We are learning the signs for good, bad, play and Christmas Tree! We are listening to the song, "O, Christmas Tree," while practicing our sign for Christmas Tree! The older classrooms are picking out different food items out of a stocking and saying whether they think it is something good to eat, or something bad to eat.

This week in Sign Language...

We are learning the sign for yes and no. We are reading the book, Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. The crazy pigeon keeps asking to drive the bus, even though he's not supposed to, so we have to use our sign language to tell him, "no!"

The older preschoolers are starting to learn numbers. We are doing numbers 1-5 this week. We are also meeting my friend Crunch. I introduce him to students by reading a little rhyme:

This is Crunch

He likes to munch

On only numbers for his lunch

So feed him numbers, 1, 2, 3

But in order they must be

So look up and look down

All the numbers must be found

So we can feed Crunch

Who likes to munch

On only numbers for his lunch!

After I've introduced him, I hide numbers all over the room! Each child must find a number, and then we feed them to Crunch in order, as we practice signing the numbers!

*Video of the signs coming soon!

This week we are learning the sign for spider and sit! The preschoolers are learning the letters U, V, W, X! We are going to be playing Ring Around the Spider, and reading the story Orange Pumpkin, Orange Pumpkin, What Do You See? This will be a fun way for us to continue practicing our colors!

This week in Sign Language we will be learning the sign for help, bathroom (potty) and pumpkin. The preschoolers will learn the letters Q, R, S, and T. We will be singing and playing games with pumpkins!

Here are a few pictures from when we did Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? Hope you enjoy!

This week in Sign Language we're continuing our fall theme with leaves! The toddlers and preschoolers are learning the sign for leaf! We are also learning a fun song, and playing with leaves! Everyone is also learning the sign for finished, or "all done." We are learning our last two colors brown and black as well!

This week in Sign Language it's all about apples! We are learning the sign for apple! We are also learning white and pink. The preschoolers are learning the sign for like, so that we can sign, "I like apples!" They are also learning the letters I, J, K and L. Toddlers and preschoolers will be picking apples out of a covered basket to see what color they end up with! Preschoolers will also be making graphs of their favorite color apple!

This week we are learning the sign for eat. We are also learning three more colors, blue, purple and green. To help us learn our colors we are going to be reading the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? We are also going to be using some fun stick puppets to go along with the story. The preschoolers will also be learning the letters E, F, G and H.

This week in Sign Language we are learning the sign for more. We are also starting to learn our colors, red, orange and yellow. In preschool, we are working on our alphabet as well with the letters A, B, C, and D. We will be reading the book Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom

This is our first week of Sign Language! I am so excited to see everyone again! We are starting the year by learning the sign for friend and thank you. We are also reading a book called Prudence Parker and a Sign of Friendship. This cute little book will help the students to start to understand a little bit about why people use Sign Language.

As the start of Sign Language is quickly approaching, I'm going to be posting some of the benefits to learning Sign Language! Hope you enjoy!

The intellectual benefits of baby signing include:
1. Baby Sign Language increases the speed of the development of verbal language.
2. Baby signing increases vocabulary.
3. Baby signing reinforces the use of verbal language.
4. Baby Sign Language promotes language learning through concept.
5. Baby Signing reinforces a child’s communication attempts.
6. Baby Sign Language promotes early literacy.
7. Baby Sign Language increases interests in books.
8. Baby Signing promotes the early use of complex sentences.

The new school year is quickly approaching, and along with it, the start of Special Programs at Kids R Kids. Families that have been with us for a while will know exactly what I'm talking about, but for those of you who might be new, here is a brief description of my Special Program: Sign Language!

I start teaching in the Butterfly Room, although I act as a resource for the younger infant rooms. In the Butterfly Room, I start teaching basic signs like eat, more, please, and thank you. It's amazing how much these little ones can learn! You'll be surprised at how fast your child will pick it up!

In the Toddler Rooms, we still work on the basics but add a little more to it! In all of the rooms we incorporate songs and stories to make it more fun and interesting! This also helps to reinforce all of the signs we are learning!

In the Preschool Rooms we do everything we do in the younger rooms, but we add more to it. For example, I start teaching the alphabet in the Preschool Rooms. Each week we work on some basic signs, and we learn a special sign or two that goes with the theme of the week.

Please feel free to post any questions, comments or concerns that you may have and I would be happy to get back to you as soon as I can!