Author: mrslmccracken

Signing a pirate story.

Ahoy there P2! This week I thought we’d be a bit creative with our Seashore topic and learn some signs so that we can sign some pirate stories. I won’t give you a story, that is up to your imaginations but here are some signs to give you some inspiration.

First here are some signs for characters that might be in our story.

You might want to describe your characters in your story. You could use the emotions we have already explored or here are a few others that might help.

Here are some things you might find on board a pirate ship. Ship uses the same sign as boat which we have already learned in our Seaside signs.

Maybe your pirates are looking for treasure on a desert island. Here are some signs that might help with that story.

So here is your challenge P2 – tell me a story about a pirate!
You could make one up or maybe use a story you have read before. You can use the pirate themed Signalong signs I’ve given you today and also some of the other signs we have learned over the past weeks. You could have your pirate building sandcastles, eating a picnic or discovering amazing sea creatures! Have a go and see what you come up with. You can tell someone in your family, your teddy or you could record it and send it to your teacher on Seesaw. You could even share your story on your Seesaw class blog. Have fun! Mrs McCracken

Signalong – sports and hobbies.

This week I thought we’d learn a little about how to talk about the things we like to do, and the things we don’t like so much. So we are going to learn the signs for some sports (since it is Virtual Sports Day) and some hobbies too.

But first, in order to talk about our opinions we need to learn how to say “I like…” and “I don’t like…”.

Here are some sports you might like (or dislike!).

Swimming is also a fun sport you might like. If you need that sign, check back to last week’s seaside post.

Here are some other hobbies that you might enjoy.

I definitely won’t have covered all the hobbies and sports that you like (or don’t like) but this is a good list to start you off.

Ideas to practise your signs about sports and hobbies:

Play charades with someone in your house. Take turns signing a sport or hobby without speaking and see if your partner can guess which one you are doing.
Talk about each hobby and sport. Go through the list and say your opinion on each. Use the “I like…” and “I don’t like…” to help you. You could even say what your favourite is by looking back at the colour blog post.
Play a guessing game about your teacher’s favourite things to do. Do you think Mrs Campbell likes cycling? Does Mrs McCracken like singing? What is Ms Ferguson’s favourite sport? Have a guess and then maybe we’ll let you know later in the week.
Draw a picture of our school playground and show people doing their different hobbies. Someone could be reading on a bench, running around or doing some art on the ground with chalk. Once you’ve drawn it, point to each sport or hobby in your picture and sign what the person is doing.

If you have any special requests for sports or hobbies you really enjoy let me know.

Mrs McCracken

Signalong – a trip to the seaside

This week we are going to continue on our seashore theme and have a think about the different things we might see on a trip to the seaside. You could use two different words/signs to say where you were going – beach or seaside.

As the seashore is where the land meets the sea you might need signs to talk about both of these things – sand and sea.

To spot some of the sea creatures we talked about last week you might have a peak in a rockpool.

And here are some signs for other things you might like to do or spot at the beach.

Ideas to practise your seaside signs:

Draw a beach picture and include lots of the Signalong words. Then tell someone about your picture while showing them the signs.
Look, cover, sign, check – look closely at a sign then have a go at the sign without looking at the screen. Check back to see if you remembered it correctly.
Continue with last week’s “At the seashore I saw…” memory game but add new signs like a boat, a shipwreck or a sandcastle.
See if you can find some beach themed songs with these signs in them and sing and sign along. Or you could make up your own song or rap and use the signs as actions.

Have fun practising. Feel free to share videos of you signing with your teacher. And let me know if there are any signs you’d like to learn before the summer holidays 🙂

Mrs McCracken

Signalong at the seashore

As our topic at the moment is the Seashore I thought we should learn a few signs to describe the creatures we might see on the beaches and in the sea around Scotland.

First of all, here is how to sign Seashore.

Here are some creatures you might find on the beach or in rockpools.

And here are some creatures you would find in the sea.

Same as fish but with thumb up for the fin!

Ideas to practise your seashore signs:

Play a memory game with your family. Start with “At the seashore I saw…” and add a name and a sign. The next person will say your creature and add one of their own. See how many you can remember in one go!
Use this eye spy sheet on Twinkl to help you practice. Say “I spy with my little eye something that has this sign.” and show the sign to a partner and see if they can spot your creature. https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-t-18380-under-the-sea-themed-i-spy-with-my-little-eye-activity
Make a video to teach someone else some sign, you could even send it to someone else in your family. Maybe your gran would like to learn!
Draw an underwater picture and then point out what you have drawn with words and Signalong. Keep an eye out for Ms Ferguson’s next post and you can add the Spanish words too.

Hope you enjoy learning more Signalong. Let your teacher know if there is anything else you’d like to learn and I’ll do my best to fit it in to a future post.

Mrs McCracken

What’s for lunch? Signing food and drink.

This week in P2 we have been using the Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch as inspiration for lots of our home learning activities. I thought that it might be nice to find out some signs that could help us to sign about foods we like for lunch.

Here are a few key signs we might need when talking about eating a picnic lunch.

And here are some signs for things you could eat and drink at a picnic. I’ve chosen some from Mr Grinling’s lunch and some things I know are popular on the school menu!

There are so many food and drink signs I could teach you but I might run out of space on the blog! If you would like to learn some more, especially different types of fruit and things to put in sandwiches, you could visit Woodbank School’s webpage and check out their Snack Time/Lunch Time video – https://www.woodbank.calderdale.sch.uk/communication/signalong

Or if there is a sign for food that you really want to know, email me and I’ll see if I can find it out for you.

Ideas to practice your food and drink signs:

See if you can sign what you are having for lunch or dinner today.
Play a memory game with people in your house. You could start the game “In my picnic basket I have…” and add a food you can sign. Then the next player will say yours and add one on. The list will get longer and longer, can you remember them all?
Draw a picture of your perfect picnic and name and sign the food and drinks you have drawn.
Listen to “The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch” and see what bits of Mr Grinling’s lunch you can sign.

I’m off to eat my lunch now… I wonder what I’ll have?

Mrs McCracken

Signing the weather

Hi P2!

The weather in Scotland is always changing. Yesterday morning it was raining but by the time I went out for my daily walk it was beautiful sunshine. We never know if we need our rain jackets or our sunscreen!
I thought this week it would be interesting to find out how to use Signalong to talk about the weather.

Here is the sign for weather.

If we wanted to tell someone what the weather is like today, or what it will be like tomorrow we might need these signs –

And here are some of the weather signs you might want to use to talk about Edinburgh weather. Hopefully we won’t need the snow and ice ones for quite a while but we can practise them in time for the winter!

Ideas to practice your colour signs:

Have a look outside and practise the sign for the weather you see.
Have a go at telling someone what the weather is like today. You could say “The weather today is…” using the correct signs and then choosing the weather sign that suits.
Watch the weather online or on the TV and try and use the sign along with the presenter.
Have a go at making up your own weather report using sign and show it to someone in your house or perform it to your teddies.
Make some weather symbols, like the ones at the top of this post, put them in a hat or a bowl and pick them out one at a time. Can you do the sign to match the symbol?

Have fun practising and I hope the sun keeps shining for us!
Mrs McCracken

Let’s sign the rainbow.

Seeing all the lovely rainbows in windows on my daily walk made me want to learn how to sign the rainbow. We already know the sign for the word rainbow itself – here is Ms Ferguson to remind you of the sign AND the Spanish word:

What we don’t know yet is the signs for all the colours. So I put my thinking cap on and found out the signs we need. I even rummaged through my wardrobe to see if I could dress in the right colour for each sign. See if you can spot anything special about my top for the green sign!

Now you know the signs you can talk about your favourite colour.

What is your favourite colour?

My favourite colour is …

Can you tell what my favourite colour is?

Ideas to practice your colour signs:

Ask people what their favourite colour is using Signalong and tell them yours.
Play “Eye Spy” with colours and sign the colour as well as saying it.
Go on a colour hunt around your home and say and sign the colours you find.
Sing and sign the rainbow song.
Make a rainbow with different objects you find in your house and sign all the colours you can see in it.

Have fun practising! Mrs McCracken

Signing how you feel.

Hello P2,

Before we finished school we explored how we could talk about our emotions using our Signalong skills. All three classes gave me some fabulous suggestions for signs we might need to learn and we began having a look at some of them. For our Signalong challenge this week we will remind ourselves what we learned in school.

First, if you were talking about emotions you might want to ask someone how they are feeling by saying “How are you?”.

Here is how you sign that question. Remember we say the words out loud too.

Next you need to know how to answer the question if someone asked you it.

How are you Mrs McCracken?

Right now I’m happy to be back signing with you all again!

Here are some others emotion signs that might help you to sign how you are feeling.

Have a go at some of these signs. Ask someone in your house how they are feeling and show them your emotions with your Signalong skills.

Perhaps you could play a guessing game with your emotion signs. Draw some of the emotions as emojis, fold them up and put them in a hat or a bowl. Pull an emotion out and see if you can do the sign for it. Make sure to show the emotion on your face too! Can your partner guess which emotion you are signing?

Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions of other signs you’d like to learn.

Happy signing, Mrs McCracken.

Welcome back P2!

Hello everyone,

We hope you had a good holiday and enjoyed the good weather. We have been keeping busy and enjoying our daily walks in the sunshine. Mrs McCracken has been practising her dressmaking skills and helped her husband build a deck in their garden so they can have a cup of tea outside. Mrs Campbell enjoyed improving her cooking and baking skills, although she has a long way to go, learning some Spanish and doing lots of gardening. Ms Ferguson got back into running and cycling in the sunshine (on a very squeaky bike!), watched some classic films and started learning French. We would love to hear what you have all been getting up to over the holidays.

This week’s Home Learning Grid has been put up on the blog. Please work through it at your own pace. Look out for our regular blog posts, where we will be giving you special weekly challenges for Signalong, Spanish and music each week.

Many of you have been enjoying the maths and spelling games on Sumdog. It is lots of fun and we recommend that everyone has a go. We will set new maths and spelling challenges each week so keep checking in. If you need your username and password for Sumdog please contact us and access it via our teacher accounts.

Keep in touch and stay safe

The P2 Team

Happy Easter P2!

Hello everyone,

We will be taking a wee break from the blog over the holiday but first we thought we’d wish you a Happy Easter. And we’ve got some special guest signers too!

We will post the next Home Learning Grid after the holiday but in the meantime we hope you all have a good break, and try and relax and have fun at home. There are lots of ideas online for fun ways to fill your time and you can also use the links on our Home Learning Page.

Here are some of the things we will be doing to keep busy:

Ms Ferguson will be using Duolingo to learn some French.
Mrs McCracken is going to keep up her daily drawing challenge – lots of artists out there are setting them but her favourite at the moment is illustrator Claire Powell on Instagram.
Mrs Campbell will hopefully be enjoying lots of time outside in her garden and is going to practise her Spanish.

Stay happy and healthy everyone,

The P2 Team