Where is Lily?

Lily is playing on the beach, but Alfie, her dog, has lost her!
Help Alfie find Lily.

Basic braille Activity

Bi-manual
Pattern of dots
Tactile discrimination

Level: 1

Number of players: 1

Duration: 15

Skills:

Recognise shapes
Discover the spatial organisation of a page
Develop bilateral hand use
Stay motivated

The baseplate is the beach. It’s full of people / bricks. But there is only one L brick. That’s Lily!
The child needs to explore the baseplate and check all the bricks to find Lily.

Goals

To encourage tactile exploration of the baseplate.
To recognise a given pattern of dots.

The adult prepares

1 baseplate
20 bricks, including only one “L”
A small object or toy to represent a dog

Place the 20 bricks in the correct reading position, all over the baseplate.

The children play

Show the child the pattern of the letter L.

Tell them the story of a little dog who needs help to find his owner.
Ask them to search the beach for Lily.

When the child finds Lily, tell them to reunite her with her dog.

This is Lily. Lily has three dots. Dot one, two, three.
Can you find Lily? She’s here somewhere. So let’s check.
Is this Lily?
Yes?
-Do you think so? Do you feel three dots?
-That’s not Lily.
I agree.
Is this Lily?
No.
-No, I agree.
Is this one Lily?
-No.
Oh, maybe! We have that one, two, three…
But… oh no, that’s not Lily, because there is an extra dot here.
And here, what about here?
-Lily.
You found her?
Yeah.
-Sure?
Yeah.
Yes! This is Lily. What dots can you feel?
One, two, three.
-Yes! You did it!

Facilitation tips

Do the activity without the notion of the dog (just looking for Lily).
Offer tactile research strategies: Explore as if you were reading a text on a page, left to right and top to bottom.
Hide several L bricks and say that Lily, Lucy and Lesley are lost on the beach
Use an A letter-brick to represent Alfie the dog (instead of an object)