The months of the year
The students will learn to sign and recognise the months of the year.
Play Clip 4.1c: Months of the year.
Have the students view the months of the year in NZSL. Ask them to notice which months are signed and which are fingerspelled.
Play clip 4.1c again. You can also distribute Worksheet 4.2: The months of the year.
Discuss with them that most of the months that are fingerspelled use abbreviations. June and July are both fingerspelled using the letter J, but they are identified by a different mouth movement.
| JANUARY
| fs-JAN
| JULY
| fs-J
|
| FEBRUARY
| fs-FEB
| AUGUST
| (sign: AUGUST)
|
| MARCH
| (sign: MARCH)
| SEPTEMBER
| fs-S
|
| APRIL
| (sign: APRIL)
| OCTOBER
| (sign: OCTOBER)
|
| MAY
| fs-MAY
| NOVEMBER
| (sign: FIREWORKS)
|
| JUNE
| fs-J
| DECEMBER
| (sign: BEARD+)
|
Ask the students for comparisons and connections to the names of the months of the year in their own culture(s). For example, in NZSL, NOVEMBER is the sign for FIREWORKS because Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated in November. DECEMBER is BEARD+ because of its association with Father Christmas.
Instruct students to research the names of the months in their own culture(s). Follow up the results.
Doing research into language and cultural practices will enable your students to explore and reflect on their own culture(s) and discover ways that language and culture are intertwined.
Group task
Hand out a set of cards to each group. The set includes the numbers (written in numerals) from 1 to 31, the names of the days of the week in English, and the names of the months in English.
The group places the cards face up on a table. The leader of the group signs a day and a date using the following sentence pattern.
| Today is Monday the 23rd of March. TODAY MONDAY 23 MARCH
|
The other students select the cards that make up the correct day, date, and month. Then they replace the cards, and the turn to sign passes to another student.
Integrate number activities into your lessons as often as you can so that your students develop fluency in their signing and number recognition.
Developing numeracy skills in the language the students are learning is just as important as developing number fluency in their home language(s) and the language of instruction.
For example, during any lesson, ask the students what the time is, or what the date is, using NZSL.
By responding to these questions to exchange genuine information will aid their vocabulary recall and build their day-to-day fluency in NZSL by using number patterns.
