Enrichment Activity for Beginning Braille Readers

Submitted by Liz Eagan on Apr 28, 2014
Girl using brailler to write about the project she made with twigs and paper dolls

Lesson 35 in Building on Patterns has an enrichment activity of using things from nature to create a collage. The problem we encountered was this week the 4th grade was doing the state mandated testing...which affected the whole campus. So we couldn't go outside. On Tuesday we talked about the items she'd need to create her project. I went to Michael's and bought some of it and then I grabbed some sticks from home. Wednesday we created the collage.

 

 

Project with twigs and leaves and drawn on butterflies around it and cotton balls as clouds and two paper dolls attached

 

Thursday we wrote the story. She is really good at sounding out words, so I don't see invented spellings that often. The coolest thing was the story is about Katie and Zach! Those are the two children that are the focus in the curriculum towards the end of the Kindergarten curriculum. The story wasn't really a part of the project, but I felt it needed to be there to give her a chance to go through the book making/literacy process.

 

You'll also see in the top photo she no longer uses the power on her SMART brailler!!! This is HUGE!  She turns the SMART brailler off as she is now more confident in her brailling abilities. She doesn't need it to tell her she's right or not.  Her finger strength is coming along.

Story written out in handwriting and braille with drawings of flowers and lady bugs around it
Click to enlarge.
Materials: 
  • brailler
  • paper
  • materials for collage, including leaves, sticks, and other items from nature
  • crafts supplies for creating collage
  • glue
  • binder or rings to hold pages together
Procedure: 

These activities can take place over several days or a week, depending on the individual student.

  1. Read the story in Building on Patterns.
  2. Discuss what materials are needed to create a collage.
  3. Collect materials from outside.
  4. Supplement natural materials with items from crafts store.
  5. Invite the student to write a story to accompany the collage.  Provide support, as necessary.
  6. Put the pages together to "publish" it as a book.  Share with classmates, send home, or keep in classroom as an individual "library".
 

 

Collage with project and braille text of story the girl is writing

 

Common Core and Braille Standards
Writing: 
W.K.3  Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to narrate a single event or several loosely linked events, tell about the events in the order in which they occurred, and provide a reaction to what happened.
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