This Circle Time Braille Kit includes an interactive book that focuses on one letter of the alphabet. Each page in the book will have that letter and a word starting with that letter at the top of each page. At the bottom of the page will be directions (if appropriate) and then a line of the letter brailled across the page.
The Itsy Bitsy Spider book focuses on the letter S and has a line of brailled S’s across the bottom of the page. The student should be encouraged to find the letter S at the top of the page and with help, “read” the letter and the word. After the student has explored and played with the things on that page, he should be encouraged to “read” the line of S’s at the bottom of the page. Encourage the student to say the phonetic sound “sss” as he “reads” each letter. If the student uses one hand to “read”, encourage him by saying, “Fast braille readers use two hands!” and then demonstrate by quickly “reading” the letters and saying the phonetic sound as quickly as possible. Demonstrate one handed, slow braille reading by slowly saying the phonetic sound as you slowly “read” across the page. Each page will contain an activity or a concept development that starts with the letter S. Most pages are “interactive” meaning that the student has to move at least one item on that page.
This interactive alphabet book is designed to go with the Itsy Bitsy Spider: Circle Time Braille Kit for the letter “s”. This is one of a number of emergent literacy kits that have been created for TVIs to use to help young children to develop pre-braille skills. Each page of this interactive book works on critical skills, such as counting, shapes, tracking and other concepts for beginning braille readers.
See also Interactive Alphabet Book for Letter “M”.
Materials
For the book:
- 3 spiders
- 4 down spouts
- 8 rain drops and 1 water puddle
- 1 sun
Original materials:
- black velvet scrapbook material (spider)
- disposable tin foil roasting pan, (down spout)
- blue textured scrapbook material (water)
- sticky back stiff yellow felt (sun)
See the directions for making the books.
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1. Begin by reading the Itsy Bitsy Spider book.
The itsy bitsy spider
The itsy bitsy spider
went up the water spout.
Down came the rain
and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun,
and dried up all the rain,
and the itsy bitsy spider
went up the spout again.
2. Invite the student to read the interactive “S” book and do the activities on each page.
- S: Introducing the letter “s”
- Slide: Slide the spider up and down.
- Squeeze: Squeeze the toy to make it squeak.
- Same: Which triangles have the same textures?
- Smooth: Which side is smooth? Right or left?
- Small: Which star is small? Which square is not small?
- Straight: Which line is straight?
- Spin: Spin to find the shape.
- Spiders: Count the spiders. How many legs does a spider have?*
*When teaching the student to count, have him place and keep one finger on the first leg. Use the second hand to systematically count the other legs, moving in a circle around the spider’s body until he comes back to the finger that is on the first leg.
**The last page has index cards and envelopes. Each index card has a braille letter. In the S book, if the brailled letter is S, the index card will go in the “yes” envelope. If the letter is not S, the index card will go in the “no” envelope.
3. Enjoy the related activities in the Itsy Bitsy Spider Circle Time Braille Kit!
