I recently made a “key book” for a student, who is a sweet and spunky 2nd grade girl, who is blind with additional disabilities. My goals for creating this specific book included the following:
- Motivating: I wanted a book that she would WANT to read. She likes to play with keys, and she loves the sounds keys make when you shake them together.
- Turning pages: I wanted her to turn the pages herself.
- Increasing attention: I wanted her to pay attention to the braille and graphics on each page.
- Counting and number recognition 1-5
Materials
- Keys: A hardware store generously donated them
- Russian Birch pages (these were made by a local high school teacher but I think strong cardboard would work as well).
- 3-ring binder for the book
- Power drill to drill holes in the pages
- Screws/bolts and nuts/washers
- Thick string or thin rope
- Braille labels
- Puffy Paint for the “counters”
Procedure
For page one I drilled a hole to fix one key to the page using the bolt and nut. I added the number 1 in braille and print to the page along with a puffy paint dot to use for counting. I like that they key is able to spin and move if desired.
On the second page I simply glued 2 keys on the page (I ended up screwing them down onto the page later because they continued to fall off the page) and I added the number two in braille and print along with two puffy painted dots.
The third and fourth page I fixed the keys to the page using a thin rope for something “different” and so that the student could shake the keys and hit them against the page if she wanted.
I continued with this process for a total of five pages. For the cover, I made sure to glue a key to the front so that she could easily identify the book as the “key” book.
