Winter 2012
Tuesday's Activities Hand every student a copy of the "Braille Code"
and demonstrate on the dry erase board what a braille cell looks like and how the dots are aligned.
Teach children a silly song through mnemonics
that will help students retain the dot configurations of the letters of the alphabet (e.g., The Braille Rap Song, which can be found at http://www.aph.org/edresearch/braille_rap/index.ht ml)
Have the students study "The Braille Code", and
ask them to see if they can figure out how Louis Braille created the letters k through z, excluding w since this letter is not part of the French alphabet. (Answer: row 2 is the same as row 1 with the addition of a dot 3, and row 3 is the same as row 1 with the addition of dots 3 and 6.)
Instruct the children to take out one sheet of = 38 CONTENTS
paper and a very sharp pencil. Tell them to poke small holes in the paper, flip the paper over, close their eyes, and feel the raised bumps. This will give them a sense of how Louis Braille began teaching himself how to make raised dots. (Interesting fact: to make these dots, Louis Braille used an awl, which is the same tool that caused him to become blind.)
