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Learn to Sign the Fun Way: Let Your Fingers Do the Talking with Games, Puzzles, and Activities in American Sign Language
The perfect guide to signing for everyone!
Never before has learning to sign been so simple and so much fun! Whether you are a teacher or a parent, this lively self-guided book of American Sign Language (ASL) will quickly become your kids' new favorite teacher!
Learn to Sign the Fun Way goes beyond the manual alphabet and teaches the beautiful language of sign—the United States' fourth most pervasive language—in a simple, interactive format. Signers-to-be will
·Great games to make learning ASL an entertaining adventure
·Activities for both the individual and the classroom
·Cool groups of signs that appeal esspecially to kids
·And much more!
Kids love to sign, whether it be to communicate with a hearing-impaired individual or as a "secret" language with their friends. With this illustrated book they'll quickly and easily become signing superstars! Inside are cool signs for kids,
·People signs
·Alphabet and numbers
·Animals
·Food and drinks
·Home signs
· Clothing
·Color
·Sports
·Activity signs
·Thoughts and feelings
·Action signs
·Body parts
·School talk
·Calendar signs
·Silly and fun signs
Never before has learning to sign been so simple and so much fun! Whether you are a teacher or a parent, this lively self-guided book of American Sign Language (ASL) will quickly become your kids' new favorite teacher!
Learn to Sign the Fun Way goes beyond the manual alphabet and teaches the beautiful language of sign—the United States' fourth most pervasive language—in a simple, interactive format. Signers-to-be will
·Great games to make learning ASL an entertaining adventure
·Activities for both the individual and the classroom
·Cool groups of signs that appeal esspecially to kids
·And much more!
Kids love to sign, whether it be to communicate with a hearing-impaired individual or as a "secret" language with their friends. With this illustrated book they'll quickly and easily become signing superstars! Inside are cool signs for kids,
·People signs
·Alphabet and numbers
·Animals
·Food and drinks
·Home signs
· Clothing
·Color
·Sports
·Activity signs
·Thoughts and feelings
·Action signs
·Body parts
·School talk
·Calendar signs
·Silly and fun signs
224 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2001
About the author
Penny Warner
117 books146 followersPenny Warner is an award-winning author of over sixty books, including DEAD BODY LANGUAGE mystery series (Macavity winner), HOW TO HOST A KILLER PARTY series, and the upcoming Food Festival series. Her middle-grade mystery, THE CODE BUSTERS CLUB, won the Agatha Award for Best Children's Mystery.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 22, 2018
Disappointing
Having already studied ASL, I thought this book would be a good way to review, but due to the page layout, I could tell how confusing it would be for a novice. On nearly every bottom of the page of definitions, the sign appears, but the description is on the next page. And it's unclear if definitions refer to the sign above, or the sign below. If you're totally ignorant of ASL, this will be very confusing. And, at least according to MY teachers, some of the signs are incorrect. That may be regional, bit I doubt it. For myself, it was a waste of money, although it IS inexpensive. I would recommend purchasing the book THE JOY OF SIGNING as a much, much better of introducing yourself to ASL. Also, more needed to
Having already studied ASL, I thought this book would be a good way to review, but due to the page layout, I could tell how confusing it would be for a novice. On nearly every bottom of the page of definitions, the sign appears, but the description is on the next page. And it's unclear if definitions refer to the sign above, or the sign below. If you're totally ignorant of ASL, this will be very confusing. And, at least according to MY teachers, some of the signs are incorrect. That may be regional, bit I doubt it. For myself, it was a waste of money, although it IS inexpensive. I would recommend purchasing the book THE JOY OF SIGNING as a much, much better of introducing yourself to ASL. Also, more needed to
September 13, 2019
Some of the signs were not accurate or the most common ones used. For example, she says kid is just the “1” sign under nose but that’s not correct. The sign for soda is actually slang and is the sign for coke (the drug but also slang for coke not soda).
April 2, 2012
Cute illustrations, but not always accurate signs.
February 4, 2019
This book, as its title suggests, indeed introduces learning to sign the fun way. There are helpful illustrations to guide how each sign is to be made. At the end of the book, the writer includes a lot of suggestions to play games with signing. It is definitely a book that I would return to for reference again and again until I am more familiar with American Sign Language and have participated in the activities suggested in the book. The reason why I could not rate this a solid five star is because it sometimes jumps from one sign to the other especially in its practice sections and sometimes it does not even cover certain signs that are to be used in the practice sections. It would probably be better to use this book together with a youtube video on step-by-step guide to learning ASL thoroughly.
April 18, 2018
Cute book. Written for children and well put together for introducing basic signs.
