There are some songs in the Primary songbook that just ooze hand motions. These songs are generally wiggle songs (My hands, I wiggle, etc.), but hand motions are incredibly useful in holding the kids' attention, and helping them remember the songs. Unfortunately for most reverent songs it is incredibly difficult to make up movements. Another wrench in the process is that my ward follows a policy that doesn't allow hand motions when singing in sacrament meeting, with an exception for American Sign Language.

The church distribution center puts out a DVD with each year's primary program songs in ASL. The DVDs cost about between $4 and $5 but they are notoriously slow to be released (the songs for this year haven't been released yet, and probably won't be out until after June). This makes it difficult to learn and teach the songs early enough for use in a fall primary program. (And while I find it a mild inconvenience, I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for people who actually *need* these resources.)

So I do the next best thing- I come up with a ASL version of the song on my own. My ASL training is limited (I was part of an after-school club for a few years sponsored by a teacher who's sister is hearing impaired). A valuable resource is this video dictionary. It is fairly large, and has clear videos of how the signs are made.

The next step is to make the translations. This year I did the first and last verse of the song Home (#192). I go through the song, pick out the major words and write them down in the order they appear in the song like a vocabulary list, with room for notes next to each word. When selecting words there are a few points to consider- you must be able to perform the signs in tempo with the singing so you probably couldn't do a direct word for word translation. Try to pick out the meaningful words and ditch words like 'and, at, a, the, his/her, when, etc.' Consider the message the song is trying to communicate and be willing to use synonyms and slight rephrasing. Another thing to remember is that you want to be making a sign at about the same the time you are singing the corresponding phrase/word.

The words I picked out from 'Home' are:
Home
Where
Heart
Warm
Love
Abounds (overflows)
Home
Where
Warm
Arms
All
Around

Home
Where
Father (God)
Dwells (lives)
Heaven
Above
Guides
Us
Way
Live
Lets
Us
Feel
Love

After you have your list of words go through the dictionary and learn the signs, making notes on your list to help you remember what they are. When you teach the signs to the children, tell them what the sign actually means (ie don't do the sign for 'overflow' in place of 'abounds' without saying that it really means 'overflow') because they are likely to remember the signs for the rest of their lives and they should remember correct information.

The last step is obviously to practice the signs with music by yourself. At this point you can see if there 'room' for more words in some places or if it goes too fast in others and adjust accordingly.

It won't be perfect or nearly as good as if a more professional translation was made. Hopefully a hearing impaired individual would be able to get the general meaning of the song from the signs.  It also creates an opportunity to teach about the love Heavenly Father has for all of his children.