Rainbows
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Rainbows
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Disability Awareness and Sense Activities

Crafts

Braille Badge: Cut out a rectangular sheet of card for each Rainbow. Put dots on the back of the card that will form the child's name in Braille. Give each Rainbow a piece of blue tac to push into and a drawing pin. The Rainbows then punch through the dots. Stick a safety pin onto the back of the card.

You can discover the Braille Alphabet at sites such as this. Remember - you need to reverse the dots in order for the name to read correctly on the other side!

Textured Collage: Give the Rainbows card, a selection of textured materials and suitable glue. Ask them to create a picture, but instead of thinking about how it looks, think about how it feels. Would a blind person be able to enjoy their picture?

Games


What's in the bag?
: Split the Rainbow into two teams. An adult should sit with each team to write things down. One child from each team feels inside a pillow case. When they find an object they try to work out what it is, running back to their adult to note it down. After each child has had two or three turns stop the game. Find out which team guessed the most objects correctly. Try to include objects the children will be familiar with, and make sure they know there is nothing nasty inside the bag. Many of the things I chose to use were toys with distinctive shapes.

Sign Language Colours: Assign an action to several colours (e.g. gold = be a twinkling star, red = freeze, green = be a tree, orange = crouch down, blue = run to one side of the hall, purple = run to the other side of the hall). To start with call out the actions for the Rainbows to respond to. When they have got the hang of this, teach them the sign for each colour. Play the game again, but this time use only the sign. After the game you could ask them which was the easier way to play the game and whether anyone had any trouble when you signed (e.g. someone was standing in the way so you couldn't see me)? You can find some of the colours on this site.

Other Activities

colouring with feetSorting Pasta: Blindfold the Rainbows. In the middle of the table place several different types of pasta shapes. Give a shape to each Rainbow to feel. Get them to see how many of that shape they can find.

Blindfold Sandwich: Blindfold the Rainbows. Provide a knife (not too sharp!), plate, bread, jam, honey and butter. See if they can make the sandwich whilst blindfolded. You must have close supervision for this activity.

Colouring: Give the Rainbows a picture, but instead of colouring with their hands get them to take off a shoe and sock and use their feet to hold the pencil! They could also try writing their name.

Pass the parcel: Play pass the parcel but get each Rainbow to tuck one hand inside their tabbard so they are forced to play one handed. This is a lot harder than it sounds!

For more sound activities or visual activities see Music and Sound and Look sections.

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