Geometry and Spatial sense is best taught through concrete hands on experiences when instructing students who are blind or visually impaired. This is beneficial not only for students with visual impairments but for students with normal vision as well.
Have students assemble puzzles, and sort shapes and objects related to the topic. Play “Treasure Hunt” games. Have students follow verbal or written spatial directions given to: Locate objects in the classroom, school or community. Encourage students to locate shapes within the environment when transitioning through the school or on community outings. Intentionally discuss positional concepts (on, in, on top of, underneath, thick, thin, rough, smooth, hard, soft, etc.) and incorporate counting and patterning activities and pairing numbers with groups of objects. Encourage students to follow directions and use low vision devices to read directions and discriminate between cards. Make math fun by incorporating graphs, charts, card and board games. Incidentally embedded math patterning and positional concepts into activities of daily living as well as waiting games during transitions.
Suggested Materials...
The APH Braille/Large Print Protractor marks 180 degrees. The protractor features a pivoting wand. When aligned with a certain degree measurement, the corresponding angle is created by the wand and the bottom edge of the protractor.
The DRAFTSMAN Tactile Drawing Board is a versatile tactile drawing board that is used to create instant raised-line images. Students may need some assistance in loading the paper, but given practice, should be able to load it independently and create their own tactile graphics.
Geometric Forms introduce students to the circle, square, and triangle through three dimensional forms. The wooden shapes pictured to the right are available from APH through quota funds. APH also offers 9 plastic forms in the Math Builders geometry kit. Don't have access to quota funds? Many similar products can be found a teacher supply stores and other retailers such as Amazon.
Geometric Shape Sorters are another great activity for sorting shapes as well as practicing fine motor skills.
Geometro provides hands-on experience with manipulatives that aid in teaching 3-D geometry. Geometro models, available from APH or from geometro, are flat plastic shapes - triangles, squares, pentagons, and hexagons - that can be readily joined to form three-dimensional solids.
Geometry Tactile Graphics Kit includes a set of thermoformed raised-line drawings depicting geometry concepts, figures, and relationships. Graphics are larger and easier for students to measure than those in braille textbooks.
Giant Textured Beads with Pattern Matching Cards are available from APH. Pattern matching cards reinforce the tactile continuum from real object to raised-line graphics. Students can practice sorting and classifying by various attributes. Students can also practice creating and extended patterns.
These inset shape puzzles can be adapted with braille to reinforce practice with numbers.
inTACT Eraser The inTACT Eraser is a battery operated eraser specifically designed for tactile drawing. It allows the user to erase mistakes and can also be used to create dashed lines. The eraser works like a miniature iron, heating the flat tip to approximately 180 degrees. It flattens tactile drawings quickly and erases them tactually. This eraser can be used in tandem with the inTACT Sketchpad or it can be used with the APH Draftsman.
inTACT Sketchpad The inTACT Sketchpad is a great alternative to the Draftsman. It is particularly beneficial for students to use and create their own tactual graphics due to its ease of use. When the cover is lifted, there is a recessed area to place the drawing sheet on. Magnet strips completely cover the perimeter of the board creating a secure closing when the lid is lowered.
The Fisher Price Matchin Middles Oreo game is a great way for younger students to practice matching and identifying shapes. Each cookie has a different shape in the middle, 2 cookie halves with matching shapes inside fit together.
Math Builders Unit 6: Geometry is a supplementary math program. It includes a teacher's guide with lesson plans specific to geometry standards.
The Math Window Braille Geometry Kit allows the student to work and solve geometric problems, as well as, graph them on double-sided, framed work surface. The kit contains point markers for locating points and plotting squares to help the student accurately plot points on the graph. Wickki Stix® are used to connect the plotted points, forming line segments and curves, and to illustrate math functions.
Omnifix Cubes can be used with any math curriculum that specifies linking cubes. Students can snap flat shapes together to form a permanent cube which can then be joined to other cubes to build shapes and teach key geometry concepts!
New Puzzle Game Toshiaki Iuchi, a former engineer in Japan, has developed this puzzle for people who are visually impaired. He is donating these puzzle sets to schools for the blind! He has developed the games through his passion and interest in providing games for people who are blind.
The Puzzle Form Board Kit is available from APH. It is a supplementary aid for teaching basic concepts such as shape, texture, color, size, and matching. It includes 5 different puzzle shapes with puzzle frames: circle, diamond, square, rectangle, and triangle.
Shape templates allow students to and teachers to easily create geometric shapes. A template is easier to use than a solid shape as it is easier to trace a template.
An inset sound shape puzzle is a fun way for students to learn their shapes and
Stackups: Spatial Reasoning Using Cubes and Isometric Drawings available through APH, encourages students using 2D and 3D shapes to: recognize, name, build, draw, compare, and sort; describe attributes and parts; and investigate and predict the results of putting together and taking apart.
Tactile Tangrams from APH encourages the development and reinforcement of many educational and recreational skills including spatial reasoning, shape recognition, size comparison, pattern replication, and independent problem solving.
Tactile Treasures available through APH, is a teaching tool that can be used to help students transition from objects to tactual graphics. Concepts introduced and reinforced include shape, size, comparison of two or more objects, amount, position, and page orientation.
For younger students, talking shape sorters are a great way to practice matching shapes and listening to their names. Keep in mind it is only appropriate to use age appropriate toys with the student, and not use infant or preschool toys with older students.
Textured Sorting Circles and Shapes can be used to create Venn diagrams. The magnetic backing can be used on a metal surface.
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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
