Howdy folks, just wanted to share my plans for an upcoming English camp lesson.  The topic is alphabet review/sign language intro.  I think it'll be nice for reinforcing the alphabet by presenting it in a new light.  I'm using it with third and fourth grade.

1-review alphabet using the/an alphabet song...i suggest searching "sesame street alphabet" on youtube for some pretty nice videos.  i personally like india arie/elmo's rendition and the kids are pretty intrigued by it:


2-play a spelling game.  print copies of the attached "letters for game" document.  these are the 10 most commonly used letters in English, so there are lots of wordmaking possibilities.  cut these out, making sets of 10 cards.  pencil in a point value on each letter card (1-5 points).  give a set of the ten cards to each team.  have a spelling competition with multiple rounds to see which team can earn the most points (give 20 seconds/word or something).  i'm planning to have students stand and hold the cards in the correct order as a team.

3-introduce sign language alphabet using the video on starfall.com (an amazing website, so check out the whole site when you have time).  here's the link to the sign language intro page: http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/sign-abcs/load.htm?f

4-pass out the sign language worksheet.  have students write their name in korean first, then english...sometimes i've found they need help romanizing their names correctly.  they can, of course use english names if you choose to allow it.  have the students practice on their own spelling their names using sign language.  give points/incentive rewards after students spell their names correctly using sign language.  (i'm including this in PDF and DOC formats in case you'd like to edit it.)

5-for additional time, you could have students make their own words and have the rest of the class guess what they are spelling.  (sometimes, of course, their spelling will be wrong, but it will be educational and interesting nonetheless!)

Enjoy!

Hi
I thought I would post this warmer game I have been using for a while as the kids love it.
They have to write down the first letter of each of the pictures to make a new word, the first team or individual to do this gets a point. I usually use mini white boards to save paper. Needless to say the game can be adapted for different levels, I teach very low level and this is a challenge for them.

I find using sign language in phonics class makes it more fun.
I have been using these videos with my grade one and two classes.

http://www.youtube.com/user/WiseCats?feature=watch

they have both American and British versions of the videos.

kids really liked this even though the spelling was hard.  They also seemed to really enjoy the signing so that's cool.  thanks!