Signing Savvy, Your Sign Language Resource

This article is part of our “Cooking Up Language With Signs” series, which features a recipe and accompanying sign language word list to get you started on an interactive cooking activity that is great for spicing up language learning at home or in the classroom.

What’s cookin’?

Today I’m cooking up Melting Snowman Cookies. I chose this recipe as I was working on the article and word list for Signing Children’s Books: Snowmen at Night. This is a great recipe to pair with the book The Snowmen at Night. These are really easy cookies to make and are really cute. Let the kids get creative with how they decorate them and make each one look different.

You can make the cookies from scratch (any sugar cookie recipe) or you can do like I did here and buy the tube of sugar cookie dough from any grocery store and simply cut them, place them on a cookie sheet, and bake them according to the directions on the package.

Once the cookies are out and cooled, melt your white chocolate / crème and pour that over the top of them. Put the melted crème on the cookies with uneven edges so that it looks like the snow has melted. Place a marshmallow on top of the creme' while it's still warm. Place the cookies in the refrigerator until the creme' has hardened back up.

Once cooled, remove from the refrigerator and using small colored tubes of decorative frosting to personalize your snowmen.

Who doesn't love sugar cookies frosted with white crème and marshmallows?

Recipe

Enjoy making these cute Melting Snowman Cookies. Use the pre-built word list created to go along with the recipe to help you as you make this tasty recipe.

Melting Snowman Cookies

Ingredients:

• Sugar Cookie Dough (make your own or purchase pre-made dough)
• cooking spray
• white chocolate / crème
• large marshmallows
• multiple, small, colored tubes of decorative frosting

Tools:

• knife
• cookie sheet / pan
• bowl
• tube
• oven
• microwave
• refrigerator

Directions:

1. You can make the cookies from scratch (any sugar cookie recipe) or you can do like I did here and buy the tube of sugar cookie dough from any grocery store and simply cut them, place them on a cookie sheet, and bake them according to the directions on the package.

2. Once the cookies are out and cooled, melt your white chocolate / crème and pour that over the top of them. Put the melted crème on the cookies with uneven edges so that it looks like the snow has melted.

3. Place a marshmallow on top of the crème while it's still warm.

4. Place the cookies in the refrigerator until the crème has hardened back up.

5. Once cooled, remove from the refrigerator and using small, colored tubes of decorative frosting, personalize your snowmen. Give your snowmen eyes, a nose, mouth, arms, a scarf, and buttons.

Word List for Melting Snowman Cookies

Signing Savvy is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking signingsavvy.com to Amazon properties. That means Signing Savvy may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking on an affiliate link, your cost will be exactly the same regardless, but Signing Savvy will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated and helps us continue to improve Signing Savvy!

This article is part of our “Signing Children’s Books” series, which highlights children’s books and pairs them with pre-built Signing Savvy word lists to help you get started with learning and signing the vocabulary in the book. Reading and literacy is so important. By sharing these pre-built word lists, we hope to cut down on prep time for families that are just beginning to learn ASL and hope you can find more comfort in sharing literacy with our young deaf children.

The Napping House is well-loved children’s classic "build upon" book. Kids love these kinds of books, where there is repetition and humor accompanied by beautiful, engaging pictures. This husband/wife team have written and illustrated many wonderful children’s books that continue to offer fun and excitement to the genre of Children’s literature.

This book has so many things you can do with it to explore language and keep the conversation going. My students love to act out the book, whether it is physically acting it out with their classmates, or using toys. There is a 3-D storybook version of The Napping House that includes small pieces your children can use to act out the story, but you may also have toys or items around the house that you can use.

I also had an artist friend do some awesome drawings (see below) so the students could work on their sequencing skills after reading the book.

You can take some simple images of a Granny, boy, dog, cat, mouse, and flea, then have your children put them in order, first through sixth, that the characters entered the bed in the story. Have them use their math skills to add up how many characters are in the bed as the story progresses. Here is a great example of how to do this.

The book also has many ways to cover the concept of sleep (slumbering, snoozing, dozing, dreaming, snoring), so it lends itself to a nice discussion about how there can be different ways to show all these concepts through sign, that may involve acting out or some creative drama.

There is even a short, 5-minute video on Amazon Prime that tells the story of The Napping House.

There are many, MANY things to do that are fun and exciting! You can even find free printables and activities from the authors. If you are looking for more ideas, there are a lot of activities on Pinterest that go with The Napping House.

I hope through The Napping House pre-built word list you will feel confident to share this story with your children.

So come explore this house, a napping house, where everyone is sleeping…

Word List for The Napping House

Related Books: 

Signing Savvy is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking signingsavvy.com to Amazon properties. That means Signing Savvy may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking on an affiliate link, your cost will be exactly the same regardless, but Signing Savvy will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated and helps us continue to improve Signing Savvy!

This article is part of our “Signing Children’s Books” series, which highlights children’s books and pairs them with pre-built Signing Savvy word lists to help you get started with learning and signing the vocabulary in the book. Reading and literacy is so important. By sharing these pre-built word lists, we hope to cut down on prep time for families that are just beginning to learn ASL and hope you can find more comfort in sharing literacy with our young deaf children.

In the book Piggies, Audrey and Don Wood created a beautiful take on classic finger play. The illustrations show cute little pigs dancing and playing on the tips of hands. Hands covered in mittens, bubbles, and even mud! The pictures are so creative, your little ones will want to look at the photos for hours!

The creators of the book have been nice enough to provide you access to illustrations for the kids to color and do activities of their own. Get free printables from the authors. Through Pinterest, you can also find many different fun and exciting Piggies learning activities to do with the children to extend their use of language and creativity.

