Youth Programs

Today was the third day of the Austin BELL Program. The theme for the day was transportation. For a Blindness Lesson students participated in a sound scavenger hunt. Students heard: birds, traffic, and other canes tapping. In Reading students read short stories about trains. Writing class involved voacabulary words with travel like: white cane, time-machine, bus, train, plane, walk, run, and many more cool travel words. In Non-visual class students took part in a tea party, and practiced pouring skills.

Today was the second day of the Austin BELL Program. The theme was superheros in blindness. Students began their day with lessons in reading and writing where they read stories about skunks, and practiced their writing skills with the alphabet, and sentence structuring. In Non-visual class they drew pictures of their superheros on a cool device called the sensational blackboard, which is the newest raised line adaptive aid for the blind. Max, the Non-visual teacher showed them how to draw pictures with the Braille writer.

Today was the first day of the 2012 Austin BELL program. The students participated in a blindness lesson about Louis Braille. They learned that Mr. Braille was the person that invented Braille over 200 years ago. They had the opportunity to learn and have fun playing with friends at a birthday party for Louis Braille.

In the Reading and Writing Stations students met their teachers Toni and Jamie, and practiced their Braille reading and writing skills. At the Non-visual station students had the opportunity to wrap presents for a very special person.

Today was our field trip to the fire museum. The children had a fantastic time there. We first boarded the bus which was a first time experience for some and soon we were on our way. The students learned about fire safety, walked through Roscoe's house; Roscoe is the fire house dog that teaches the stop, drop and roll safety method. The students also had the opportunity to dress up in Fireman gear and sit in a simulated fire truck.

Today was graduation day for our BELL students until next year. Students were introduced to beach baseball with rice inside to demonstrate people who are blind in the sports field. In the reading station students played muffin pan Braille and in the writing section they continued using the Braillewriter to complete their final journaling exercise.

In the non-visual station students learned how to safely pour liquids into glasses and how to use measuring cups.

Today was day three of our BELL program. The students were excited to participate in the blindness lesson that demonstrated how people who are blind identify money, both dollars and cents. They were shown how different denominations of money is folded for ease of use and how technology is available to help identify bills. For example, students used an IBill that speaks the dollar value when placed in the device. Also, a demonstration of the money identifier app was shown with the iPhone.

Today was the second day of the Beaumont 2012 NFB BELL Program. The students participated in a blindness lesson that focused on identifying various shapes by tactile recognition. In the reading station students were introduced to various Braille items such as the abacus, tactile math board, tactile multiplication table, games available in Braille such as UNO and tactile dominoes, and several Braille books. In the Writing station students became familiar with the parts of the Perkins Braillewriter. They used the Braillewriter to complete their daily journal at day's end.

The first day of the BELL program held in Beaumont on the campus of Monsignor Kelly Catholic High School went very well. The facilities have proven to be an ideal setting for BELL participants to experience all that the program has to offer. We had 8 youth and approximately 10 volunteers and instructors in attendance. Today the students enjoyed hands on fun activities which included using games to demonstrate tactile discrimination and nonvisual techniques for daily living. The fun continued throughout the day with the "bell ringing" to celebrate each student’s accomplishments!

The newly formed Golden Triangle chapter had a smashing success with their first, and certainly not last, annual BELL Program. Read about what happened and check out the photos on the following pages.

Day 1

We started the morning with 2 students ages 4 and 5. Sylvia and her team of Kayleigh, Corie, Barbara, and Sherrie were joined throughout the day by NFB members, ESC 14 representatives, and DARS DBS members, as well as students studying to be certified as VI teachers.