By Megan Mogan
5 green and hungry frogs sitting on a log did not have a whole lot of relevance for us. But our students DID have experience and background in snack time and fellow students/classmates. So we changed it up and used the tune and the concepts from the song to sing about our peers.
Background
The student in this video uses abstract tactile symbols paired with braille labels. This elementary-aged young man is a tactile and auditory learner at the emergent level of literacy.
Goals
- Manipulate and transfer tactile symbols using correct orientation
- Build number correspondence (touching and counting 4 tactile symbols means you sing the words “4 hungry students”)
- Develop concept of Many/Some/None
Reflections
I had no idea this student understood the characteristics that made up his peers’ communication modes and that he had the language to go with this understanding. If he was singing about his classmate who was Deafblind, he knew to sing “signed ‘See ya, friend!” If he was singing about his classmate who used spoken language, he knew to sing “said ‘See ya, friend!” I imagine this student using the traditional text and the song “5 Hungry Frogs.” I think he would have been able to sing it back to me, but I don’t believe he would have had the same level of conceptual understanding through touching and manipulating and playing with symbols of his friends’ names.
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