I picked it up for the games. Unfortunately most of the games in the back aren't really Deaf games. There's a lot of rhyming and jokes and so many fingerspelling activities. So if you want a long list of ways to reinforce fingerspelling with practice, grab it. There are probably 3 games that would work with my young elementary age children that don't reinforce English grammar or sounds.
Overall, worth the read. A good basic book. Wish the games were more varied.
I picked it up for the games. Unfortunately most of the games in the back aren't really Deaf games. There's a lot of rhyming and jokes and so many fingerspelling activities. So if you want a long list of ways to reinforce fingerspelling with practice, grab it. There are probably 3 games that would work with my young elementary age children that don't reinforce English grammar or sounds.
Overall, worth the read. A good basic book. Wish the games were more varied.
February 21, 2023
It's a nice introduction to ASL, and good for a novice, but would recommend to look up the signs online as well. Some were a bit unclear and not easy to get if you don't know the sign already. A lot of activities in the back, which is nice for a teacher like me.
December 26, 2017
Great book for kids(or those kids at heart) to learn sign language.
May 21, 2025
i did not find the illustrations to be understandable.
January 12, 2009
I'm just leaving this book on my "currently-reading" shelf because I'm reading and re-reading it. It's a great little self-taught course on some basic sign language.
When I first found out that my niece was deaf and would need to communicate through sign language, I wanted to learn as much as I could right away. I tried just diving right in with a signing dictionary, but that was a bit overwhelming. Molly's grandparents had learned some sign language using this book, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's been great.
(My niece has since received two cochlear implants, and can hear quite well. But she's still learning to communicate through sign language in addition to talking.)
Molly and I have been practicing periodically with the book. We're still not keeping up with our two-year-old niece's level of proficiency, but we're learning it as a second language, while she's learning it as a first.
The chapters are broken down into themes like colors, actions, home, and things like that. The words Molly and I are learning are a good foundation, but we find ourselves checking the signing dictionary for some of the other words we need to make a complete sentence. But we just saw our niece and were able to communicate with her fairly well, and that means this book is doing its job.
When I first found out that my niece was deaf and would need to communicate through sign language, I wanted to learn as much as I could right away. I tried just diving right in with a signing dictionary, but that was a bit overwhelming. Molly's grandparents had learned some sign language using this book, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's been great.
(My niece has since received two cochlear implants, and can hear quite well. But she's still learning to communicate through sign language in addition to talking.)
Molly and I have been practicing periodically with the book. We're still not keeping up with our two-year-old niece's level of proficiency, but we're learning it as a second language, while she's learning it as a first.
The chapters are broken down into themes like colors, actions, home, and things like that. The words Molly and I are learning are a good foundation, but we find ourselves checking the signing dictionary for some of the other words we need to make a complete sentence. But we just saw our niece and were able to communicate with her fairly well, and that means this book is doing its job.
April 18, 2010
It's a great fun way to learn signs. Just like the title says :D
When I am trying to learn anything I usually look for the simplest formatted text. And usually it's kid related. When trying to teach children I feel like the texts are colorful, fun, and easy to understand.
This book was no exception. It has awesome pictures. Little blurbs/facts about Deaf Culture and History. Along with pictures of the signs, it'll have written instructions on how to sign the sign. Chapters include, numbers, colors, animals, household things, clothes and so on. At the end of each chapter are finger spelling practice sentences. At the end of the book there are all these different games to play.
What I like about the book is that throughout it encourages the reader to learn to sign and to learn to sign with a friend or friends.
Good job to the author!!
When I am trying to learn anything I usually look for the simplest formatted text. And usually it's kid related. When trying to teach children I feel like the texts are colorful, fun, and easy to understand.
This book was no exception. It has awesome pictures. Little blurbs/facts about Deaf Culture and History. Along with pictures of the signs, it'll have written instructions on how to sign the sign. Chapters include, numbers, colors, animals, household things, clothes and so on. At the end of each chapter are finger spelling practice sentences. At the end of the book there are all these different games to play.
What I like about the book is that throughout it encourages the reader to learn to sign and to learn to sign with a friend or friends.
Good job to the author!!
February 16, 2014
This book is packed with vocabulary, depicted in clear, kid-friendly drawings and organized into well-defined chapters, but it also gives a host of cultural information without overwhelming young readers. A section of simple sign language games at the back is of especial use to teachers.
July 28, 2010
Very informative, fun, and the activities are useful & make it easider to remember. An incredibly helpful book !
May 13, 2014
Lots of fun activities and games to help teach anyone sign language! I use it with my middle school students, and they have a lot of fun with it.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews