ASL Storytime –2.22.20
This is a special storytime that I do with a deaf mother and an interpreter. We do the entire storytime in both American Sign Language and in English. The goal is to teach the kids some signs, while also being accessible for signing families.
Rhyme – The More We Get Together
Whenever we do this storytime we bookend it with this rhyme. We teach the signs for: more, together, happy and friends.
The more we get together, together, together The more we get together, the happier we’ll be. ‘Cause your friends are my friends and my friends are your friends. The more we get together, the happier we’ll be.
Identifying Feelings – Happy, Sad, Mad, Scared, Silly, Surprised
We get into our theme by teaching the main signs we will be using throughout the storytime. This time we are going with feelings. I have faces on our SmartTV to match the signs.
Book – How Do YOU Feel? By Anthony Browne
We are going to tweak the story a little to go with a Q&A format. I ask my deaf mother, “How do you feel” and she answers. This back and forth, with me having a repeating line seems to work best in this type of story time. The kids can sign “How do you feel” with me by the end.
Rhyme – If you’re happy and you know it
I’m a little scared for this one because I don’t feel confident enough to sign the whole thing. But as usual, my mother will sign the whole thing and I will do the signs I know while speaking it all.
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands. If you’re happy and you know it, then you really ought to show it. If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.
Mad and you know it stomp your feet; Sad and you know is say boo hoo.
Game – Feeling Faces / or “Roberta Says…” with feelings
I will have faces with expressions on popsicle sticks and we will ask the kids to sign and make the expressions on the sticks.
Book w/ props – The Feeling Flower by Leah Mahealani Dakroub
In this one, my mother will sign the whole story and I will work the props. I have headbands made with tissue paper that are the color of the flowers petals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUKYhXnE9_A
Rhyme – Sometimes I Feel…
Finally, we will do one more rhyme to reinforce the feeling signs we have learned.
Sometimes I feel happy, Sometimes I feel sad. Sometimes I feel curious, Sometimes I feel mad.
Sometimes I feel silly, Sometimes I feel surprised. How many feelings, Do I have inside?
Rhyme – The More We Get Together
We end the way we started.
The more we get together, together, together The more we get together, the happier we’ll be. ‘Cause your friends are my friends and my friends are your friends. The more we get together, the happier we’ll be.
How’d it go:
This was such a diverse group and such a fun storytime! We had deaf families, hearing families, students taking ASL classes and some librarians observing the storytime. Our pacing was a little fast but ultimately went really well. So many people were signing. This was a great outline to enforce repetition.
That’s all for now!
-M-