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Activity and strategy

Braille Matching Game: Supporting Braille Objectives

This braille matching game is a fun way to practice braille contractions and to promote braille literacy!

This braille matching game was created for additional practice with contractions that I was working on with a student.   

Bonus:

This is a game that can be sent home to be enjoyed and played together with the entire family.

Materials:

  • Wooden star pieces with a puffy paint dot at the top to show correct positioning 
  • Container with dividers (ex: ice cube tray, egg carton, fish tackle organizer, etc.) 
  • Braille labels to add to the wooden pieces 

Procedure:

The contractions were specific to a book we were working on together.  

Cover of The Little Red Hen
Cover of “The Little Red Hen”
Vocabulary with braille contractions
Vocabulary with braille contractions

I added the words that were found in the story, that used the specific contractions I wanted to highlight, onto the wooden pieces.    For example, one of the words was “day”.  I made two copies of the word “day” to add to the  wooden pieces.   I continued on like this for 7 pairs of words/contractions.  I added both print and braille, so that family members and peers (who may not know braille) could play the game as well.

Braille words on wooden stars
Braille words on wooden stars

The student and I placed the wooden pieces randomly into the ice cube tray. 

Set up for braille game in ice cube tray
Set up for braille game in ice cube tray

We took turns trying to find matches.  If we did not find a match we put the piece back into the original place. The person with the most matches at the end wins.  

Checking out the words in the ice cube tray
Checking out the words in the ice cube tray

Tips:  

  • Make sure that everyone playing has a chance to know where the pieces were taken for each turn.  For example, if the teacher takes out a word, he/she needs to read it and allow the student to feel the location the piece was taken from.  
  • Keep the “ice cube tray'” in the same place throughout the game.  Do not turn or move it.  
  • The braille on the wooden pieces can be changed to fit a variety of learning objectives. For example: ABC’s, single cell contractions, Matching words to the contractions in them, etc.
Collage of braille matching game: supporting braille objectives
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