Story: Bailey wanted to share a glimpse into his world by giving us a "feel" for reading with Braille. Look at the Braille alphabet and find the letters in your name. Then, draw your name on the Braille sheet and write an equation that shows how many dots make up your name!

Inspired by Granny Torelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech; HarperCollins, 2005

Suggested manipulatives: Unifix cubes, wooden blocks, centimeter cubes.

Prep time: 15 minutes to create the master key that shows the alphabet letters next to the Braille letters.

Classroom time: Asking children to do their best work for each Math Vitamin assumes that some children will need a longer time than others. Ideally you want to offer a block of time for Math Vitamin projects and have another task available (writing, free exploration, etc.) for those students who finish prior to their peers. For this project allow 20-45 minutes for students to work through all the steps.

How to individualize/stretch: To remediate, have students find the first letter of their name and create/count the Braille design out of unifix cubes. For an extension, have the students use the small centimeter cubes to build and count their first and last names. Those ready for more could also create a word in Braille and give it to a friend to decode.