Gina DeSanctis

Self-Published Children's Book Author and Illustrator

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Flannel Board/ Felt Board Activity

    Flannel boards, also referred to as felt boards, are a great method for using props in storytelling. Not only are they a wonderful way to narrate a story, but they are very interactive for young children. 

How They Work

    The felt board itself is a board covered in felt or flannel (I guess it’s pretty self-explanatory). Although some can just be a large piece of felt stuck to a wall for placing on a table. Felt boards can be purchased through many stores and come in a lot of different sizes to help suit your needs. For those of you who like DIYs, or just don’t feel like purchasing a felt board, you can make one of these yourself pretty easily. There are a few tutorials around the web but if you don’t feel like searching around I can tell you a simple way to create one. If you already have a flannel board then you don’t have to worry about this.

How to Make a Flannel Board

  1. Gather your Materials: Felt/Flannel ( Most felt boards I have seen have blue backgrounds, but green is also quite popular. Black ones and white ones are also seen here and there. If you want to get really creative you can create background scenery depending on the story.), the board (if you choose to use one) can be made of various mediums, including cardboard/posterboard, cork, canvas, or even a whiteboard or a picture frame, hot glue or a stapler, and a pair of scissors.
  2. Lay out your felt or flannel on a flat surface and place your board on top. If you are not using a board, you can skip these next steps. If you're hanging this on a wall you can do so with Command strips, nails, tacks, or attaching yarn or a ribbon to the two top corners and hanging the center of it on a nail.
  3. Trim the fabric so that it has at least 1 ½ inches to 2 inches of excess space around the board so that you can fold it around the edges of the board and attach it to the back. Also, keep the thickness of your board in mind as you trim. This is because the thicker it is, the more fabric you’ll need to fold over the edges of the board.
  4. Wrap the felt/flannel around the edges of the board, one side at a time, glue it, or staple it to the back. Pull the fabric somewhat tightly so that the surface of your flannel board will be smooth on the front. Think of it like wrapping a present or the back of a canvas (if you’re using a canvas, you have an even better visual right in front of you) I’ll actually place an image down below so you can see what I’m trying to explain. 
  5. Ta-da! You made your felt board/flannel board. Great Job! If you want to have the board upright, you can lean it against a wall or hang it. You can also attach a stand of some kind to the back of it. To be honest, I’m not sure how you can make one, but if you have an easel lying around, you can definitely prop it up there. Going back to flannel boards already made, there are lots that already come that way.

This is the back of a mini canvas, you may see how the edges were folded and stapled to the back.

    Now that you have your own flannel/felt board I can tell you about the benefits children may have from using it and the fun things you can do with it.

Benefits of Using a Felt Board/ Flannel Board

    As mentioned before, the boards can be used to narrate or retell a story. This can develop children's language skills. If they even were to create their own stories, this would nurture their imaginations, creativity, and their self-expression. Through flannel/felt boards, children can memorize a story, develop their sequencing skills, and have a tactile and interactive experience. Can’t forget fine motor skills which are also sponsored through manipulating the felt pieces. The possibilities really are endless when it comes to judged boards and they have so many wonderful benefits for children.

Some Things You Can Do With Your Felt Board

    I made up some flannel board activities for my children’s books for you to try with the children.

    For “The Way Sky Feels”: This book is all about helping children recognize feelings and emotions all while helping them find ways to express those feelings and emotions. This activity specifically helps children to recognize and differentiate the different emotions that Sky goes through in the story. What the children will be doing here is matching the image of Sky’s feelings with the word given. To specify, a child would take Sky’s sunny, happy self and match it with the word “happy.” The other emotions the children will have to match are sad, shy, calm, and angry. It is a fairly simple and quick activity. Some children may need guidance especially if they can’t read. The document these words and images can be printed from will be attached. 

    For “The AlphaBezzies” Series: At the end of each book in “The AlphaBezzies”, I ask the children to go back through the book and find all of the words starting with the letter the book is based on. For example, in “Allie the Alligator and the Apples”, a child would go through the story once more and point out Allie, apples, the airplane, the alien, the astronaut, etc… For the flannel board activity, it is basically the same thing except that I have figures and objects from the book that can be printed and cut out. If you have a laminator, that can help them last longer. If you don't have one, it’s not necessary. From there, you can attach felt to the back of them and place them onto the board. Using the felt board and the pieces, the children will be able to differentiate what objects start with the alphabet letter the book is based on and which do not. Another example, referring to “Barry the Bear and the Bananas” now, when you ask a child to place the objects starting with the letter “B” on the felt board, they would place Barry, bananas, the baby brother, boots, boat, bread, butter, book, balloon, bath, and bee. I don’t have as many objects that don’t start with “B” in this book, unlike the “A” book, but the children should still be able to sort them out and even recognize what does and does not start with the letter “B.”  I will place the documents where you can get your flannel board pieces for each book down below.

    Not only can you do this sort of activity for my books, but there are so many other ideas and fun things to do with other books around the web. There are even people who actually make book characters into felt rather than printing them out. You can even do it yourself if you're crafty. You can do this for any book really. Even if you aren’t crafty, you can scan pages of a children’s book, print them out, and do the same thing you’d do with “The AlphaBezzies” activity, cut them out, laminate (if you can) and glue felt to the back. While in vocational school, we did this. It’s how I learned about flannel boards/felt boards originally. I had some pages of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle, scanned and then colored them in with oil pastels because they came out in black and white. Then they were cut out, laminated, and of course, felt glued to the back. 

 

Here’s how they turned out:

What the back looks like. You may not even need that much felt on the back of it.

    That’s all the felt/flannel board activities I have for now. If I come up with more, I will write them up on this page. I hope children enjoy these activities and that the activities can help them develop their early learning skills even further alongside the books.  Feel free to leave any questions, comments, or concerns down below. Giving you all best wishes!

The Way Sky Feels Flannel/Felt Board Activity

Allie the Alligator and the Apples Flannel/Felt Board Activity

Barry the Bear and the Bananas Flannel/Felt Board Activity