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
Adapted Sorry Board Game
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...
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
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
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
Matching Like Objects
Same and different, sorting, and tactile discrimination are what's on the agenda for today. The class practices sorting objects and attempts to determine which objects are the same and different and why. The purpose is to increase...
Perkins School for the Blind
Packaging Snacks
Have your learners with special needs practice cooperative work skills, teamwork, and packaging. The kids will form an assembly line. Each pupil will add an item to a paper bag and then hand it off to the next person until the bag is...
Perkins School for the Blind
Bagging Groceries
Bagging groceries is a skill that can help learners with visual impairments understand organizing, problem solving, and weight discrimination. In addition, it is also a wonderful job skill. Help learners as they determine how to bag...
Perkins School for the Blind
A Visit to the Doctor
Going to the doctor's office may be a source of stress and uncertainty for some children. Help your learners with special needs discover what to expect at and how to cope with their next trip to the doctor. They explore real medical...
Perkins School for the Blind
I'm Thinking Of...
Learning how to describe an object or a person is a great way to develop verbal and written expression. Learners with special needs improve their verbal expressive skills and concept development skills while playing a guessing game. The...
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
Mix and Match
Sorting and matching are skills that have all kinds of applications. Learners with low, but useable vision work to match an object to an object, an object to a picture, and a picture to a picture. This will help them identify objects...
Perkins School for the Blind
Which One is the Square?
Children who are blind need to constantly be engaged in building conceptual understandings of the world around them. This activity will help them grasp the concept of shape, identify shapes, and consider shapes as they are used to...
TED-Ed
History vs. Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin is on trial in an engaging, animated video where the merits and consequences of the formation of the Soviet Union and Lenin's actions are reviewed. This is a great way to illustrate how to establish and argue unique...
TED-Ed
Lessons from Auschwitz: The Power of Our Words
Some words are best left unspoken. Words matter, according to Benjamin Zander, conductor, teacher, and lecturer. To illustrate his point, Zander recounts a story told to him by a survivor of Auschwitz. As a result of her experience...
TED-Ed
What is the World Wide Web?
Did you know that the World Wide Web and the Internet are not the same thing? Did you know that Tim Berners-Lee is considered the father of the Web? Networks, web servers, web hosts, website addresses, domain names, web languages,...
TED-Ed
The Silk Road: Connecting the Ancient World Through Trade
Introduce learners to The Silk Road, the first world-wide web. The narrator of this short, animated video traces the pioneers of globalization and the impact they had on culture and economy. The Scythians, Darius the First, and Alexander...
TED-Ed
How Does Your Brain Respond to Pain?
Zap! Ouch! That hurts! But why? And how come people don't experience or respond to pain in the same way? Take a journey on the sensing pathway, from your nociceptors, along your nerves, up your spinal cord, to neurons and glial, through...
TED-Ed
How Languages Evolve
Do all languages have a common ancestor? Although no one yet knows the answer to that big question, the narrator of this short, animated video explains how linguists use migration patterns, geological features, and word clues to...
TED-Ed
Getting Started as a DJ: Mixing, Mashups and Digital Turntables
What do Paris Hilton, Avicii, Diplo, and Cole Plante all have in common? They're DJs! Seventeen-year-old Plante is featured in a short video in which he demonstrates his art and encourages others who might be interested in pursuing a DJ...
TED-Ed
Pixar: The Math Behind the Movies
When will we ever use this? A Pixar movie maker explains to students how math is used in the creation of animated films. The movie maker discusses the importance of coordinate planes, transformations and translations, and...
TED-Ed
A Day in the Life of a Mongolian Queen
A four-part lesson features a video that details the life of a Mongolian queen. An eight-question quiz, related resources, and discussion questions follow the video to enhance the learning experience.
TED-Ed
A Brief History of Religion in Art
Did you know that some languages have no word for art? The English language does and the narrator of this short video discusses the aesthetic dimension of religious art as it "visually communicates meaning beyond language."
Curated OER
An Arm and A Leg
Young scholars examine how the movements of bones are dependent on the interaction of pairs of muscles. They design and construct a prototype of an artificial limb using a syringe system, and determine whether water or air makes the...