Activity
Exploratorium

Blind Spot

For Teachers 6th - 8th
A small card with a dot and an X is held at arm's length and used to show youngsters where their blind spot is. This illuminating little activity is a compact addition to your lesson on the structure of the eye as it explains the part of...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

3-D Task List

For Teachers 1st - 12th
Staying organized is a part of growing up, and it can be as easy as making a list. Here is a set of instructions for making a three-dimensional task list especially for learners with visual impairments or blindness. After making the task...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

Creating a 3-D Model of a Plant Life

For Teachers 1st - 6th
Instructing blind or visually impaired learners means you need to make symbolic tactile representations of various processes to provide as much input as possible. But wouldn't it be even better to have your learners make the models...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

Accessible Labels

For Teachers Pre-K - 12th
When you're blind it is extremely important to be able to navigate your environment in as independent a way as possible. This idea isn't a lesson, but it is a great way to foster independent mobility and literacy skills while making the...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

Encouraging Students Who are Blind or Visually Impaired to Express Their Feelings and Explore Imagination

For Teachers K - 12th
Being expressive in a creative, empathetic, or imaginative way is not only fun, it builds good pre-writing and communication skills. Learners with visual impairments have a roundtable discussion session where several sentence frames...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Making a desk organizer for students who are blind or visually impaired

For Teachers K - 12th
Organization is of the utmost importance when teaching orientation and mobility to learners with visual impairments. To help keep everything in order and provide independence, use these instructions for making a desk organizer. The...
Lesson Plan
Global Oneness Project

Understanding Blindness

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Gaia Squarci's photo essay, Broken Screen, turns viewers attention to the challenges faced by those with visual impairments. After viewing the images, class members discuss why they believe the photographer structured the album as she did.
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

What Do I Hear?

For Teachers K - 6th
Being able to give positive reinforcers to a child starts with knowing what the child likes. Intended for children with blindness, this lesson gives you a way to determine the types of music your learners like best. You are given a...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

The Country Egg

For Teachers K - 6th
Because most children with visual impairments don't reach and grab things at a young age the way sighted children do, they need additional supports to build up their fine motor skills. Here, they work on the pincer grasp, using their...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

Rubber Band Stretch

For Teachers K - 8th
If you don't teach blind or visually impaired young scholars, this instructional activity may seem a bit strange. But, it helps them develop motor skills, orientation and movement skills, and listening skills, while building a better...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

Which One is the Square?

For Teachers 1st - 6th
Children who are blind need to constantly be engaged in building conceptual understandings of the world around them. This activity will help them grasp the concept of shape, identify shapes, and consider shapes as they are used to...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

Adapted Sorry Board Game

For Teachers 2nd - 12th
Board games are great for building social skills and for fostering recreation and leisure skills! Here, you'll find an image and a brief description of how you can make a tactile version of the game Sorry for your blind or...
Activity
Teach Engineering

Watch Out for the Blind Spots

For Teachers 9th - 11th
Applying engineering concepts to the field of medicine, pupils design a device to help test peripheral sight. The class learns and follows a specific design process for engineers before separating into groups; each group builds...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

Memory

For Teachers K - 6th
When you are blind, your hands become your eyes, so learning how to discriminate between various objects through touch is a very important skill. Make a memory game by gluing common items onto cardstock. The kids feel, identify, and...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

Mail Delivery

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Teaching job skills to your learners with special needs before they enter the workforce is a great way to ensure that they will gain employment. For this lesson plan, your students will become the school's very own mail or delivery...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Orchid in Blind Contour Format

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students create blind contour drawings. They compare methods of drawing including blind contour and contour approaches. Students follow a blind contour method to produce a drawing of a flower and then complete the piece with a watercolor...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

Student Store

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Vocational training activities are extremely important for learners with intellectual or physical disabilities. Here is a great idea that will help your class become skilled at money handling, basic economic concepts, interpersonal...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

Treasure Hunt

For Teachers 1st - 6th
On, over, and under are some very common prepositions; but how can you teach these concepts to children with visual impairments? Here, is one way. Kids will practice following verbal commands as they go on a classroom treasure hunt. They...
Activity
Perkins School for the Blind

Please Call Me Names!

For Teachers Pre-K - 8th
Teaching students who are blind means teaching them skills a sighted person may take for granted. To practice calling people and objects by name, learners engage in a cueing activity. The child calls for an adult by name, and then uses a...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

High Stepping

For Teachers 1st - 12th
Learners who are blind or have visual impairments learn to take high steps in order to improve their balance and mobility. They start by marching in place, and then march around the room. Finally, they attempt to step over a towel as...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

Tactile quilts that tell a story

For Teachers 3rd - 10th
Learners with multiple disabilities need to engage in projects that push them to know their full potential. They need to be able to express themselves in a variety of ways, and this very thoughtful lesson does just that. They make a...
Lesson Plan
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Perkins School for the Blind

Making Choices

For Teachers K - 6th
Here is an excellent and well-developed lesson intended to promote choice-making skills for learners with visual impairment and intellectual disabilities. It fosters choice-making skills through a soft version of discrete trial training,...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

Timeline for Anne

For Teachers 4th - 9th
It is key to the learning process to make everything a child with visual impairments does as tactile as possible. After reading Anne of Green Gables, the class discusses her life events in order to make a tactile time line. They...
Lesson Plan
Perkins School for the Blind

Integrated Skills - Laundry

For Teachers 6th - 12th
I hate doing laundry, even if it is an independent living skill that requires me to count money, follow a sequence, and sort clothing by color. Learners with multiple disabilities discuss what laundry is, why they need to do it, and how...