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Creating tactile graphics images part 8: Multiple pumpkin worksheets
Learn how to create multiple worksheets using the same images! Note: These images are great for low vision and CVI students too!
Now that we know how to quickly create a variety of preschool and early elementary worksheets, let’s quickly create themed worksheets to teach a variety of concepts! Fall is rapidly approaching with so many fun fall-related themes! Spiders, pumpkins, leaves, bats, witches, . . . the list goes on. Fall activities frequently center around these things. Math might be counting pumpkins, science might include tracking the progress of growing pumpkin seed, writing might be creating a story about the trip to the pumpkin patch, and tech might be to create a PowerPoint presentation about pumpkin fun facts. But wait! Does yoru student truly understand the parts of a pumpkin? Can your student identify the parts of pumpkin using a tactile diagram? A pumpkin is fairly easy for students, as your student can hold a real pumpkin and can reach inside and pull out the slimy pumpkin seeds. Does your student know what a spider looks like – it’s probably safe to say that your student has not touched and explored a real (live) spider!
So, as you plan your fall-themed activities, keep in mind that this is the perfect time to create and use simple tactile graphics to build your students skills and concepts. While focusing on pumpkins, this post will also share how you can quickly use the same pumpkin images to create a variety of pumpkin worksheets with very little effort. Once you create the first image (or grab the pumpkin images below) copy and paste these same images into a Word document to create matching, counting, positional locations, same/different, big/little, or any other concept that the gen ed classroom is doing!
Refer to previous posts (links at the bottom of the page) in this series to learn more about creating these images for a tactile graphics machine and for lessons related to the various types of worksheets listed below.
Repetition is key for young students. A student learning to tactually identify the pumpkins, should have numerous opportunities to explore the tactile pumpkins using different worksheets. The student will build independence with a specific type of worksheet after being regularly exposed to similar types of worksheets. Example: Matching worksheets use the same skills no matter what item is being matched. Students have to find, explore, pick out key characteristics of the image of the first image (located in the left column), then find the matching image (located in the right column), then draw a crayon line between the two matches.
Plain Pumpkin Coloring Worksheet
Pumpkin Color-by-Shape Worksheet
- Square is orange
- Circle is green
- Triangle is brown
If you are creating your own image, be sure to save the original image (just the pumpkin). Make a copy of the original image and rename the copy: “Pumpkin Color-by-shape.”
With the original image, Introduce the student first to the larger image which is easier to find the details. You can use this larger image to discuss the parts of the pumpkin (vocabulary words: Stem, vine, leaf, ribs). This image can be reused for counting, same/different, and matching activities.
Copy this image again and resize the image to be smaller. Add braille labels with the vocabulary words. Copy the image again and replace the braille labels with numbers. Provide the student with the braille words cut out and have the student tape the braille labels in the correct place.
Pumpkin carving is part of every preschool and early elementary classroom! Here is a tactile graphic that goes along with pumpkin carving (or jack-o-latern) activities. Consider making a tactile graphic to match your student’s carved pumpkin!
Use this tactile image for shape identification as well as concept development!
The large solid pumpkin worksheet is included mostly to make it easier for YOU to make customized worksheets. Accordign to tactile diagram standards, students do best with images sized to fit under their hands, so this image is probably bigger than what your student really wants. However, it is easier to create the big image image, then you can copy and resize it. I used this large solid pumpkin (created on my iPad with the GoodNotes app), then opened the image on my computer. On the computer, I opened a word document and copied the solid pumpkin multiple times and resized the pumpkins to create the Counting Worksheet. Be sure to rename this as Pumpkin Counting. This Large Solid Pumpkin can also be used to create additional worksheets.
Editor’s Comment: While I have used the Lasso Tool in the GoodNotes app, I found that it is more efficient to create the initial image in GoodNotes, then create additional worksheets using Word (Pages or Google Docs) and simply copy, paste, resize, and move the image around.
This worksheet can be used to simply count the number of pumpkins or ask the student to mark a specific number of pumpkins. Example: underline two pumpkins. Remember, this is one example of counting. You can quickly duplicate the original image to customized your counting worksheet. Is your student learning to count to 3? 5? 10? Simply copy and paste (resize as needed) these pumpkins on a page!
Note: The pumpkins on this worksheet are the same as the original large pumpkin and the original carved pumpkin. These pumpkins were copied, pasted, resized and moved to the desired locations in a new Word document.
Note: Customize these worksheets to fit YOUR student’s needs! If your student is learning to draw a line between matching images, then create a matching worksheet that has only two images. (Images might be in a row or the student might have to draw a diagonal line between the images.)
You guessed it – this is the original pumpkin copied, pasted, and resized into a Word document!
The number of worksheets that can be created with these three images is unlimited! Working on top/middle/bottom? Left/right? More/less than? Create your own customized tactile worksheets in minutes! Even better, gen ed classroom teachers, paraprofessionals, and volunteers can create these images too. No braille knowledge required, even if adding braille labels. (See the post on using braille fonts.)
Please share your images with the Paths to Technology Tactile Graphic Library or grab images/worksheets that have already been created.
Fall-themed resources
- Spider Activities (Range of spider activites: tactile graphics, spider poems and recommended books, spider life cycle, and art activities)
- Noelle’s Pumpkin: Fall Themed Digital Book for Early Readers
- Pumpkin Writing Prompts Lesson: Digital Creative Writing
- Digital Transitions #4: Bar Charts (Fall Leaf Activity)
- Trick-or-treat Orientation Activity
- Halloween Suduko Puzzle: Grids and Tables
- Halloween Suduko Part 2: Tactile Graphics
Attached File(s)
https://www.perkins.org/sites/elearning.perkinsdev1.org/files/pumpkin%20plain%20coloring%20page_0.png https://www.perkins.org/sites/elearning.perkinsdev1.org/files/Pumpkin%20color-by-shape%201.pdf https://www.perkins.org/sites/elearning.perkinsdev1.org/files/Pumpkins%20counting.pdf https://www.perkins.org/sites/elearning.perkinsdev1.org/files/pumpkin%20carved.pdf https://www.perkins.org/sites/elearning.perkinsdev1.org/files/pumpkin%20solid%20large.pdf https://www.perkins.org/sites/elearning.perkinsdev1.org/files/Pumpkin%20same%20and%20different.docx https://www.perkins.org/sites/elearning.perkinsdev1.org/files/Pumpkin%20matchingdocx.docx https://www.perkins.org/sites/elearning.perkinsdev1.org/files/Pumpkin%20Big%20Little.docx
By Diane Brauner
