I work with a first-grade student who is learning braille. We use the jumping bean game as a warm up activity or review. I use my assessment data to determine which cards/words need to be reviewed and am intentional in which cards are used each time we play. I have been using a form of this game over the last 20 years with young children and there are many versions on the internet.
Materials
- Cards with letters in large print and/or braille (depending on student need)
- Cards with jumping bean bold outline or raised outline
- Container for cards
- Swing cell
Procedure
- The student selects a card and reads the letter or word from the card.
- The student then makes that braille contraction on the swing cell.
- If the student draws a jumping bean card, then the student jumps a specified number of times.
- I ask the student to name a number between 1 and 10, and that is the number of jumps to do.
Variations
- This activity can easily be adjusted to fit student need.
- Cards can be made to review numbers, shapes, words, punctuation, etc.
- The container used to store the cards can fit a theme or a season.
- Other ways to change things up are counting backwards or varying the jumps the child does, such as jump on one foot or do jumping jacks.
- This activity can easily be done with braille and print readers.
- If doing the activity with a group of children, the whole group can jump when a jumping bean is drawn or just the child who draws the card.
