Homemade card games can be a fun way to practice a variety of braille literacy goals. I made this game to focus on the contractions: sh, ar, st, wh and ch.
Materials
- Cards: I used the back of cards from an old card game we don’t use any more at home. Other options to use for cards would be: note cards, deck of cards, card stock cut into pieces and wooden square pieces.
- Braille: You can add braille right onto the cards or use labels.
- “Cheat Sheet”: I included a sheet that listed the contractions that we were focusing on during the game.
Procedure
- Decide on your objective, such as specific contractions, single-cell contractions, abc’s etc. The students can help you create the game if there is time for some additional writing practice!
- My objective was for the student to read and locate the following contractions: sh, ar, st, wh and ch. I generated a list of words that included those contractions and then brailled them onto the cards. I also added print to the cards so that family members, who may not know braille, can play as well.
- We used the cards to play Go Fish! Each player would ask a question such as this: “Do you have a word with a ‘sh’ contraction?” or “Do you have a word with the contraction ‘ar’?”
- I sent the cards home with my student so she could play at home with her family. She loved having a game that was accessible to the entire family!
See this link for instructions on how to play “Go Fish” if you are not familiar with the game: http://www.dltk-kids.com/games/go-fish.htm
