This activity has two purposes:
- To create a braille symbol matching activity
- To give an older student practice reviewing braille symbols while “unintentionally” making books for others
A kindergarten student I work with is struggling a bit with braille letters and comparing them has been a challenge for him. While he is improving at this skill, outside the braille classroom he some time where there is down time. To give him extra practice with this, the alphabet has been broken down into three books of 9 letters in each. I purposely put in a letter that is often confused with the letter.
Materials
- card stock or braille paper
- cutting board
- binding machine
- binding combs
- Perkins Brailler
- Computer (Optional for creating typed title)
Procedure
Here’s how the books work:
- Column one is the letter to look for.
- Column two: the student flips the pages up until the braille symbol is found in column two that matches column one.
- Column three is completed the same way as column two.
- The incorrect letters are mixed into column two or three pages. The group (the student’s one-on-one paraprofessional, the older student and I) decided not to put print on the individual pages as we thought it might be something fun for him to do with his very interested peers. By having the print on the pages, his peers would have an unfair advantage.
A wonderful part of this has been to have one student assisting with material creation for another student! The older student is a dual media learner and this activity has given her practice reviewing braille symbols, while also enjoying creating something for someone else.
