I fell in love with geo-boards at my son’s school. If you don’t know what they are take a look at these.
Since seeing them I have come up with about a zillion variations in my head on homemade versions and I’ve seen some great examples online as well. This is my first, second, and third pass at making geo boards!
DIY Geo Boards
Materials:
- Cork Board
- Push Pins (Metal recommended)
- Colorful rubber bands
- Hammer
- Graph paper or hand drawn grid on paper
- Small nails
- Washable marker
I started with some leftover cork flooring samples I had at the office, but you could easily use a number of things for the base: rigid cork tiles, wood, rubber matting with a rigid backing….Since I didn’t have any graph paper on hand I made my own sheet with a simple grid.
Instructions:
- Tape the grid over the cork
- Push pins through each of the grid points
- Remove the paper
- With a washable marker, put dots on all the holes so you can see them!
- With the small nails create starter holes by hammering a nail into each hole about halfway down. If you use metal pins you can probably skip this step. I did this because if you try to hammer plastic push pins into the boards you will inevitably break a few pin tops off, plastic is just so brittle.
- When all the holes are done, push pins into each hole and lightly tap them with a hammer until the pin bottom is touching the board. Okay so sometimes light tapping didn’t work so I used a rigid box top to soften the blow between the hammer and the pin. Worked pretty well.
All that done and Viola! Put these out for the kiddos ( or dinner guests….who knew!) with a bowlful of rubber bands and have them go to town!
After repeating this a few times I am going to try the metal push pin version. It won’t be as colorful but it should be a little easier and sturdier. Using pins is great because you can hammer them in to the same depth. I tried a version of this using straight nails and it was hard to get the heights to align and keep them straight, clearly seen below…..
Superior Gym Tiles says
Wao! what a great idea. can we hand this on the wall to?
Non Slippery Floors says
I have many rainbow loom. I think I can make this with those looms. Looks really pretty.
Ana Dziengel says
Sounds like a good solution!
Hi Ana,
I found your article really helpful and inspiring. Kids need more toys that will help them be more creative.
Keep the good work!
Thank you!
It’s such a great idea , I appreciate thanks for your sharing the best idea and provide with useful information in this content ,
thanks for sharing !
regard ,
daniel ,
Wow, Thanks for sharing this awesome idea! my child will love that!
Thanks!