Montessori Touch Boards: Having Fun Sensory Skills at Home

These DIY Montessori touch boards (also known as Montessori touch tablets) are introduced at 2-3 years old and are one of the first items you will present to your child in your Montessori homeschool. Sensory activities for preschoolers help develop sensory awareness for touch, sight, taste, hearing, smelling, balance, and movement. As homeschooling parents, we can get creative on how we approach this sensory awareness. Activities like cooking or baking, musical instruments, smelling spices from the spice rack, and playing games like the floor is lava, all help improve a child’s sensory awareness.

Using Montessori touch boards helps develop a child’s sense of touch and teaches them the concept of textures. In traditional Montessori classrooms, these are small wooden boards with sandpaper secured to the top of them. They can cost up to $50+ to buy online, but this DIY offers an inexpensive alternative. A staple Montessori sensory activity that can be saved and used repeatedly for every child in your family.

Below, I’ll explain how I made them using cardstock, sandpaper, heavy-duty glue, and a laminator. They are durable enough for years of use and your child will never know the difference between these DIY boards and the ones commonly used in a Montessori classroom.

Need another sensory activity for your toddler? These nomenclature color cards are the perfect addition.

Shopping List

Laminator (Fellowes Laminator is my favorite)
Lamination Sheets (Fellowes Lamination Sheets)
Sandpaper in Multiple Grits (Sandpaper Pack)
Strong Permanent Adhesive (Power-Tac Adhesive)
White Cardstock (Astrobright White Cardstock)

*As an amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Make this set of 3 Montessori touch boards for your homeschool to help develop your child’s sensory skills during the first year of Montessori homeschooling.

Total time: 1 hour

Cut Your Sandpaper Strips

Don’t worry too much about the color of your sandpapers matching. This activity is about using sensory skills to feel textures, not about colors or shades of colors! If you can only find different grits in different colors, that will work just fine.

You’ll be making 3 different Montessori touch boards, so you’ll need to cut specific grits of sandpaper to specific sizes. I have broken them down by board for you:
Board #1: Extra course sandpaper – Cut in a rectangle to 8.5″ x 5.5″
Board #2: Extra course sandpaper – Cut 5 strips to 8.5″ x 1″
Board #3: Extra course, course, fine, extra fine – Cut one strip of each grit to 8.5″ x 2 1/4″
Laminate the Cardstock

Put a blank page of white cardstock in your lamination sheet and run it through the laminator. Do this 3 times, for a total of 3 blank laminated white pages. The smooth lamination will act as our “smooth” part of the board.
Glue the Sandpaper to the Laminated Cardstock for Board #1

Take the sandpaper you’ve cut from step 2 and glue them using heavy-duty glue to the laminated white cardstock. You will have 3 Montessori touch boards:

Board #1: Glue the large extra course rectangle to one side of one of the cardstock pages, leaving the other half smooth.
Glue the Sandpaper to the Laminated Cardstock for Board #2

Board #2: Glue the strips of extra course sandpaper every 1 1/8″, leaving an end that is smooth and approximately 1 3/8″ wide.
Glue the Sandpaper to the Laminated Cardstock for Board #3

Board #3: Glue the strips of sandpaper from coarsest to smoothest alongside each other, making a gradient of textures and leaving about 2″ of white laminated cardstock at the end.
Let the Glue Dry Completely

I recommend letting the heavy-duty glue dry for at least 24 hours before using the boards with your child to ensure they are securely set to the lamination plastic.
Use the Montessori Touch Boards with Your Child

Now that you’ve made your new sensory touch boards, you’re ready to present them to your child. Here are two good resources I found for learning how to use them.