My First 100 Words

by Scholastic Inc.

A fresh new beginner's guide to American Sign Language--with a poster of the sign language alphabet! Featuring cool computer-generated illustrations and a simple kid-friendly design, this reference book for the youngest readers makes learning sign language fun and easy! Learn 100 basic signs for everyday use in helpful categories, such as Food, Colors, Animals, In the Classroom, and more! Also included are instructions on how to fingerspell the entire alphabet and numbers.For quick reference, this book also comes with a bonus full-size poster of the ASL alphabet--perfect for home or the classroom!

Genres: Childrens, Nonfiction

32 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2008

About the author

For more than 100 years, Scholastic has been meeting children where they are – at school, at home and in their communities – by creating quality content and experiences, all beginning with literacy. Scholastic delivers stories, characters, and learning moments that empower all kids to become lifelong readers and learners through bestselling children's books, literacy- and knowledge-building resources for schools including classroom magazines, and award-winning, entertaining children's media.

Reviews

[Amanda]

Disappointed that there aren't more action words and baby sign type things in this one to share with my 1 and 5 yr old together. I guess they'd be in the 2nd 100 words! i.e. up, down, etc.

[Joan]

This beginner’s guide to American Sign Language introduces groups of words that children would be most likely to use; relevant groups include words related to family, home, food, colors, school, and more. There’s information on American Sign Language; illustrated how-to explanations for signing each word helps the child learn many basic signs. An included poster illustrating the proper fingerspelling for each letter of the alphabet will help children learn the signed alphabet.

Whether a child learns sign language for communicating with others or as a second language, this book assists in presenting the basic information with colorful illustrations and age-appropriate explanations.

Highly recommended.

[Alana]

This is a good simple starter, although I found other books to be more helpful in describing how to do the signs and giving more directions on how to teach them to your kiddos. But it's not a bad starter book.

[Karen]

This will help a great deal.

[Tamara Huyskens]

Great aid for those with young children wanting to learn sign language

[Felice Lam]

Useful starter kit to start learning American Sign Language with little drawings to accompany each sign. Arrows next to the signs made it easy to follow along.

[Kacy Sutton]

The book, “My First 100 Words,” is a great book to get kids thinking about sign language. It has animated kids showing the reader how to do certain signs in sign language. The author also adds in a little description telling the reader with words how to make the sign. So, the reader is given both a verbal and a visual explanation for each sign. The vocabulary words the author chose to incorporate into the book are words that younger kids use every day.

The book is for a younger audience. It gives basic signs and is very kid-friendly. It is a great way to get kids interested in sign language. This could be incorporated into a lesson about how everyone is different and has their own special characteristics. It can never hurt to educate kids about how other people have to live their life because of a disability they have.

The pictures are cute. The little kids are always doing something that all little kids do. Then the kids are shown using the signs for the specific things on that page that the kids are interacting with. If the pictures were not there, the book would be very difficult to follow and understand. The pictures are a huge part of this book. They give the reader that visual of how to make that sign and the object or idea that that sign represents.

My endorsement is going to be in American Sign Language and Deaf and Hard of Hearing Education. This book is a perfect for those specialties. It gets kids at a young age thinking about sign language. If a child is hearing and is able to read this book, it could help them if they would happen to encounter a child or adult who is deaf. I think it is just a great way to educate all children about sign language. It is also a good way to introduce all of the special qualities that different children have.


Nelson, Michiyo. Sign language: my first 100 words. New York: Scholastic, 2008. Print.

[Kelly]

Not as many basic conversational signs as I'd hoped. Even so, I'm happy to have another ASL resource for the classroom.

[Satin]

I Love this book! Great resource

[Amber]

This book is great for children. They will love the pictures and enjoy learning sign language.