By Gwyn McCormack
In my experience children love to collect things in boxes or containers, here I use the idea to help introduce the letters or contractions of the braille code.
Materials required
- 1 x white label
- Small pieces of velcro
- Sticky back braille
- Foam or thick card
- Double side tape
- Thick card to cover box lid
- Textured paper
- Boxes with lift-off lid, any size box can be used
- Objects begining with the letter or part of the code being taught
Method
- Use the double sided sellotape to cut and secure a piece of card in place the size of the top of the box. (Any box with a lift off lid can be used to make these Braille Code Boxes, the bigger the box the bigger the objects the child can have fun collecting!)
- Add a piece of coloured foam, approximately half the size of the box lid, use double sided sellotape to secure in palce
- Cut out braille writer keys and use double side tape to secure in position.
- Use textured paper to identify the keys that form the letter or contraction, cut to shape and stick in place.
- Add the braille/print letter in the top right corner, using a white label to print the letter and add Braille on sticky back braille paper
- Add a small strip of velcro to the middle of the box and add an object beginning with the sound, ch, wh, ed, ou, ar, etc.
- Add some objects to the box beginning with that sound for the child to explore
or
- The child could have it as a weekly activity to add objects to the box, whilst they are working on the particular letter/sound
- Make up games where a selection of objects are placed on their tray and they add to the box the ones beginning with the letter sound
- Put some braille sticky labels in the box and as the child moves around their environment they take a label from the box and add it to the object they locate beginning with that letter sound
For more fun, creative ideas visit https://positiveeye.co.uk/