I hope through the Piggies pre-built word list you will feel confident to share this story with your children.

Word List for Piggies

Signing Savvy is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking signingsavvy.com to Amazon properties. That means Signing Savvy may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking on an affiliate link, your cost will be exactly the same regardless, but Signing Savvy will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated and helps us continue to improve Signing Savvy!

This article is part of our “Signing Children’s Books” series, which highlights children’s books and pairs them with pre-built Signing Savvy word lists to help you get started with learning and signing the vocabulary in the book. Reading and literacy is so important. By sharing these pre-built word lists, we hope to cut down on prep time for families that are just beginning to learn ASL and hope you can find more comfort in sharing literacy with our young deaf children.

Goodnight Moon is one of the first books every new parent reads to their little ones. It's simple and a classic. It has a copyright of 1947, yet it still remains on the best seller list today! Children love it!

I've found multiple activities over the years to do with this book. The activities work on vocabulary, counting skills and just explore the literature deeper. Here are several ideas for activities to do related to Goodnight Moon on Pinterest to help you get started.

My hope is that through the Goodnight Moon pre-built word list you will feel confident to share this story with your children.

Word List for Goodnight Moon

Signing Savvy is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking signingsavvy.com to Amazon properties. That means Signing Savvy may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking on an affiliate link, your cost will be exactly the same regardless, but Signing Savvy will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated and helps us continue to improve Signing Savvy!

This article is part of our “Cooking Up Language With Signs” series, which features a recipe and accompanying sign language word list to get you started on an interactive cooking activity that is great for spicing up language learning at home or in the classroom.

What’s cookin’?

Today I’m cooking up Banana Monkey Bread. I chose this recipe as I was working on the article and word list for Signing Children’s Books: Five Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed. This is a great recipe to pair with the book Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed. I LOVE Monkey Bread, but you can also find plenty of different activities to do online that can easily be connected to the Five Little Monkeys book series.

Start by spraying a bundt cake pan with cooking spray and then arrange the sliced bananas in the bottom of the pan. The bananas you just put in the bottom of the pan, will become the top of the monkey bread when you flip it after baking! This always confuses and amuses the kids!

The recipe I use calls for 2 cans of Pillsbury Grands biscuits, however, I ended up using one can of Pillsbury Grands Flaky Layers biscuits and then one can of Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls. Using the can of cinnamon rolls gave me frosting to drizzle over the bread ring after it finished baking.

Open the biscuits and cinnamon rolls and pull them apart into separate biscuits / rolls. Cut them into quarters (or 4 pieces each). This can also be a little math lesson. You can work together to figure out how one biscuit / roll can be divided into 1/4, 2/4 (1/2), 3/4, and 4/4 (whole).

Now you'll coat your biscuits / rolls in cinnamon sugar. Make the cinnamon sugar in a large bowl by stirring together 1 cup of granulated sugar and 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon. Roll each biscuit / roll piece in the sugar mixture. Then arrange the cinnamon sugar coated dough evenly over the bananas in your pan. Top with the remaining 1 1/2 bananas sliced.

In a medium, microwavable bowl, microwave 1 cup of butter on high until melted. Add 1/2 cup of the leftover cinnamon sugar mixture and 1/2 cup light brown sugar and beat with a whisk until combined. Pour mixture evenly over the biscuit pieces in the pan.

Bake 30 minutes or until golden brown and thoroughly cooked. Let stand at least 5 minutes.

Place large plate on top of the pan and flip over and let the bread slide out of the pan. Put frosting from the can of cinnamon rolls on top of the monkey bread. ENJOY!!

Recipe

Enjoy making this tasty Banana Monkey Bread. Use the pre-built word list created to go along with the recipe to help you as you make this recipe.

Banana Monkey Bread

Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 55 minutes
Serves: 6

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe bananas, sliced
• 1 can (16.3 oz) Pillsbury Grands! Flaky Layers Biscuits
• 1 can (16.3 oz) Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup butter (melted)
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• cooking spray

Tools:

• bowl for mixing
• microwavable bowl
• plate
• spoon or spatula or whisk for mixing
• bundt cake pan
• oven
• microwave
• knife

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray bundt cake pan with cooking spray.
3. Slice bananas and arrange half of them (1 1/2 bananas) in the bottom of the pan.
4. Open the cans of biscuits and cinnamon rolls and pull them apart into separate biscuits / rolls. Cut them into quarters (or 4 pieces each).
5. In a large bowl, stir together 1 cup granulated sugar and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon. Roll biscuit and cinnamon rolls pieces in the sugar mixture; arrange evenly over bananas in the pan.
6. Top with the remaining sliced bananas (1 1/2 bananas).
7. In a medium, microwavable bowl, microwave 1 cup butter on high until melted. Add 1/2 cup of the leftover cinnamon sugar mixture and 1/2 cup light brown sugar; beat with a whisk until combined. Pour mixture evenly over the dough pieces.
8. Bake 30 minutes or until golden brown and thoroughly cooked.
9. Let stand at least 5 minutes.
10. Place large plate on top of the pan and flip over and let the bread slide out of the pan.
11. Put frosting from the can of cinnamon rolls on top of the monkey bread.

Word List for Banana Monkey Bread

Signing Savvy is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking signingsavvy.com to Amazon properties. That means Signing Savvy may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase after clicking on an affiliate link, your cost will be exactly the same regardless, but Signing Savvy will automatically receive a small commission. Your support is greatly appreciated and helps us continue to improve Signing Savvy!