Tactile Mosaic Flags for the 4th of July

I like to do crafts with my students to celebrate the different holidays throughout the year. It provides me an opportunity to educate my students on the history of the holiday and/or some trivia. We can read stories or write stories about the holiday as well. I like to do a quick search for stories and facts for the different holidays, so that I can be accurate in my lessons. Here's the site I am using for Independence Day this year.

Adapting Crafts Project for Students Who Are Blind

This year for Independence Day, my students attending ESY (Extended School Year) with me will be doing two different crafts. I went to Oriental Trading and found Mosaic Flag Craft Kits. I needed to adapt the craft for my two students as they have light perception or no vision.

I looked at the flag base. What to do? Looking around my materials in my garage I found red glitter glue. I chose to use this so it would blend in with the end craft.

I then used the glitter glue to trace each of the lines and around the blue square.

On the red stripes I squiggled some glitter glue so there would be a texture to it so my students would be able to identify the different stripes.

The mosaic foam tiles can then be added one color at a time.

As for the stars, the students can just place them in the square in whatever order they choose. 

Educational Benefits of Crafts Projects

I like to use crafts as it's a way to help the students in following directions (oral or brailled) and it helps them make the connections between the craft making and tactile graphics. It's also a way to have some fun during our lessons.  We work on a wide range of skills, such as sorting and matching, counting, patterns, spatial orientation, and tactile discrimination, as well as reading and writing.

These crafts have become a favorite activity! It's also amazing to see how much they remember from year to year about the different holidays.