Make it Mondays are brought to us by Rebecca of Tumbleweed Preschool in Advance, NC. She is always looking for frugal DIY projects for her students and her home. We are sharing Rebecca’s DIY project on MoolaSavingMom.com because they can be used for home schoolers, young artists and anyone else who wants DIY ideas that can save them money on projects around the house.

Children love to play with this tactile board and it gives them tactile experience. It is also great for matching and fine motor skills. If you follow Make it Mondays you know I try to ony use materials I have at home. This is the case with this project. I used a piece of hardwood flooring for the base,  a large dowel rod for the pieces, and silver rings that were taken out of old computer hard drives. The textures were different items I had such as glitter foam pieces, sandpaper, felt, terry cloth, metal from roof flashing, and vinyl contact paper.

Supplies Needed to Make Tactile Board

Supplies:

1. Hardwood the width and length you want
2. Thin wood for base the same size as the hardwood
3. Drill and hole saw
4. Hand saw to cut dowel rod
5. Stain and/or tung oil
6. Various textures of materials
7. Gorilla Glue
8. Wood glue
9. Sandpaper

Wood Pieces Cut to Size

Procedures:

• Cut both pieces of wood
• Drill holes a little larger than the dowel rods in the hardwood using hole saw
• Mark on the thin piece of wood where the holes are in the hardwood piece
• Sand all pieces and in the holes
• Stain cut areas
• Glue textures on the thin piece of wood covering your marks
• Use wood glue to glue the pieces of wood together and clamp overnight
• Use the handsaw to cut the dowel rods 1 1/2″-2″ tall
• Sand both ends of the dowel rods
• Stain cut ends of dowel rods
• Glue textures on one end of each dowel rod using Gorilla Glue
• Glue a ring or something to protect the edges of the materials so the children can not pull them off and clamp overnight

This is a very easy project and can be a great addition to any preschool classroom or used at home.

Rebecca Burriss is an educator of children and avid DIYer. She raised four daughters and taught them how to do make lots of things including ceramics, elaborate doll houses, wood projects and even home interior design projects.