Welcome to the Instructional Video for Signing Friends – Poppy’s Birthday

The video is aimed at parents, caregivers, teachers, support workers and other professionals to pre-learn the signs for this story.  Watch and practise as many times as you need till you feel confident with the Makaton signs.  Then go ahead and enjoy signing the story with your Makaton user.   We hope you have lots of fun learning Makaton together.

Underneath the instructional video, you will find a list of the concepts featured in this book and their source (Core or Resource vocabulary).  We have also listed all the signed used per page – this gives you the option to read through these and do fewer signs initially and then build up to the same as us. Happy signing!

Story Text and Sign Transcription

It’s Poppy’s birthday today! She wakes up and runs downstairs. (P / BIRTHDAY / TODAY / WAKE UP / RUN / DOWNSTAIRS)

There are lots of birthday cards.  Poppy puts them on the fireplace. (LOTS / BIRTHDAY / CARDS / PUT / SHELF + FIRE)

After breakfast, she goes upstairs and gets ready for her party.  She puts on her favourite dress and shoes. (AFTER / BREAKFAST / UPSTAIRS / READY / PARTY / FAVOURITE / DRESS / SHOES)

Ding! Dong! Who’s at the door?  It’s Jack with flowers and a present for Poppy.  Can you guess what it could be? (WHO / DOOR / J / FLOWERS / PRESENT / P / THINK / WHAT)

Ding! Dong! Who’s at the door now? Hooray! It’s Zack and Lola with balloons.  Red, blue, green and yellow. (WHO / DOOR / NOW / HOORAY *GESTURE / Z / L / BALLOONS / RED/ BLUE / GREEN / YELLOW)

The friends play games.  They start with pass the parcel.  (FRIENDS / PLAY / GAME / START / GIVE / PARCEL)

Then it’s time to dance and play musical statues.  Lola is the winner! (TIME / DANCE / MUSIC / STATUE / L / WIN)

The friends play hide-and-seek.  Poppy counts to ten. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10.  Where is everyone? (FRIENDS / PLAY / HIDE / LOOK / P / 10 / 1-10 / WHERE / ALL)

After the games, it’s time for food.  There are sandwiches, crisps, fruit, jelly and juice. (AFTER / GAME / TIME / FOOD / SANDWICH / CRISPS / FRUIT / JELLY / JUICE)

But what next?  Of course – it’s time for cake! The friends all sing Happy Birthday.  Poppy blows out her candles.  “Don’t forget to make a wish,” says Lola. (WHAT / NEXT / TIME / CAKE / P / BLOW OUT CANDLES *MODIFIED CAKE & CANDLES SIGN / NO / FORGET / WISH / TALK / L)

Poppy opens her presents.  There’s a puzzle from Lola, a ball from Jack and a little red tractor from Zack.  (P / PRESENT / PUZZLE / L / BALL / J / RED / TRACTOR / Z)

What a great party! “Thank you for presents,” says Poppy.  Time to go home everyone.  Goodbye! (GOOD / PARTY / THANK YOU / PRESENTS / TALK / P / TIME / GO / HOME / ALL / GOODBYE)

Vocabulary and Makaton Stages

Stage 1

FOOD

GO

GOOD [1]

GOODBYE

HOME

LOOK

NO

THANK YOU

WHAT

WHERE

Stage 2

BALL

CAKE

DOOR

FLOWER

JUICE

Stage 3

NOW

TO RUN

CRISPS

 Stage 4

FRIEND

PLAY

THINK

PUT [TO]

Stage 5

TIME

Stage 6

1-6 [NUMBERS]

BLUE

GREEN

FORGET

RED

START [BEGIN]

TALK

WHO

YELLOW

Stage 7

7-10 [NUMBERS]

AFTER

A LOT

TODAY

Stage 8

BALLOON

BIRTHDAY

DANCE

NEXT

PARTY

PRESENT

TO WIN

MUSIC

Additional

SANDWICH

FRUIT

Core Vocabulary

Finger Spelling Alphabet

J

L

P

Z

Animal Transport and Vehicles

TRACTOR

National Curriculum part 1

ALL [EVERYONE]

DRESS

GAME

HIDE

SHOE

Food and Drink

BREAKFAST

JELLY

Other Resources / Makaton Hub

BLOWS OUT CANDLES *MODIFIED BIRTHDAY CAKE

CARD

DOWNSTAIRS

FAVOURITE

FIREPLACE

PUZZLE

READY

STATUE

UPSTAIRS

WAKE UP

WISH