With Thanksgiving only a week away, I decided that we should braille some pictures to celebrate the season. I presented D with two choices, we could braille a turkey or braille a pie. She chose turkey, so the adventure began…
The cool thing about these instructions is that it is not only a fun way to spend time on the brailler, but it helps to reinforce some contractions she already knew such as er, ar, of, was, with, and for. The other thing is that it makes her slow down a bit and think about what she is brailling. With all the spaces involved and the need for accuracy, (otherwise you end up with a funny looking turkey), she practices checking her braille after each line to make sure that she is doing it properly.
D just got a braillenote touch last spring and has primarily been using that in lessons with me. I rarely see her using the Perkins although I know she is using it quite a lot in class. This allows me to check her brailling technique as well and make sure she is using proper hand positioning as she brailles.
The turkey is one of the larger braille pictures I have come across, but also one of my most favorites. The detail is incredible. As D explores the finished product, she asked about what she is feeling. I turn the question around to her and ask, “What do you know about turkeys that you think you are feeling?” We talk about the “salient features” of a turkey… or at her level, what makes a turkey a turkey? (We will talk a lot more about salient features in the section dedicated to CVI – cortical visual impairments)
We giggle together when she comes to the part of the turkey under it’s beak and talk about what it is called. I tell her I think it is called the gobbler, but she thinks I am ridiculous and plans to set out to find out what the real “scientific name” of it is. I will stand my ground calling it the gobbler until she researches and tracks down the true name : )
To create your own **braille turkey, you can find the directions here;Thanksgiving Turkey
To create your own **braille pie, the directions are here;
**Both sets of braille directions are compliments of Paths to Literacy website
I Love Brl (Braille) 