Episode Five - Tactile Sorting Game

In our previous recipe - Magic Bag - we looked at tactile exploration where your child explored similar and different sets of objects with their hands. In this activity, we're going to move onto surfaces - exploring textures with fingertips!

This episode can be viewed in the video player above and is also posted on the PRCVI YouTube channel where you will find links to other resources as well as the comments thread for this video.

Linked here is a PDF version of the Tactile Sorting Game. 

Key ingredients

  • Pairs of metal discs that are identical in diameter and material (for example, the lid and base of a container of frozen juice)
  • A variety of felts and textured craft paper (enough to cover one side of each disc in a pair)
  • A metal baking sheet
  • Craft magnets
  • Glue (such as a hot glue gun)

Mixing it together

  • Trace the disc onto the back of each material with a pencil and cut out a circle (you can also place the disc on the material and cut around its circumference).
  • Glue the material to one side of two discs.
  • On the other side of the discs glue one or two magnets.

Topping off the recipe

  • Place all the pairs of discs onto a baking sheet, magnet side down.
  • Mix them up by swirling them around on the baking sheet (the learner may like to help with this!).
  • Place the baking sheet in front of the learner and explore the perimeter so the learner understands the extent of the space for the activity.
  • Explore the textures on the discs with both hands together.
  • Find the pairs that are the same and line them up together around the edge of the baking sheet.
  • You can also sort the discs by contrasting features, such as moving all the soft discs to one side and all the rough discs to the other side of the baking sheet.
  • Work on prepositional and directional concepts, such as on top of and below, or left and right.
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