Whether they can see or not, nearly all students use their fingers to count. Touching their fingers as they orally count, helps students to quantify the amount that correlates to each number. Blind students can also be asked to pick up different amounts of objects placed in front of them. For example, set five blocks in front of a visually impaired student and ask him to pick up three.
Blind students can play simple card games that involve students drawing a card to determine which number is larger or smaller. Teachers can purchase braille playing cards or they can create their own cards that visually impaired students can use. Teachers can easily create cards by gluing different amounts of buttons to cards which blind students will be able to feel to determine the number they represent.
Once blind students have a sense of the numbers that coordinate with the correct quantities, they can participate in oral math games. Around the World can be modified so students compete to correctly solve an orally stated math problem. Students arrange their seats in a semi-circle. A person on one end of the semi-circle stands behind the person next to him and the teacher announces a math problem. The player who solves the problem moves behind the next seat and attempts to compete to solve another problem. As players lose, they sit in the seat of the person who won the round against them. Blind students can easily be guided to different seats so that they can participate in the activity.
Manipulatives of shapes can help all students, including visually impaired students, to identify them. The teacher should provide children with plastic manipulative of basic shapes and place them in front of visually impaired or children who are able to see. As she describes the characteristics of each shape, students should hold the shape so they can feel the number of sides on each shape. Once students seem to master how each shape feels, recognition of various shapes can be tested by giving students a variety of shapes and asking them to identify a particular shape by picking it up.