Today we celebrated by talking to the children about how there are some people whose eyes do not work and so they have to use their other senses to do things. We briefly talked about how they use a long white stick with a red tip called a cane or a guide dog to help them navigate the world. Although individuals who are blind use all of their senses we focused on our sense of touch today. We prepared baskets with different materials in them and encouraged the children to close their eyes as they felt what was in them. Some items were soft or fluffy while others were rough or bumpy.
We love to read book in our room so we talked about someone who can’t seem might read. Perhaps someone could read for them but Educator Aly explained that there is something called Braille and that it is made up of dots in a 6-figure pattern. Each combination of dots represents a different letter, and that by feeling them they are able to read! When children first learn Braille, they use a muffin tin with balls to create letters to feel and learn. We copied this by looking at a paper with the letter combinations and recreating them with our own muffin tins and balls, each of the children took turns spelling out their names using this method. Aly explained how to look at the paper and see the black dots and the white dots, the black dots meant that we needed to place a ball into the muffin tin and the white dots meant we needed to leave it empty. Looking at each space and its corresponding dot we filled the tray to make our letters. This was a great way to learn about others while exploring our senses.
Next, we want to explore some of our other senses like smell or sounds by possibly baking, using scented markers/stickers or play-dough and creating our own instruments.
