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***image1***Shay-Leigh Kim, 8, Kaiserslautern American Elementary School third grader, can rapidly say “Once Upon a Time” as well as many other words with her hands thanks to a sign language club offered by her elementary school.
Judy Sankey, the sign language club instructor, started the club last November. First through third graders attend the 45-minute club on Mondays, and the fourth and fifth graders meet on Wednesdays.
“We have a growing community of hearing impaired students and adults here in Germany, and I think it’s important that people outside of their families and friends have the ability to communicate with them,” said Ms. Sankey. She added that American Sign Language is the third most used language in America, behind English and Spanish.
***image2***Shay-Leigh’s mother, Staff Sgt. Danyel Ford, also thinks sign language skills are important.
“When I was about her (Shay-Leigh’s) age, I had a friend who was hearing impaired and although we had fun together, it was hard to communicate with her,” said Sergeant Ford, from the 38th Construction and Training Squadron. “I think it’s great that the school has this club; I wish I had a program like this when I was her age.”
Shay-Leigh said she doesn’t have any friends who are hearing impaired; she just wanted to be able to know how to communicate with sign language.
***image3***The first nine-week class included eight basic vocabulary lessons and a song for performance possibilities in the school’s spring talent show. This session, the students in both clubs are learning how to sign the tale of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” to hopefully perform it to other elementary classrooms during the coming semester, said Ms. Sankey, who has been a teacher for 22 years and has used sign language for half of that time.
A typical day in the class, said Shay-Leigh, starts with Ms. Sankey and all of the students signing the story of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” and then the students do some worksheets reinforcing that story.
“She (Ms. Sankey) is very nice, and she teaches sign language step-by-step,” said Shay-Leigh, who took the first session and is currently in the second one of the first through third grade sign language club.
The plan for this current session, said Ms. Sankey, is for students to be able to sign and perform in front of others, develop sign language fluency, and apply body language and facial expressions.
***image4*** “Sign language is fun, but it takes lots of practice if you want to become fluent,” said Ms. Sankey.
And, Shay-Leigh is practicing.
“She walks around the house all the time signing and asking us, ‘Do you know what I said?’” said Sergeant Ford.
Currently, the first through third grade club is full with 24 students, but Ms. Sankey said she will reopen it for anyone else who is interested at the beginning of the fourth quarter, which is after spring break. The fourth and fifth grade class only has nine students, and Ms. Sankey said she has room now for more students.
KAES students who are interested can talk to Ms. Sankey at the school. She said they will need to have their parents fill out a permission slip with current contact information to enroll in the sign language club.
