Story Sacks –story sacks are easily put together and have lots of multi-modal opportunities. Sticking Symbol labels into the books and using hand drawn symbols on key words cards also compliment use of signs.

Makaton Packs for various popular stories are available for around £1.50 upwards: Click here 

What’s in the bag? –  take it in turns to bring out an object and sign what it is, a multi-modal opportunity to bring objects signs and symbols together. Great activity for introducing new vocabulary.  Using themed bags can help to generalise category vocab, e.g. for beach topic use a beach bag, for food use a lunch box/bag. This also gives opportunity to ask what might be next.

 Puppets –puppets can be used in a variety of ways. Ideas include using them to sing and sign the “hello” song, and using puppets to talk about emotions. A good way  to teach signs and symbols for “happy”, “sad”, “angry” and “scared.”

Weather bingo – In addition to a ‘what’s the weather today?’ chart you can use a simple set of weather bingo cards.

‘I hear thunder’ is a great song to end the activity on!

A weather pack of signs an symbols can be purchased for £3.05 from the Makaton Charity: click here 

Singing – from Nursery Rhymes to Pop Songs! Singing hands DVD’s are a fun way to engage children with singing and signing, look out for a new ‘Pop songs’ DVD. Why not start a Makaton choir and hold “X Factor” or “Britain’s got Talent” Competitions.

https://singinghands.co.uk/product-category/makaton-songsheets/

Memory and Sequencing Games – ‘ I went to the shops and bought …..’  first child adds one item, the next repeats previous item and then add their own and so it continues. Shop can be substituted with other ideas such as school, ‘I went to school and I …..’ This is a fun way to teach signs and symbols for school activities that can then be incorporated into a visual timetable. Resources available in this fabulous ‘Going to School’ pack– A functional pack full of useful signs and symbols to support the daily routine of school.

https://www.cdssg.org.uk/product/going-school-makaton-signs-symbols-version-1/

Free Resources – Don’t forget there are free resources on the Makaton website to support a variety of activities and topics click here and set up a user ID & Passcode to proceed to free resources

Check out Alice using the free downloadable fishing game resource here!:  https://youtu.be/xEID-dFCNPc

Download these activities as a one page document here