Sing, Sign And Celebrate This Christmas

There are SO many benefits to adding signing to your singing. This year, why not consider adding one or more signed songs to your Christmas concert programme? Read on to find out more…

Makaton can help pre-verbal or non-verbal children or those with SLCN (Speech, Language and Communication Needs) and other learning needs in specialist settings, but it can also be enjoyed by all children in a mainstream setting as a way to promote inclusion. Increasingly, Makaton is being used to support children with English as an additional language, to learn English. Using Makaton with songs transforms singing into a multisensory learning experience, as the signs turn the lyrics into a visual performance, not just an auditory one. It is a hugely enjoyable way to include children who need to use signing for communication as the whole class, year group or school can join in too. Using Makaton with singing is a child-centred way to use and learn language, and makes learning fun. In addition to all this, using Makaton with singing includes key performance skills such as rhythm, placement, timing, awareness of the song structure and delivery of the signs to engage an audience. Adding the gestures to the song makes it a whole-brain activity too!

Here are our Makaton-signed Christmas favourites:

• Hibernation – From Sing™ Christmas
  A charming lullaby that discusses how animals stay snug and cosy through the cold winter months
• Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star – From ESSENTIAL Nursery Rhymes
  Possibly the most popular nursery rhyme of all time! No Christmas concert is complete without it! (Available in Sparkyard.)
• Five Little Elves – From My World: It’s Christmas!
  A fabulously fun accumulative song about five little elves wrapping presents for Father Christmas.
• Snowflakes – From Songs For EVERY Winter Assembly
  This beautiful, gentle song draws a parallel between the uniqueness of each snowflake and ourselves.
• Child In A Manger Born – From Songs For EVERY Christmas – Anniversary Edition
  Out of the Ark does Away In A Manger. Soulful, contemplative and perfect for solos and group singing.

If you’d like to go the whole hog and make this year’s nativity fully signed and fully inclusive, take a look at one of our three nativities in which ALL songs are signed: The Twinkly Nativity (3-6s), Knock, Knock! The Nativity (4-7s) or our brand-new Once Upon A Nativity (3-6s).

BSL is a visual language that uses hand movements (gestures), facial expressions and body language to communicate, rather than using spoken words. It has its own grammatical structure; it doesn’t just follow the English language. Sign language opens up a new way of accessing language as it is visual and uses movement. This means it can be accessible to many more students, not just the deaf community and those with hearing impairments, but those with communication delays, those who get social anxiety and struggle to speak in public, and many more.

Here are our BSL-signed Christmas favourites:

• Light A Candle In The Dark – From Songs For EVERY Winter Assembly
  This beautiful, reflective ballad encapsulates all the hope and expectation of Advent.
• A Happy Christmas! – From Songs For EVERY Christmas – Anniversary Edition
  Our brand-new, celebratory banger of a Christmas song to get everybody in the festive spirit!
• Child In A Manger Born – From Songs For EVERY Christmas – Anniversary Edition
  Out of the Ark does Away In A Manger. Soulful, contemplative and perfect for solos and group singing.
• O Holy Night (Stars Have Come Out) – Songs For EVERY Christmas – Anniversary Edition
  This beautiful, timeless ballad is sure to stay with you.

Signing videos for all of the above songs are included in a purchase of the songbook. If you are a Sparkyard user, the good news is that you can browse signing videos suitable for all-year round just by putting ‘Makaton’ or ‘BSL’ in the main search bar. Alternatively, navigate to ‘All Songs & Playlists – All Playlists’ where you’ll find our Christmas Signing Videos Playlist. If your school is not yet a Sparkyard subscriber, you can access signing videos for individual songs by purchasing the relevant songbook, or by signing up to a free Sparkard trial.

So have a scroll, have a listen, and get your pupils signing this Christmas!