Thumbs Up! An Introduction to New Zealand Sign Language

Thumbs Up! An Introduction to New Zealand Sign Language has been produced to support the teaching and learning of NZSL as an additional language in English-medium schools for students in years 7–8 working at curriculum levels 1 and 2.

The resource helps students and teachers to express themselves in a new language and communicate with their Deaf peers.

20 units, with videos (NZSL), worksheets, activity sheets. 

Each unit has a distinct theme and four activities. The first activity is designed to introduce new learning. The next two activities reinforce the learning. The fourth activity can be used for additional learning experiences as well as for assessing how well your students have achieved the unit’s objectives.

The resource promotes pair and group work, with the students communicating with each other in NZSL as much as possible. Sessions are likely to be very busy. The pace at which classes work varies, so none of the activities have time limits. 

• Unit 1 - HELLO Hello! Learning about NZSL, counting from one to 10, and greeting others
• Unit 2 - MY FAMILY My family Exchanging information about family members and counting from 11 to 20
• Unit 3 - HOW-OLD IX-you How old are you? Learning the days of the week, using number combinations, and expressing ages
• Unit 4 - TIME WHAT Telling the time Learning the months of the year and communicating about times and dates
• Unit 5 - SCORE WHAT What’s the score? Identifying sports and game scores and expressing likes and dislikes.
• Unit 6 - IX-you NEED WHAT What do you need? Communicating about feelings, needs, and wants
• Unit 7 - IX-it WHERE Where is it?  Identifying and locating classroom objects and using classroom instructions
• Unit 8 - MY HOUSE My home Requesting and responding to information about the home
• Unit 9 - IX-you EAT BREAKFAST WHAT What did you eat for breakfast? Identifying food and drinks and discussing preferences
• Unit 10 - COME-ON, FUN Let’s have fun! Assessing progress across the outcomes to be achieved
• Unit 11 - AWESOME ANIMALS Awesome animals  Identifying, asking about, and describing animals
• Unit 12 - SMILE Smile!  Communicating about feelings, needs, and emotions
• Unit 13 - MUSIC TURN-UP Turn the music up! Making and responding to requests, invitations, and instructions
• Unit 14 - WEATHER WHAT Weather report Commenting on the weather and how it affects plans 
• Unit 15 - CLOTHES FLASH Flash clothes  Describing people and clothes
• Unit 16 - THINGS BUY Buying things  Learning the numbers from 31 to 99 and communicating about costs and quantity
• Unit 17 - WE GO WHEREWhere are we going? Giving and responding to directions and instructions
• Unit 18 - PARTY READY Preparing for a party Planning a party and showing social awareness when interacting with others
• Unit 19 - HOLIDAY CELEBRATE Celebrating holidays  Making plans for the holidays and the immediate future
• Unit 20 - GOODBYE Goodbye! Assessing progress across the outcomes to be achieved

For more information, see the website.