BLOCK PLAY For Students with Visual Impairments and Blindness
By: Carmen Willings teachingvisuallyimpaired.com
Block play is a station that is typically found in classrooms for younger students. It lends itself to so many skills including imagination & creativity, math concepts and even language can be incorporated. Of course when the building is done, it also can be a great place to practice cleaning up!
Block play is an area that naturally incorporates math skills. It can provide opportunities for learning classification; shape, size and color identification; and counting and matching skills. Students count, measure, balance, plan, problem solve, and develop language. It incorporates scientific concepts of balance, space, and gravity. It also can facilitate cooperation development in social relationships. Begin with the basic blocks in the black area and then enhance with theme specific materials.
Common materials in the block area include dollhouses, miniature furniture, toy people, cars and trucks, animals, unit blocks, large wooden blocks, plastic blocks, cardboard blocks (fill to create different weights), bristle blocks, Duplos, Lego's, animals, and road signs. In selecting toys, choose ones with a variety of textures, weights, and sizes.
Incorporate concepts into the Blocks Station by: discussing likes and differences of blocks and building materials; size (big/little and small/medium/large) and quantity differences of blocks, cars, etc.; sound differences of train and car race sets or blocks crashing down; and shapes of blocks and building toys. Encourage students with low vision to use their magnifiers to study directions for LEGO assembly, study maps, and study blueprints. Also encourage students with low vision to use their vision during blocks to watch the movement of friction cars or small windup toys.
Provide block outlines (high contrast and raised line for tactual learners) to assist students in putting blocks away. Attach object and print/braille word to the top or front of containers for students who are at a pre-symbolic level. For students that can understand symbols and will be a future print reader, use picture and word symbols to label containers.
The block area should be protected on at least two sides, ideally three, to minimize structures getting mistakenly knocked over. This will also help contain the creative area! It is best to have plenty of floor space and low pile carpet that will keep buildings from toppling over and muffle the sounds.
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TVI's Guide to Teaching the ECC: An Activities Based Curriculum for Teaching Students who are Blind or Visually Impaired
$50.00
Written specifically for fellow itinerant Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI’s), this book consists of over 400 activities and topic areas of discussion for instructing students in the Expanded Core Curriculum. The activities are age-neutral and multi-sensory and therefore can meet the needs of the broad range of students served on an itinerant caseload serving. The activities can be individualized to the students various learning modalities and scaffold in order to challenge students but ensure success. Select those activities that align with the student’s learning objects based on the student’s unique visual needs and academic and developmental level.
The core activities listed in the Activity section can be adapted to each thematic unit. These include:
Object Characteristic Activities
Quantity & Number Concepts
Time Concept Activities
Environment & Job Awareness Activities
Listening Skills Activities
Reading Foundation Activities
Reading Fluency Activities
Braille Basics Activities
Writing Activities
Tactual Efficiency Activities
Developing Skillful Hands Activities
Visual Efficiency Activities
Optical Device Instruction Activities
Recipe Activities
In addition to the core activity areas, each of the 32 Thematic Units incorporates additional unique ECC concepts and skills providing you with a years’ worth of activities. These units are cyclical and can be used repeatedly to help students build on prior knowledge and develop a deeper understanding of concepts. Each unit includes suggestions for activity adaptation associated with the unit. These include lists of objects, possible community based experiences, environmental print, poems, children & young reader books, children's songs, pop culture songs, movies, and websites.
Unique Concepts within the Units include:
Self Advocacy Activities (e.g. advocating for safe classroom, presenting to class on visual impairment, requesting help and more)
Social Skills Activities (e.g. Being bullied or teased, giving and receiving compliments, body language, "I" messages when upset and more)
Recreation & Leisure Activities (e.g. exploring interest areas, getting involved in clubs and sports, playing games, and more)
O&M Support Activities (e.g. Suggestions for community based experiences, dog guide information, locations in the school, bioptics, ride sharing, traffic signs, and more)
Independent Living Skill Activities (e.g. chores, being responsible, using tools, recipe suggestions, hygiene, staying healthy, labeling foods and products, and more)
Sensory Efficiency Activities (e.g. unique sensory experiences related to the unit, unique optical device activities, and more)
Compensatory Activities (e.g. organizing materials, study habits, and many unique concepts related to the unit)
Career & Vocational Activities (e.g. job awareness, completing applications, job task suggestions, and more)
Although the intended audience of this resource is fellow Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments, special education teachers may find these activities beneficial to the students in their classrooms as the activities are multisensory and include life skills and concepts needed by all students. This resource, however, is not intended to take the place of a Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI). Readers are advised to consult their own TVI’s regarding instruction in the ECC and the unique visual needs of the student’s served in their programs.
Note: This curriculum is a digital pdf download. Once you make your purchase you will be directed to an order confirmation page where you will find the download link. This download will also be included on the receipt sent to the email address you provide. The pdf download can be found directly under the order number.
Each download is intended for single instructor use per copyright. Thank you for helping me preserve the content and not distributing copies to third parties.
Product details
Digital pdf download: 364 pages (11 pt font)
Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
Visual Efficiency & Magnifier Fluency Grab & Go ECC Supplements
$20.00
This workbook is a pdf download that can be printed on demand for use with students. It contains five different types of worksheets for developing visual motor skills and near magnifier fluency skills particularly with the use of a video magnifier. As a supplement to the TVI’s Guide to the ECC, the worksheets correspond to each of the 32 ECC Thematic units. The worksheets, along with a list of environmental print for each thematic unit, are designed to help students refine their visual motor skills while reinforcing ECC concepts presented in the thematic units.
Visual Efficiency & Near Magnifier Fluency Worksheet Details:
Digital pdf download: 210 pages
Publisher: Teaching Students with Visual Impairments
