1. Story Box Ideas for Holiday Stories
The holidays are an exciting time of year for children and there are lots of opportunities to incorporate literacy into the fun! The ideas here include suggestions to make Christmas and Hanukkah more accessible to children with visual impairments or deafblindness. In addition, there are plenty of ways to promote literacy for learners at all levels. We hope that you’ll share some of your favorite holiday ideas too!
Preschool teachers Jaime Brown and Katie Armstrong share some of their favorite holiday storyboxes .
2. Braille Designs for Christmas
Braille transcriber Edith West shares a number of different Christmas designs, including Santa Claus, a Christmas tree, angel, and candy canes.
3. Braille Designs for Hanukkah
Braille designs for Hanukkah from Edith West include the Dreidel and Menorah.
4. Christmas Ideas for Children with Visual Impairments
Positive Eye’s Gwyn McCormack shares fun ideas, including a Christmas Basket of Magic, Christmas Spinner, and Christmas Hanger.
5. Holiday Gift Tags
Use braille or tactile stickers to label gifts with this idea from Liamsmom.
6. Christmas Tactile Books
Create a tactile book with braille labels to tell the Christmas story.
7. Decorating the Christmas Tree: An Experience Book Tradition
Create a tactile experience book about trimming the Christmas tree.
8. Christmas Tree Project
Practice positional concepts decorating a miniature tactile Christmas tree in this activity from TVI Liz Eagan.
8. Christmas Sequence Activity for Students with Visual Impairments and Additional Disabilities
Work on vocabulary, language comprehension, matching and sequencing of events in this Christmas book.
9. Tips to Make Reading Aloud Part of Your Family’s Holiday Tradition
Reading aloud is a great way to enjoy being together as a family during the holidays.
10. Create a Holiday Conversation Box
Put together a box of holiday items with different sensory qualities, such as bells, candles, ornaments, pine bough, cinnamon sticks. Explore them with your child to develop vocabulary and language concepts.
11. Gift Ideas for Kids Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Have Additional Disabilities
If you still have some presents to buy, have a look at these great suggestions from Early Childhood and Deafblind specialist Holly Cooper.
12. 10 Ways to Include Your Child in the Christmas Fun
Still looking for more ideas? There’s lots more fun here, including decorations, cooking ideas, and more!
