A puzzle board is a piece of wood, plastic or even metal with a number of holes cut in it. These holes are used to help children learn how to match shapes and colors by putting the pieces into the holes in a specific order. The puzzle board also helps develop spatial thinking, hand-eye coordination and color recognition.
5 Steps to Make a Puzzle Board
There are a lot of different ways to make a puzzle board. They can be made pretty easily and they do not need much equipment. Of course, you could make a puzzle board with no kids in mind at all!
1. Cut and Drill Holes
You use the drill to make holes in your puzzle board with a hole cutter that you can buy at most hardware stores. Choose an appropriate size for how many pieces you will be playing on the game. I would start with 8-9 holes or so, 4 rows of 3 per row, but add more if needed when kids outgrow their original set! You’ll need several different sizes to match up all your shapes with!
2. Cut and Drill Shapes
Next, you need to cut out all shapes. You’ll want the pieces to be the same size as your puzzle board so they don’t jump around too much because of variance in sizes when space is limited or for decreasing frustration when kids get tired fighting over getting a specific shape! The pieces do not need to perfectly match across rows (if using multiple colors) and can even vary in height from piece to piece.
3. Glue the Shapes to the Board
Most puzzle boards have a specific glue that they were made with, but as long as it’s something you can safely use on wood and doesn’t harm your kids or pets (spray paint would be pretty nasty!), there are hundreds of glues easily available at hardware stores! Simply apply several coats of glue per piece until all shapes lay flat in each hole. Be sure to let all pieces dry for 24hrs before continuing if using any kids-safe glue.
4. Attach the Jigs
This is a great time to see who has their favorite tool! Attach jig pieces onto their puzzle boards with a strong adhesive that won’t cover too much, you want your shapes big and bold while still avoiding squishing or wearing out through playing. You will need 4 types of jigs: fence, battery-operated sine wave generator, motor and sound block. Fence jigs are pieces with a pressure-sensitive adhesive along one side that automatically keep shapes in place while moving, there is no need to press the next shape on top of theirs since they will just stay put!
5. Finish It
After letting it dry, your robot jig is ready to put together! Attach all pieces with their respective glue, then plug in the power source of choice (battery) and attach the sound block to the motor. Make sure that each piece has no loose wires showing through as this would cause problems later on along the way and you want all moving parts working just perfectly before putting them into use!
Conclusion
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