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Have fun written in Braille

Make the River Flow

10 min1 participant

Explore tactile properties of a brick for orientation. Plan alignment and assemble bricks to create a flowing river.

Let's play!

  1. Explore the base plate to find the source of the braille brick river.

  2. Add more bricks to make the river flow smoothly along the bottom of the base plate: the flat spaces at the bottom of the bricks are the water.

  3. Make the river flow as far as you can.

  4. Ride the water with your finger from the source to make sure the river is smooth and calm.

How to prepare

  • 1 base plate

  • 16 letter bricks, a mix of “H”, “G” and “J”.

  • 1 bowl

Place a brick in reading position, in the bottom left corner of the base plate.

Facilitation tips

  • Encourage and demonstrate tactile exploration of the brick. Identify the flat space as the bottom of the brick and explain braille brick orientation: space at the bottom, studs on top!

  • Ask “Where does the river flow?”, “What could the studs be above the water?”.

Possible variations

  • Change the number of starting bricks.

  • Choose other letters: bricks with dot 3 and dot 6 decrease the width of the water; bricks “C” and “A” create a river with more water.

  • Create several rivers.

Download & print

  • Download in .docx
  • Share via email

Children will develop these holistic skills

cognitive skills

  • Learn how to track with fingers: a line of dots from left to right

creative skills

  • Reproduce, assemble, organize, link graphic patterns and then create new ones

physical skills

  • Explore and discriminate to get information about the tactual properties of an object (by moving hands or by moving the object)

emotional skills

  • Control motor skills and emotional commitment to succeed in simple actions

social skills

  • Plan and carry out routine or non-routine activities requiring multiple steps

Did you know?

  • Spatial skills allow us to imagine objects in our minds and rotate or manipulate them, and to navigate them. 

  • The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) reflect the growing consensus among education experts of the need for education to be of high quality and to foster learner’s holistic development.

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