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Spelling in NZ Sign Language
New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) is the language of New Zealand's deaf community, which is also one of the official language in New Zealand besides English and Te Reo. One day after you arrived at Montessori, you quickly found the new resource about the alphabet in NZSL I put on the shelf. You were very interested about it and you started to read and figure it out by yourself.
It is not easy for young children to sign the alphabet correctly at the first time by reading those pictures only. But I can see you understood the pictures and did the gestures pretty well. After observing you for a few minutes, I guessed you were confused about signing some letters especially the vowels. Yes, they do look similar as each of your five fingers represents the five vowels A, E, I, O, U. Annabelle, here is how you signed the alphabet after I explained and showed you once.
I also showed you how to fingerspell your name by using the NZSL alphabet that you just learnt. You put your name tag on the mat, looked at both your name and the alphabet when you fingerspelling your name. I was surprised you learnt it so fast. That is amazing! After that, you were so excited to show your hoa the new language you learned and can't wait to show her how to fingerspell your name and her name. Annabelle, I am so proud of you that you are interested in learning sign language and you are learning fast! The best way of learning language is to practice. New Zealand Sign Language week is coming soon. I will keep supporting your interests in learning NZSL by showing you more words and phrases in sign language.