Friday, March 18, 2016

Sensory Easter Eggs

Have some sensory fun with Easter eggs this year! I ordered beeping Easter eggs and had a fun hunt with my students but I got to thinking about some of my other students that thrive with more sensory input. I bought textures, items for weightand some cellophane to make these fun eggs. My students loved them!  I made sure to leave little tabs on certain eggs like the ones with cellophane so that my students could flick the ends as well. There are so many options!  I also made a few matching eggs so that we could later do a match game. It was also fun to think outside of the box and use other items such as rubber bands to create interesting texture. It was a hit! You can easily use good old standbys like rice and beans to fill eggs. I also used nuts and washers from the tool section for weight. Bells are always fun, too! All of my students really liked making them and it nicely includes my more severe students. Happy Easter!!
Sensory Easter Eggs
different textures that allow blind kids to have a variety of sensory Easter eggs
Sensory Easter eggs
lots of sensory ideas inside the Easter eggs
Easter eggs for kids with Cortical Vision Impairment
Easter eggs for kids with Cortical Vision Impairment

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Accessible Eric Carle DIY

How many of you have read "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" It is easily a classroom and family favorite. I have seen a few really nice accessible books for our kids to read this beloved series. I was recently hanging out in one of our preschool classrooms and saw how one teacher, Catherine D., made accessible copies for each of her students to read. These DIY is easy. You need the textured materials (feathers, cotton balls, etc), tracing paper, print out of the story and Braille labels. Catherine has allowed me to share the entire book.



How did they get the animals cut out so perfectly? Use tracing paper and then copy over to your textured paper. She then bound each copy so that students had their own copies. I am a big supporter of multiple copies of textured times because it is so helpful when you have multiple students that need it.


Remember that when you are making textured books to focus on the main concept of the picture for texture. Look at the blue bird and the teacher pages. The focus of each picture is simple, blue feathers or the eyes of the teacher. No need to go crazy with your textures!


 Another thing to keep in mind is to keep the print location constant. This will help students anticipate where the print is located.

The last page of this accessible version is the part where the book asks the student, "who do you see?" There is a 'mirror' there with a picture of the student.