Tuesday, September 6, 2011

guest post: baby sign language themed party

A Baby Sign Language Themed Party

Birthday parties would not be complete without cake, decorations and presents, but the activity portion of the party is what makes the event memorable. BabySignLanguage has you covered from party favors to games!

Decorations: String together baby sign language flashcards of the signs for happy and birthday followed by your child’s photo. Repeat the pattern until you achieve the length needed to hang like garland. You can also personalize the flashcards by photographing family and friends signing the words happy and birthday, or you can string together letter flash cards to spell out your birthday wishes or your child’s name.

Games:

BSL Charades - You’ve probably familiar with the game of charades where a player silently signals clues to his or her teammates in order to have them guess a word. This can be reversed and played using sign language. A player verbally gives hints and clues to encourage teammates to guess the sign. Of course, the player cannot be as straight-forward as to make the sign or say, “it is the sign for ___.” But, the player can describe what the sign looks like and what the sign represents. On the other hand, the teammates cannot talk and must sign their guesses.

If you are working with a group of children that do not all know baby sign language consider giving them a set of flashcards in order to help them determine the answer. Depending on skill level and age group, you may or may not want to keep score, use a timer, or divide into teams.

BSL Scavenger Hunt - With the sign language flashcards as their clues, the children must scour the house (or consider limiting to a room or the backyard) looking for the items on the cards. This can again be done as a group activity or divided into teams.

When playing inside, we use the signs book, balloon and common toys like car, train, bear, ball, etc. Outside we feature many of the same signs by placing these toys in hiding spots, but we also include signs such as leaf and flower.

Party Favors: Get your friends hooked on baby sign language, too. Send them home with a starter set of flash cards. Print your favorites from our free online baby signing dictionary of flashcards and let them know where they can go to learn more.

Thank You Notes: Take a photo of the attendees making their favorite sign and be sure to mail this in your thank you card. Alternately (or additionally), you can take a photo of your child signing “Thank You” and print personalized thank you cards with this picture on the cover.

Happy Sign Language for Babies Birthday!

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