Teaching about capital letters and the number sign

Submitted by Beth Bartson on Feb 09, 2014

An easily created double full cell manipulative will help children understand such early braille concepts as the number sign, and capitalization.

Materials:

The lower and upper case letter "i" brailled onto 2 different flash cards
12 pennies (shiny or not)
24 velcro coins (12 hooks and 12 loops)
a piece of braille paper or cardboard (6 in by 7 in) laminated (should be fairly stiff)
Note: Picture shows well spaced pennies. Dimes more tightly placed might work better for small hands.

Procedure:

This activity assumes the learner already reads the braille word "I". Show student the braille flash card with lower case "i" and then the word "I" and discuss how these are different.
Present the penny manipulative and have the student create the letter "i" and then show them the word "I". This may or may not be time to discuss capitalization in general.

Variations:

Same manipulative can be used to teach the number sign and 2 cell contractions.

Common Core and Braille Standards

Kindergarten - Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development :

K.1.6 Recognize and name all uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

K.1.6a Understand that the number sign changes the letters a through j to numbers.

K.1.6b Recognize the braille number sign and the digits 1–9 and 0.

K.1.6c Understand that the braille dot 6 preceding a letter capitalizes the letter.

Grade 1 - Word Analysis, Fluency, and Systematic Vocabulary Development:

1.1.3 Identify letters, braille contractions, signs, words, sentences, and punctuation, as introduced in the grade one reading program.

1.1.3d Identify two-cell, initial-letter signs (dot 5, dots 4-5, dots 4-5-6).

1.1.3e Identify two-cell, final-letter signs.

1.1.3f Identify one-cell, lower-part word signs.

1.1.3h Identify whole-word signs when they are joined to the word that follows.

Comments

Permalink Submitted by Laura Lee on Feb 26, 2014