Lazy Sue Braille Development Activity
Submitted by Gwyn McCormack on May 05, 2014
The Lazy Sue activity is designed to support the practice and understanding of braille letters and contractions.
Materials:
- Lazy Sue – IKEA
- 6 yoghurt pots
- Wide lollipop sticks or thick card cut to the size of lollipop sticks
- Playdoh
- Objects for each pot
- Braille labels with object names
- Dice
- Buzzers (Optional)
- Velcro
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Circular mat (IKEA) same size as Lazy Sue to allow for interchangeable activities (could cut a circle of card in place of mat.) Add Velcro squares around the mat as shown in the photograph to create a base for the activity - Braille labels named with objects, Velcro attached to back of each
Procedure:
There are various ways this activity can be used, here are a few suggestions:
- The activity could be played by the child on their own, or along with other friends:
- Children in turn throw the dice and on rolling a six, spin the Lazy Sue and then pick a lollipop stick from the tub in the middle.
- Child reads the braille label, whether just the initial letter sound or whole word, or identifies the contraction as they read the word.
- Child then locates the correct object from the pots around the Lazy Sue and adds the lollipop stick to this pot.
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Or, instead of using lollipop sticks use braille labels which can be selected from the pot and placed alongside the matching object, next to the pot – (Velcro into position) - Recordable pegs could be added to the game, recording each object and clipping the pegs around the Lazy Sue, near to the matching pots. Another alternative: put the pegs in the middle of the Lazy Sue for the child to listen to and match to correct object and Braille label.
- A further alternative, add labels with words beginning with different contractions to the Velcro alongside each pot. (eg. Th, sh, wh, st, ch.)
- Place braille labels with words including the contractions to the central pot.
- Roll the dice spin the Lazy Sue and when it stops pick a braille label from the central pot and find the matching contraction from around the Lazy Sue, placing the label in the correct pot.
There are more ideas for resources at
