Touch Tablets

Touch Tablets
Sensorial - Tactile Sense
Level	Primary
Age	3 - 4
Prerequisites	Rough and Smooth Boards
Materials	5 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.

   

3. Set out one set of the tablets in a column along the left side of the workspace.

   

4. Take the other stack of tablets and mix them up in the middle of the workspace.

   

5. Feel the first tablet in the column lightly with two fingers.
6. Tell the child, “I’m going to feel for the one just like it.”
7. Feel the mixed up tablets until you find one that matches the first one.
8. Set it beside its match.

   

9. Repeat until all of the pairs have been matched.

   

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.

   

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.

   

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.

   

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.

   

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.

   

6. Set the less rough tablet in the stack to the right.
   Move the rougher of the two tablets to the left spot.

   

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.

   

8. We are now left with the roughest tablet in the stack.

   

9. Move it to the top left corner of the workspace.

   

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."

    

11. Repeat the same process as before to find the next roughest tablet.

    

12. Set the next-roughest tablet to the right of the roughest tablet.

    

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."

    

14. Repeat the same process as before to find the next roughest tablet.

    

15. Set the third-roughest tablet next in the row in the upper left corner.

    

16. Set the least-rough tablet at the end.

    

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.

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 <span	$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

• The Montessori Method by Maria Montessori, page 186 (a brief description of the material)
• Basic Montessori: Learning Activities for Under-fives by David Gettman, page 101-103