

Basic braille
The Bull Pen
Where’s the bull? That’s up to you! Make a bull, then build his pen.
How high can you go? Build the highest staircase you can.
This activity teaches children to relate numbers to quantities. They also familiarise themselves with the shape of a staircase, and develop building skills.
To read, understand and rank numbers.
Okay, so we are going to make a staircase.
So the number of each step is written here
on each brick.
So you will have to start
with the number one.
And then you will have
to make the highest staircase possible
with all the steps numbered from one to nine.
I can guide you just for the first one.
Is it number one?
Yeah.
So that’s our first step.
Okay.
Now can you find number two?
So you will need to have one other
brick from this bowl.
Take just one.
So it will be one, two.
So what’s next?
Number three.
-Three.
So can you find number three brick.
In there?
There it is.
So you will have to place it.
Oh. So…
There.
-Yes.
That goes there.
On top of this one. Yes.
And you placed number three.
That’s the third step.
Okay. So let’s check.
Do we have one,
so, imagine I’m walking on it.
One, two, three. Great.
So then I will need four.
And it will be even higher.
Can you climb the stairs
telling me the numbers?
Number one,
number two,
number three, number four,
number five,
number six,
number seven, number eight,
number nine.
This brick will be just
climbing the stairs.
So this brick is climbing
climbing, climbing.
And where does it lead?
Is it to a garden,
is it to shop?
Maybe to a bedroom.
And what is this brick going to do there,
in the bedroom?
Walk around maybe?
Yeah. Okay, great!
1 baseplate
all the bricks
1 number-sign brick
1 bowl
Place 9 number-bricks (1 to 9) in the bowl.
Place the number-sign in the top left corner of the baseplate to indicate that the bricks represent numbers.
1
Tell the child to find the number 1 brick in the bowl and begin to build a staircase using the number 1 brick as the first step.
2
The child keeps building the staircase, with bricks from the box, with each step higher than the last:
2 bricks for step 2, 3 bricks for step 3 etc.
The top brick of each step must be the number-brick from the bowl corresponding to the number of bricks in the step.
3
Get the children to check the staircase to be sure the steps are numbered 1 to 9.
Reduce the number of steps.
Begin with a number 9 step and make the steps progressively smaller.
Ask: What do you think you might find at the top of the staircase?