet. I usually have them sign their name to me when they come in to see if they remember. 

BOOK A to Z Sign with Me by Dawn Babb Prochovnic (optional, I save this for older kids)

BOOK Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow
For this book, I taught them the signs for "monkey" and "mother." Of course, they already knew how to sign "five," so they signed that with me, too.

STRETCH

Up to the Ceiling

Up to the ceiling, (stretch both arms overhead)

Down so you’re small. (bend at waist and touch floor)

Right to the bookshelf (stretch arm to right)

Left to the wall. (stretch arm to left)

Right hand, left hand,

Turn them around. (spin hands around each other, 'wheels on the bus style')

Fold them together

And now sit down

BOOK Five Little Ducks by Anthony Lewis (this is also a song, so we sang along as we signed)
The signs we used with this song were "duck," "swim," "over," and again we signed "mother" and "five." I had really good feedback from this book/song. When I researched it, I found that it's like a nursery rhyme from Europe. Pretty cool!

BOOK Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
As our final book, I signed the whole story so they could see a more fluent interpretation of signing a book. I taught them a couple easy words during, but they were watching the signs and you could tell they were interested.

SONG

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (with Sign Language)

ACTIVITY STATIONS

Sign Your Name!

I found a sign language font and printed out each letter so the kids could learn how to say their names in sign. I provided crayons, glue, and scissors in case they wanted to cut around the hands.

Flash Cards
I was lucky enough to find these in the deep dark depths of dusty nowhere (the back of the filing cabinet)! This was a great visual for the little ones since it's simple and just colorful enough.

ASL/Braille Blocks
These blocks circulate between branches, and I'm so glad we have them! I left them out most of the day and kids really enjoyed playing with them. They not only introduce them to sign, but also braille. This is a great language toy!

Printables via SignLanguagePrintables.com

I provided a copy of this sheet for each person that attended. The only thing I don't like about it, is that the numbers stop at 9 and not 10. Other than that, this is a great resource for the alphabet and numbers.

RECEPTION: This was such a fun storytime! Both parents and children seemed to have a lot of fun, and the signing helped to keep their attention. The songs were a hit. I had introduced "Twinkle, Twinkle" the week before with my ukulele, so they've been learning different variations of it. We had people from other branches join us for this specific storytime as well. A lot of the parents asked me to repeat certain signs from Goodnight Moon so they could use them with their child at home. I feel this storytime was a definite success.
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