DIY Braille feely blocks – Sensory Fun

I have been meaning to make this activity for ages.  Freya and Seb have really enjoyed it this morning and I was very surprised how well they could actually recognise the letters.

We have really enjoyed this magical book called ‘The black book of colour’. #affiliate

We have also enjoyed a book called ‘Mole’s Sunrise’

Both of these books help to talk about the concept of not being able to see with young children.

We started talking about braille and I used this resource from the wonderful website Twinkl – Braille Alphabet strip (I am including this as it is a great site – I have no affiliate link with them).

That gave me the idea to create a Braille block to he Freya and Seb understand what the letters feel like.

DIY Braille feely blocks

These really are simple to make – for ease I have included a link to where you can get the supplies on amazon but you can get these in other places – I got my topple tower from poundland.

Shopping list:

Wooden Tumbling Stacking
Pearl stickers
Sharpies

For Feely box:

Craft foam
Old shoe box

Instructions:

Simply write the letters on the blocks with a sharpie.  I have chosen to use the montessori colours for letters and isolated the vowels by using blue.  Then stick the pearl stickers on!  Voila!

I also made a quick feely box.  I cut out circles from the shoe box.  I then stuck craft foam on the inside with a cross cut out so the hands can fit in but it covers up and gaps for peeking!

Here you can see Freya’s hand on the inside of the box.

I then used double sided tape to stick a laminated version of the Twinkl – Braille Alphabet strip to the top so they could use it or refrence.

The Game

Place some or all of the braille blocks in the box and then the person feeling has to say which letter it is before pulling it out.

Variations could be to place blocks that make a word in the box and the child has to lay the blocks out in order before opening the lid!

I am sure there are so many other ways we will explore and play with this but for now we will say goodbye.

As always I hope you enjoy this post, if you have any questions or feedback please email me at info@montessorisoul.com

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Jo