The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything is one of my favorite Halloween books and I’ve made into a story box. Pre-school aged children love it because there are lots of sounds to make and they also enjoy that it is predictable. It is a great way to practice sequencing, and my class never gets tired of reading it together!
Story boxes are a wonderful way to provide tangible illustrations to children who are blind or visually impaired, including those with additional disabilities. For preschoolers who cannot see the pictures in a picture book, this is a way to help them to understand what is happening. For example, when the old lady comes across a pair of shoes, I have included a pair of shoes to illustrate this page.
Each month we have a different theme and we create story boxes to go with the theme. Our theme for October is Down on the Farm/Halloween.
Materials
- real objects to represent items and events in the story, such as a pair of shoes, a pair of pants, a pumpkin head, etc.
- a box in which to store the items
- a copy of the book with braille text on each page
Procedure
1. Gather the items needed for each page of the story
2. Braille the text on adhesive sheets and afix to each page.
3. Be sure that there is an object to represent the action or picture on each page, as much as possible. In this photo a real pair of shoes sits on the story box by the page with a pair of shoes in the illustration.
Have the students help to tell the story by clomping the shoes or choosing which item illustrates a given page.
Variations
In our class the staff records an adult reading the story, so that the children can choose to listen to it on their own during free time.
We allow each student to take a story box home for a week to share with their families.
