Touch Tablets

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Touch Tablets
Sensorial - Tactile Sense
Touch Tablets Grading 5.jpg
LevelPrimary
Age3 - 4
PrerequisitesRough and Smooth Boards
Materials5 pairs of boards with different grades of sandpaper

This activity teaches the child to distinguish degrees of roughness. Using the Touch Tablets also prepares the child for using Sandpaper Letters.

Presentations

Matching

  1. Take the Touch Tablets to a mat or table.
  2. Put the two stacks of tablets in the upper right corner of the workspace.
    Touch Tablet Matching 1.jpg
  3. Set out one set of the tablets in a column along the left side of the workspace.
    Touch Tablet Matching 2.jpg
  4. Take the other stack of tablets and mix them up in the middle of the workspace.
    Touch Tablet Matching 3.jpg
  5. Feel the first tablet in the column lightly with two fingers.
  6. Tell the child, ā€œIā€™m going to feel for the one just like it.ā€
  7. Feel the mixed up tablets until you find one that matches the first one.
  8. Set it beside its match.
    Touch Tablet Matching 4.jpg
  9. Repeat until all of the pairs have been matched.
    Touch Tablet Matching 5.jpg Touch Tablet Matching 6.jpg Touch Tablet Matching 7.jpg Touch Tablet Matching 8.jpg
  10. Mix up the tablets and allow the child to match. (Offer them a blindfold.)

Grading

(For some reason, the set I used in these pictures only has four tablet. Usually there are five.)

  1. Take just one tablet from each of the pairs.
    Set them in a stack at the center of the workspace.
    Touch Tablets Grading 1.jpg
  2. "We need to find the tablet that is the roughest."
    Take the top tablet from the stack and move it below and slightly to the left of the stack.
    Hold it still with your subdominant hand, and feel how rough it is with the first two fingers of your dominant hand.
    Touch Tablets Grading 2.jpg
  3. Take the second tablet from the stack and set it to the right of the first.
    Feel it to compare the level of roughness.
    Touch Tablets Grading 3.jpg
  4. Set the tablet that is less rough off to the side on the right.
    Move whichever tablet that was rougher to the left spot under the stack.
    Touch Tablets Grading 4.jpg
  5. Take the next tablet from the stack and move it into the spot on the right under the stack.
    Compare the two tablets to determine which one is rougher.
    Touch Tablets Grading 5.jpg
  6. Set the less rough tablet in the stack to the right.
    Move the rougher of the two tablets to the left spot.
    Touch Tablets Grading 6.jpg
  7. Bring down the last tablet and feel the last two to compare the roughness.
    Move the tablet that is less rough to the stack on the right.
    Touch Tablets Grading 7.jpg
  8. We are now left with the roughest tablet in the stack.
    Touch Tablets Grading 8.jpg
  9. Move it to the top left corner of the workspace.
    Touch Tablets Grading 9.jpg
  10. Move the stack of the remaining tablets back to the center of the workspace.
    "Now we need to find the tablet that is the next roughest."
    Touch Tablets Grading 10.jpg
  11. Repeat the same process as before to find the next roughest tablet.
    Touch Tablets Grading 11.jpg Touch Tablets Grading 12.jpg Touch Tablets Grading 13.jpg Touch Tablets Grading 14.jpg Touch Tablets Grading 15.jpg
  12. Set the next-roughest tablet to the right of the roughest tablet.
    Touch Tablets Grading 16.jpg
  13. Move the stack of the remaining tablets back to the center of the workspace.
    "Now we need to find the tablet that is the next roughest."
    Touch Tablets Grading 17.jpg
  14. Repeat the same process as before to find the next roughest tablet.
    Touch Tablets Grading 18.jpg Touch Tablets Grading 19.jpg Touch Tablets Grading 20.jpg
  15. Set the third-roughest tablet next in the row in the upper left corner.
    Touch Tablets Grading 21.jpg
  16. Set the least-rough tablet at the end.
    Touch Tablets Grading 22.jpg Touch Tablets Grading 23.jpg

Points of Interest

Purpose

Refinement of the tactile sense to discern the fine distinction between rough and smooth. (The blindfold will help the child to focus on his attention upon one sense.) Preparation for writing.

Control of Error

In the material: the difference in color and the grain of the sandpaper.
There is a one-to-one correlation in the tablets.

Variations and Extensions

  • Matching from a distance
  • Grading from an extreme
  • Grading from a midpoint
  • Matching to the environment

Language

Comparative: Rougher/Smoother
Superlative: Roughest/Smoothest

Materials

A box of 5 matching pairs of tablets with sandpaper glued on them with different graduations of roughness.

Make Your Own

Where to Buy

Prices and links checked: 23 January 2022

Touch Tablets
Store Price
Adena $19.79
Adena $27.95
Affordable Montessori $30.00
Alison's $52.00
Alison's $33.07
Bruins $60.00
E & O $43.20
Hello Wood $44.00
IFIT
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$26.00
IFIT $22.00
Kid Advance $19.99
The Materials Co. of Boston $42.00
Montessori Outlet $29.95
Nienhuis $68.15
Thinkamajigs $26.95

Further Reading