Perkins School for the Blind
Rolling Along
I cannot stress enough how important orientation and mobility training is for learners with visual impairments. To practice maintaining their balance, as well as work on building the confidence to participate in recreational sports,...
Perkins School for the Blind
High Stepping
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...
Perkins School for the Blind
Beginning Map Skills
Maps can be so much fun, they help you understand spatial relationships, distance between objects, and can foster direction skills. Budding cartographers with visual impairments use the Wheatley Tactile Diagramming Kit to create their...
Curated OER
Fast or Slow?
Vestibular stimulation is an action or activity relating to balance and motion. To find out what kind of vestibular stimulation your learners with multiple disabilities enjoy best, follow these simple suggestions. You engage the child in...
Perkins School for the Blind
Beanbag Toss
Why is learning how to catch and toss so important? If one has visual impairments, learning this basic skill will help him increase orientation and mobility, coordination, and cognitive development,. Mastery of this skill will also mean...
Perkins School for the Blind
Student Store
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...
Perkins School for the Blind
Tug of War
Don't be fooled by how short this lesson is; it contains a good idea for adaptive PE. The activity is intended to help learners with visual impairments increase motor skills, muscle strength, and mobility. Two kids play a game of tug of...
Curated OER
Making a desk organizer for students who are blind or visually impaired
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...
Perkins School for the Blind
Accessible Labels
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...
Perkins School for the Blind
Rubber Band Stretch
If you don't teach blind or visually impaired students, this lesson plan 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...
Perkins School for the Blind
Capture the Treasure
Did you ever play capture the flag? I did, and it was so much fun! Your learners with special needs, physical handicaps, or visual impairments can play a classic and highly engaging game with a few minor adaptations. The best part is,...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Place Value Party
Help your young mathematicians master three-digit place value with a hands-on activity that builds on their social orientation. They create a place value house from construction paper and sort "number friends" according to which house...
Perkins School for the Blind
Modified Golf
Golf is a popular game that is enjoyed around the world. Invite your pupils with visual impairments or blindness to putt a few balls or make a hole in one. This lesson provides several very good suggestions as to how you can teach an...
Perkins School for the Blind
Modified Disc Golf
Here is a great set of adaptations and modifications that will make your next game of disc golf accessible to all your pupils. Listed are several variations and ways you can modify the game for your learners with physical or visual...
Perkins School for the Blind
Balance Stations
Children with visual impairments need to continuously work on balance, gross motor skills, and mobility. Foster mobility and orientation skills by engaging them in a series of fun balance stations during PE. You'll set up each of the...
Perkins School for the Blind
Bean Bag on My Head
The world is a very different place to those who are blind. That is why it is so important to have your kids with visual impairments explore the world in many different ways. For this activity, a bean bag is placed on the child's head,...
Gobal Oneness Project
Sports for Social Change
After watching a short online film about a soccer player Nolusindiso Plaatje and his help with the Grassroot Soccer program, a community education effort aimed at spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS prevention, use a lesson plan to prompt...
Perkins School for the Blind
Left Versus Right
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...
Perkins School for the Blind
The Country Egg
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...
Perkins School for the Blind
Stuff, Seal and Stamp Mail
Have your class practice functional skills that can be applied to a wide variety of job opportunities. They will use a folding jig to help them fold, stuff, seal, stamp, and mail letters. Students with visual impairments will build...
Perkins School for the Blind
I See Something Red
For learners with low vision, the ability to identify colors is an important skill that will help them identify people and places. Groups of brightly colored objects are placed around the room. The child is then given a colored paper and...
Perkins School for the Blind
Where Shall I Put It?
Position and positional phrases are concepts that need to be constructed for learners with low or no vision. Help them gain competence and a conceptual understanding of words like on, in, and under with a funny game. After gathering a...
Perkins School for the Blind
Rough or Soft?
When a child has some vision they need to be encouraged to use it in a positive and stimulating way. To better understand which types of tactile reinforcers your learner likes best; you'll rub different textured objects on his/her arm...
Curated OER
Streetfilms' Moving Beyond the Automobile
This is an exceptional series that you can use in an environmental or engineering unit. There are four lessons: "Sustainable Transportation," "Designing for Safety," "Changing the Landscape," and "Engaging in Policy." Each instructional...