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Silent sprint

Practise your finger spelling in this handy relay.
Plan a session with this activity

You will need

    Right-handed fingerspelling
    PDF – 270.2KB
    Download Right-handed fingerspelling
    Left-handed fingerspelling
    PDF – 275.9KB
    Download Left-handed fingerspelling

    Learn the letters 

    1. The person leading the activity should explain that finger spelling is a part of sign language which spells things out letter by letter. It’s especially useful when there’s isn’t a sign for a word, or to explain something new. Finger spelling is found within British Sign Language (the BSL signs are the ones this activity uses).
    2. Split into small teams, and give each team a finger spelling chart.
    3. Each team should practice some different letters.
    1. Everyone should try and put some of the letters together to make short words – they should start with simple words like ‘cat’ or ‘home’, or maybe their name.

    Play silent sprint

    The goal is to get your message across as quickly as possible, but it is most important to be understood. Try a practice run before your race to make sure that the group are comfortable.

    1. Each team should line up facing the front of the room.
    2. One player who’s confident with understanding finger spelling should be the leader. The leader should stand behind the group. They should choose a short word to spell.
    3. The player at the back of the line (right in front of the leader) should turn around and face the leader. The leader should fingerspell their word. The player at the back of the line should fingerspell it back, to check they’ve understood.
    4. Once the player at the back of the line is confident, they should turn around. They should get the attention of the person in front of them by gently tapping their shoulder. They should repeat step three, with the person at the back of the line spelling the word to the person in front of them.
    5. The team should keep repeating steps three and four to pass the word all the way to the front of the line.
    6. As the fingerspelling moves up the line, the leader should move to stand at the front. The last player to have a turn should spell the word to the leader. The leader should tell everyone if they managed to pass the correct word all the way up the line.
    7. The winning team is the first to get the right word all the way to the front of the line.
    8. Everyone should get back together and chat about how it went. What did they do to be a good team player and help their team? Can they think of other types of teams and the roles in them?

    Reflection

    This activity helped you learn another way to communicate. Why is it important to be able to communicate in lots of different ways? When might it be useful to be able to fingerspell? What’s the most important thing – being clear so people can understand you, or being fast to impress people?

    This activity also helped you to respect people. How do you think it feels if lots of people can’t understand or talk to you? Do you think it’s useful for everyone to know a little bit of sign language? When might you use sign language to talk to someone?

    Safety

    All activities must be safely managed. Do a risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Always get approval for the activity and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.