Hand Shape: flat hands, closed fingers,
Location: chest area
Tip: your hands are the book
Action: start with “prayer” hands, open twice (keep pinky side of hands touching).
Video transcript: BOOK is done with the “prayer” hands and you would open it two times for the noun. Now if you want to open the book (verb) that would be a one-time movement for “open the book”. So for the word BOOK it opens two times. Sample sentence, (signed in ASL) “Let’s get the book and read it.”
I love books. However, when I would loan them to friends, I easily became upset with friends who left “dog ears” on the books or left food stains on a page, or “art work” by their 2 year old. So now that I have my own children, I had to think of a positive way to teach them how to take care of our books, after all, some of them were mine as a child and hopefully will be passed down to their children.
5 Ways to teach children to take care of books:
- A special place – Keep a nook for just books with a “special” area where the little ones can read / look at their books.
- Avoid temptation – Keep markers and crayons stored away in a different area to illuminate temptations for “art work”.
- Story time for understanding – Teach them in the form of a story or video how making books requires trees to make the paper, which also affects the animal’s habits. Emphasize the importance of taking care of our books.
- Practice time – Teach the kids about taking care of books. Start with practicing to find the cover, the cover page, the author, the illustrator, and the back of the book. Tell them that they are going to practice turning the pages from left to right carefully. Stress the importance of being respectful to all books. Show a book that has been torn in the past and explain how it made you feel. Ask them how they feel.
- Hospital for books – Create a book bin for torn books called, The Book Hospital, and let them help repair them.
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