Montessori Sensorial: Fabric Box

This is a simple and yet profound lesson. It is easy to make your own at home. Simply find different textures in fabric that you don't use/need anymore and cut two matching squares out of each texture. Try to get at least 8 different textures.

Setup (so easy): mat and fabric box

  

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Set all the fabric squares to the right, outside the wooden box. If you don't have textured fabric or want something more durable, you can always use these textured plates. Just buy two sets.

Start setting out all of the fabric squares. There will be two matching ones for each texture.

We have four columns of three different textures.
I let him feel every single texture with the same hand.
He was making comments like, "This one feels rougher than the first one." This one feels smooth."
Encourage using texture vocabulary like soft, silky, smooth, cool, rough, fragile, warm, etc.

And now for the next part. I gave him a blindfold.

He would touch and feel all three squares in one column and pick the softest from all three.
We set it apart. 
Then, he picks the next smoothest. 
Lastly, he is left with the roughest or least smooth of the column.
There are different way to do this activity, but as long as vocabulary is expanding and the child is learning about textures, your approach is fine.
Another activity you can do (and we did, but didn't take pictures of it) is set out 3 or 4 pairs of textures and have the child match the squares by feel (using the blindfold).