Challenge Card Game: Practice Braille Reading Skills While Having Fun!
Submitted by Raquel Espina on May 26, 2017
I have created this game to work on a series of different challenges to learn, but also to have fun. The aim of this game is to make a good activity for resource provision and to get the child who is blind interested in reading and participating in games with other children.
I was looking to improve social relationships, interest in reading, reading skills, listening skills, turn taking and to enjoy other things rather than just playing in the sand and water, which are a great sensory activity and can help with lots of fine motor skills, but they can end up being repetitive and isolating.
Materials:
This game is really easy to make. You will need:
- Card
- Scissors and a pen
- Paper clips and cello tape (Scotch tape)
- Magnets
- Clear sticky braille paper
* And if you want your cards to last longer I would laminate them before adding the braille.
Procedure:
I cut the cards in different shapes to make it more interesting.
Add a challenge on one side of each of them. I made different types of cards, including:
- Simple math problems (addition to 10)
- Following directions, like "Wiggle your fingers" or "Balance on one leg."
- Simple questions, such as "What did you have for breakfast?" or "What is your favourite food?"
Cut the shapes and laminate them. As the card is thicker than paper, cutting it out before laminating it makes the plastic stick better on the sides and avoid splitting later on. After, remember to cut the plastic in the same shape as the card.
Braille the challenges and stick them on the same side.
Use cello tape (Scotch tape) to stick a paper clip on the back of each card. (These should be metal clips, so that they will be picked up by a magnet.)
To play, all cards are upside down on the floor. A child will use a magnet to grab one of them. In this case they will have to say what shape they got and read the challenge. When we get a simple or fun question, the person that got it will answer and then everybody else takes a turn. We all join in for the fun challenges.
Variations:
- This game can be played by braille readers, as well as print readers.
- Invite the students to create their own challenge cards.
