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Activity and strategy

Braille Literacy Games

Activities and games to promote braille literacy with students who are blind or visually impaired.

Patchwork quilt gameboard

Here are some fluency games I use with my braille student. They can all be adapted to read shorter phrases, just letters, or just contractions, too.  I cannot claim credit for the ideas, the basic game ideas came from an early braille learners meeting Debra Leff facilitated. She gave us a ton of ideas for strategies and games, and I have a wonderful braillist named Clare Sayce who enjoys making this kind of thing.  Clare and I work together to go over the ideas and figure out how to make them tactually interesting, include characters our student loves (like Hello Kitty) and get the right contractions/reading level.

Hello Kitty Fluency Game

Hello Kitty

I play this game with short phrases brailled on cards, the student moves 1 space, reads the directions on the space, draws a card, and reads the phrase on the card using the directions (they might say, read like your’re sad, read like you’re happy, read like you’re a giant, etc.)

spinner

Spinner

I put contractions on it, they spin, read the contraction, earn a point. You can keep score on the abacus too.

jungle activity

 

 

Jungle Game

This is our favorite. You draw a card which has common phrases from a Frye list, use what ever level of braille your student is at, if they read it correctly, they keep the card, if not, they don’t keep the card.  I play games with my braille reader where I have to read braille by touch (because I really stink at it) and she reads by touch – she’s a low level reader, so we are kind of even.  If you include print, she can play with peers.  Whoever has the most cards at the end wins. There are some directions on a couple of circles to shake things up.  We use plastic jungle creatures for our “character” too.

patchwork quilt activity

Patchwork Quilt

You can do anything with this. She can draw a card from a stack with just a letter, just a contraction, a math problem, etc. When she answers correctly, she adds a patch to make the quilt.  You can also discuss the texture when making the quilt.

Collage of braille literacy games
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