I've been obsessed with felt boards lately. I've been searching for and pinning felt board ideas for a few weeks now. I remember loving felt boards as a child. There was something cool about adding pieces to the big felt board as stories were being told. It sort of made the story come alive. Well, This week I finally made it my goal to make a felt board for Silas. I actually put it on my to-do list. I took the boys to the library on Tuesday so I swung by Hobby Lobby on my way home to grab the supplies. (FYI, I was terrified to bring the boys to into Hobby Lobby. It's like a big toy store where everything is breakable. Fortunately, the boys did great. Silas admired all the ceramic animals, but he kept our pact not to touch anything. And Liam was happy to shove baby puff snacks into his mouth for 30 minutes while I browsed. Anywho...)
I intended on making one large felt board, but there was a sale on 2-pack canvases so I decided to make 2 smaller ones instead. I envision both boys having one to play with in the future, but that's only if they last until Liam is actually interested in using it for it's intended purpose. At this point all he would be interested in doing with it is gnawing it until it fell apart.
Here are the two boards laid out on a large piece if light blue felt.
Next I did some cutting.
Then I whipped out my can of spray adhesive. I love this stuff- especially for felt. I learned the hard way that Elmer's glue + felt = disaster. Sorry, finger puppets.
I sprayed and flattened and tucked until it was all wrapped up like a present.
Everything needs a little duct tape reinforcement, right?
I let it dry long enough to freehand cut out a little blob cloud. Success!
Here's the stock of felt I have that will soon transform into shapes and animals and all sorts of story-telling props. Isn't it pretty?
Here are the two finished boards. I may eventually hang them, but for now I like that they're small and portable.
What did Silas do while Mommy made his felt board? Play with dirt, of course. Liam was napping.
The whole project took like 20 minutes tops. The next step, cutting out the felt pieces, will probably be the most time-consuming part. I'm gonna use a couple of websites that I found that provide printable templates and ideas for stories, games, and learning activities.
1. Making Learning Fun has tons of felt board patterns to go along with books, a few of which we already have. I've decided that my first pattern will be for the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear.
2. This website also has some felt board ideas. I would opt to make my own pieces instead of buying them though.
Sooo, here's to hoping that Silas likes the felt board as much as he likes dirt!
Does your little one like felt boards? Do you have any felt board tips or ideas??
I'd love to hear from you!
