If you don't teach blind or visually impaired students, this lesson may seem a bit strange. But, it helps them develop motor skills, orientation and movement skills, and listening skills, while building a better understanding of...

Students engage in creative writing and performance using Flat Stanley. After reading Flat Stanley your class summarize their understanding and then create a flat image of themselves. Students then brainstorm ideas of how they would...

After reading a Native American legend about dreamcatchers, why not make some. This resource provides several good links that explain the legend of the dreamcatcher and step-by-step instructions for making them with the class. Tip: If...

Where did I come from? How did I come to be in this classroom? Using curriculum from Kidspiration, class members research the homelands of their ancestors, as well as the journeys that began from many parts of the world and ended with...

Discover journalistic techniques by having learners prepare and write their own class newspaper. They discuss the five W's of investigative journalism and conduct interviews with school figures. They utilize video technology, podcast...

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...

Stimulate the senses with a handprint art project! Flake laundry detergent, water, and food coloring are mixed together to create a substance that has a pleasant smell and will dry hard and dimensional. Children with visual disabilities...

What kid doesn't love talking on the phone? Learners with visual and intellectual disabilities get comfortable using several types of telephones. They begin by examining the phone, dialing, answering the phone, and then they work into...

What to wear today; such a vexing question. Spend some time introducing the names, fabrics, types, colors, and functions of various articles of clothing to your class. Each child will take turns asking each other what they are wearing....

Sometimes the simplest ideas foster a lot of different skills. To boost social skills, group participation, identifying others by name, and dressing skills, learners play the hat game. They take turns wearing a hat while...

Oftentimes children or teens with one or more disability are reluctant to participate in whole-group activities. Foster good participation, verbal expression, and social skills through daily circle time activities. Each day you and...

You got some money, and you're not afraid to use it. Before you can use that money, you need to know what it's worth. Included is a set of activity instructions that will help your visually impaired learners indentify coins. Pupils...

This is one of those great ideas I totally love. Youngsters with visual impairments practice counting and left-to -right sequencing by counting out a set number of edible objects from the left and putting them in a bag on the right. They...

Here is an interesting way to build concept understanding regarding one-to-one correspondence. Learners with visual impairments will use an array of everyday objects in context to foster an understanding of what one-to-one correspondence...

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...

Sculpting is a lot of fun and it stimulates multiple senses at once. Learners observe and then create a fisherman (or any person) out of paper clay. They mold and sculpt their clay until they have shaped a person. They then paint and...

Learners discover the property of density while participating in a lab exercise. In this scientific measuring lesson, pupils utilize a scale to measure the density of different metal materials. They document their work and present their...

Follow the phonics train and get your special needs class on the reading track. To promote the /an/ sound and phonemic awareness, each page contains an image of a train, and each car contains an item. The word representing that item...

Use the 20 Questions game to practice math vocabulary and number properties! Project a hundreds chart and hand one out to learners. Ideally, give them counters (beans would work well) to mark off the chart so you can play multiple times....

To foster concept development and auditory discrimination skills, learners with visual impairments listen to identify a variety of common sounds. The teacher makes recordings of various sounds, including those found in the home, at the...

Being able to give positive reinforcers to a child starts with knowing what the child likes. Intended for children with blindness, this lesson plan gives you a way to determine the types of music your learners like best. You are...

When you can't see, it is extremely important to be able to reorient yourself. Learners with visual impairments work though an activity to build spacial awareness based on moving left and right. A marker (bracelet, bell, or weight) is...

Here is a wonderful way to teach children with visual impairments how to count and build number recognition skills. Included, you will find a set of instructions on how to create a counting book from card stock, jump rings, and cotton...

Keeping a daily journal is fun. It builds strong writing skills and provides an expressive outlet. For children with visual impairments, it's even more important. It provides a way for them to connect written word with real events,...