When the pandemic hit and my coworkers and I weren’t allowed to work for 5 weeks while we were on complete lockdown, I decided to try something that I’ve always wanted to do – Learn some American Sign Language (ASL). I took a super basic course online, learned a lot about ASL history, deaf culture, vocabulary, and (some) grammar. Since May, we’ve been allowed to work, whether it’s virtual, curbside, in-person or a mixture. Though I’ve incorporated ASL into my regular storytimes, I decided to do special storytimes that have targeted vocabulary for ASL signs (I’m in no way ready to do stories in full ASL). Here’s my first dive into an ASL storytime!
There are SO MANY great benefits to doing a storytime like this. Bilingual storytimes of any kind are really great for introducing other cultures or showing “windows” into lives of those who aren’t the same as us, or vice versa – to validate, or hold up a “mirror” to those who would see themselves in a storytime like this. It helps children see different or similar experiences in the world and to help them on the path to become empathetic. But even more – learning that a word or hand sign stands for a concept they’re already familiar with builds a kind of symbolic thinking and works as a way of decoding. This is actually really great for early literacy for young ones.
Introduction: Since my library is only doing virtual programming, part of my introduction goes into the practicalities: Etiquette for Zoom, when participants can be unmuted, etc. Then I talk a little about ASL and what our goals are for the day. I introduce the topic – ABC’s and 123’s before singing our opening song. I chose a very simple one for this, a favorite of mine from Jbrary called Hello Friends.
Song: We start by singing the classic alphabet song, just to reinforce that we’re actually going to be learning another language. So the hand sign for “a” is actually us saying “a” in sign language, just like we’d say “hola” for “hello” in Spanish.
Signs: After singing the alphabet song, We do some hand signs together of the alphabet. I teach a bit at a time so as not to overwhelm the kids. So we learn the hand signs for A-M.
Book: Apple Pie ABC by Alison Murray.
As I read this book, I do the hand signs for the alphabet, asking the kids to copy my hand signs. Because it’s virtual, I make sure I hold the pictures and my hand signs close to the camera before panning back out. The kids followed really well for A-M, but then we slowed down as we introduced N-Z.
Signs: After we finished the book, we went over the signs for N-Z again. Then sang the alphabet song while signing the letters in ASL. This way, the kids have signed each letter at least 3 times for reinforcement.
Song: Pat-a-Cake. We sang this traditional song by adding in the first letter of each child present, one at a time and doing the sign for their letter. This was a really nice touch because up until this point, everyone but me had been muted. But here, I let the kids unmute when it was their turn to engage a little more with them as we did it together.
Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake baker’s man
Bake me a cake as fast as you can
Pat it and prick it and mark it with “B”
Put it in the oven for baby and me
Signs: Counting 1-10! We learned the hand signs to count to 10.
Book: One Two That’s My Shoe by Alison Murray
Normally, I wouldn’t do two books by the same author in the same storytime (I mean, it’s like putting the same artist on the same playlist more than once!), but I made an exception because these books are the perfect amount of story while still keeping the ABC’s and 123’s front an center. So, as we read this one, we did our hand signs for 1-10.
Song: There Were 10 in the Bed. After our book, we practiced our number signs again by singing a little song. The kids (and I) love this because we get to pretend to fall off our chair! You can also use a felt set for this song, to further the amount of engagement in your storytime.
There were ten in the bed and the little one said,
“Roll over! Roll over!”
So they all rolled over and one fell out!
Repeat 9-1
There was one in the bed and the little one said,
“Alone at last! Good Night!”
Closing: After this activity, we were out of time. I had planned on reviewing the signs by singing the alphabet song one more time and then count to 10 again, but we had to skip straight to our goodbye song. I used the goodbye version of “Hello Friends” and then we said goodbye and logged off Zoom.
Librarian Ginny 