Bee Bop Braille: Teaching Code through Categories

Submitted by Karen Carl on Nov 20, 2015

Bee Bop Braille is a song about the categories of the braille code. It is the basis of stations around the room to teach the student. It can work with students with or without sight.

Categories and their Centers

Alphabet and Letter Words

♫ You got the alphabet and the letter words,

Stand ‘em alone and they get to be a word Ain’t that swell, got letter words.

In this center use letters from any of the many sources available. Categorized Braille Resource Cards are recommended. Using the "Farmer Braille Letter Words" song can help students learn the alphabet words.

Short Forms

♫ Short Forms, we don’t like vowels ...

Use the magnet letters to teach the short forms. Use families or current sight words to group them for instruction. Use lower letter cards or Braille Contraction cards for short forms that use contractions such as “much” or “because”.

Stand Alones

♫ Stand alones, we got style

Stand alones we got our own dots ...

"Stand alones" are words or parts of words that have their own unique dots such as “suffixes”, "wordlets" and blends in the braille code.

Dot 5 Words

♫ Dot 5 words, I’m a strong man ...

Strong man has abs of steel! He makes lots of words. Use magnet letters to his right to make words.

45 and 456 Words

♫ 45 and 456,

Add a letter on the back and ya gotta word ...

Tall man is 456 and you can say that he "hugs" the next letter. Using a "balloon" for 45 conveys that the dots are on the top of the cell.

46, 56, and 6 Part Words

♫ 4656 and a 6 (2x)

add the last letter

and ya get the back ...

In this center, fish graphics are used to convey the placement of the dots. The 46 fish has his mouth wide open. The 56 fish has his mouth open just a little bit. The dot 6 fish has just a circle opening. Use dots on the top and bottom of their mouths. Since these are part words, a letter could be placed inside the fish and the letter to create the contraction would go outside to the right of the mouth to create words.

Hide and Seek with the Lower Letters

♫ Hide and seek with the lower letters

Find me, find me if you can...

Lower letters are aj down in the bottom of the cell (dots 23 and 56). When these are used, placement is everything! They can be words, parts of words, or punctuation. Using a grass graphic and the cards, place the cards alone, before, in the middle or the back of the grass to represent where it is located and practice what it is.

Bee Bop Braille resource booklet is available for purchase. It includes a full explanation of the centers and how to create them. The graphics for the centers are a part of the booklet. It also includes the full song, the CD Rhythm's So Sweet, lower letter cards with foam dots. If you'd like to see more, view the Power Point.

To see the Braille Innovations website go to: https://sites.google.com/site/brailleinnovations/home/bee-bop-braille

Go to: https://squareup.com/market/braille-innovations to purchase Bee Bop Braille