DIY: I made my very own geoboards for preschool

After my husband made the sensory tables and the window easel, he had two left-over rectangular shaped pieces of plywood left over. They were the “holes” that were cut out of the sensory table. I decided to try my own hand at some construction and made my very own geoboards…

I sanded the rough edges first then painted the first side of both boards…

Then I flipped the boards over so I could add the nails. I used drywall nails because that is all my husband had handy. My husband is a home builder by trade but i noticed he hardly keeps any tools here at home. The hammer I found to use must be over 20 years old…

Before adding the nails, I used a pen to mark where the nails should go. I figured since the point of the geoboard is to make geometrical shapes, I should try to make the nails line up nicely. I really tried to do this using a ruler but in the end, I just guessed at where to put the nails until they all looked lined up to me…

The tricky part for me was making sure I didn’t hit the nails all the way through the board but still put the nails in far enough so they stayed firmly in place. In the end, I had a few poking through just a bit and had to turn the board over and hammer them back the other way….

I then painted the board and the nails all white. I wanted white so the colorful  rubber bands would show up nicely. I chose to paint the nails too because they looked better painted…

I am very proud of my carpentry skills here!

These are extra large rubber bands that you can get at most office supply stores. I purchased a set of large bands and a set of smaller rubber bands from staples…

The total cost for me was just the price of the rubber bands since the wood, paint, and nails were all left-over materials in my husband’s garage!