Activity
O&M Geometric Grocery Store Scavenger Hunt
This lesson combines English Language Arts, Geometry and Orientation and Mobility in an activity for students who are blind or visually impaired.
Students will apply geometric concepts in modeling during an O&M scavenger hunt in a grocery store.
- Pre-made grocery list
- 2D and 3D representations of geometric shapes
- Wheatley’s Diagramming Kit
- Audio recorder or other note taking methods
- Compile a list of geometric shapes and review their properties with the students.
- Brainstorm with the students and have them compile a list of possible items commonly found in the grocery store that can be compared to the geometric shapes. (Ex. cans = cylinders, oranges = spheres, Toblerone chocolate = triangular prism, box of crackers = cuboid, Brie cheese = triangle, etc.)
- Make a shopping list with student.
- Travel to supermarket by foot or by using local public transportation. (Provides several opportunities for O&M instruction or reinforcement of skills – cane techniques, bus travel, maps, crossing streets, parking lots, store familiarization, etc.)
- At the supermarket, travel with student to various departments to search for the products. (Provides practice with low vision devices, scanning, tactile discrimination, cane techniques, soliciting assistance, etc.) Take the Wheatley’s diagramming kit along and/or the 2D/3D shapes with for comparison.
- Have the students take notes as they shop and provide descriptions (ex. The box of crackers is shaped like a cuboid; the Toblerone chocolate bar is a triangular prism, etc.)
- If working in conjunction with the ELA teacher, the students will write sentences using the shapes and products with similes and metaphors and turn into the teacher.
This lesson could be shared with the ELA teacher for a lesson on figurative language. The geometric shapes could be incorporated into similes and metaphors based on the lesson.
By Wendy Patrone-Mentzer
