I am a big fan of felt!
I love that it is a sensory toy, brightly coloured, hands on playing, creative and great for storytelling. It brings so much imagination and learning to play times.
My kids have grown up with felt and still love to play with it. We have used them for many different games and activities. We have made stories, role played our favourite nursery rhymes and fairy-tales but I get the most enjoyment out of listening to them make up their own imaginative stories.
When I am shopping for birthdays and Christmas, I am always on the look out for felt toys to add to our collection!
Our little collection….
…….all squished into this small container! It’s great to have a place for them to go at pack up time!
Homemade Felt Board
I converted our chalk board easel into a felt board by cutting some felt into the correct shape and size to fit. Next I glued it onto the board with craft PVA glue. I was very careful not to use too much glue as I did not want it to soak the felt.
Let’s Play
Felt play provides children with the opportunity to act out imaginative stories and role play the things that are happening in their life. When our 3rdbaby was born, the stories were about bathing and dressing the baby using the felt character and small felt pieces in our collection. If the kids didn’t have a felt piece that they needed, they would turn another felt piece into something in its place. Miss 5 turned a upside down felt mushroom into a dress…..the imagination…..love it! Felt is an amazing tool for stretching the imagination and storytelling.
Let’s Learn
Some of the felt collections I have purchased included fairy tales like Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs. We have played out these stories using the felt characters many times.
Playing with felt encourages many great learning experiences:
- A sensory toy that involves touching, feeling and manipulating
- Great for the imagination, make believe and role playing
- Hands on learning
- Fine motor development and hand – eye coordination
- Spatial perception and exploration
- Language skills: story telling
- Imagination: role playing, pretend play
I love felt. I wish my son would be more interested!
To get your son more interested use felt characters that appeal to the things he enjoys or read a story first and then encourage him to use the objects to recall the story
I love felt and am impressed with the quality of your character pieces. Did you make them yourself? I’m am an amateur in most crafty things, but I’m willing to learn… 🙂
BTW, I have a 2 year old, 8 year old and 10 year old – all boys! Do you think the older boys would still enjoy playing with a felt board?
I grew up doing Bible felts in church and this weekend will be my first try at doing the same with my nephews. I am hoping they love them as much as I did