Activities for Teachers: K-6
The following activities may complement the English, Mathematics or PDHPE curriculum strands.
The Notebook 10 'Journey of a Guide Dog: Billy' can be used across all stages.
Download 'Journey of a Guide Dog: Billy' - 7mb
Early Stage 1:
- "Feely bag". Students are blindfolded and have to reach into a bag and identify an object. Bring in concepts of big/small, long/short, heavy/light, how many?
Senses: what type of texture does the object have? What does it smell like? Does it make a noise when you rattle it? - Read a story to the students without pictures and then have them draw aspects of the story from how they imagined the characters or location might look. When students are finished show them the visual text (illustrations) in the book and compare with the pictures they drew.
- A teacher plays a recording of various sounds, e.g. birds, wind in the trees; urban sounds such as traffic, sirens, or alarms. What sounds can you hear? Where might you be? Discuss how someone who can't see might use their hearing to stay safe and navigate through the environment.
Stage 1
- Catch and throw a bell-ball under blindfold.
- Have the students close their eyes and identify a familiar sound within the room - fan, pencil sharpener, clock.
- Creative writing exercise from different perspectives: volunteer puppy raiser bringing the dog back to Guide Dogs after a year; Guide Dog instructor; blind person meeting his or her Guide Dog for the first time.
Stage 2
- Scenario to discuss. You are walking down the street. On the corner is a woman with a long guiding cane and she looks unsure or confused. What would you do? Discuss appropriate ways to help, e.g. offer verbal assistance. If giving directions use concrete terms like left and right from the woman's point of view.
- Blind cricket. Have students try batting, bowling or fielding under blindfold using a ball with a bell.
Stage 3
- Guiding skills. Take your partner from the classroom to a bench in the playground or a seat in the library. One student closes their eyes or is blindfolded and holds their guide just above the elbow and walks half a step behind. The guide's role is to communicate any changes in surface; if there are steps (mention whether they go up or down); and whether doors are opening inwards or outwards.
- Notebook 10 Discussion: Guide Dogs logo (343kb) .
- Braille alphabet. Write your name in play dough, rolling small balls to represent the Braille dots.
- Students are paired up and those with the blindfold must draw a sketch of their partners face by feeling the face.
- Research biographies of famous blind people.
- Research how technology has changed the lives of people who have impaired vision, e.g. JAWS program for computers, KNFB reader (application for a mobile phone that takes photos of text and reads it back), the Talks program for mobile phones and GPS.
- Build tunnel boxes (simulates tunnel vision), then navigate your way around the school. Students should be supervised for safety when "vision impaired".
- Work out how many worming tablets the kennel attendant needs for the Guide Dogs. Dogs over 10 kg need 1 worming tablet for every 10 kg they weigh. If the kennel attendant has three 20 kg dogs and two 30kg dogs in training, how many tablets will she need?
Download 1 to 2 of 2
Journey of a Guide Dog - Billy (Zip file containing Notebook format document)
Stage 3 Discussion - Guide Dog Logo (Zip file containing Notebook format document)