Monday, September 14, 2009

Our Flannel Board – part 2

(Part 1 of this series is here)

Before I get started, I want to correct a mistake in last week’s flannel board post. I wasn’t sure I had the correct measurements of the foam core board I used to make our flannel board, and I was too lazy at the time to go measure the silly thing. I have done so since then and it is approximately 20” by 30”. It seems to be the perfect size, and the foam core board works wonderfully so far (close to 3 years now)!
july 2009 283
I just love making felt sets for M to use with our flannel board. You can find many templates online, draw your own, print out pictures to use, or even clip images from magazines and back them with felt! I’ve done this to create puzzles for M to put together on the flannel board. And, anything you do for the flannel board can be done for a magnet board too! It’s fun to switch things up a little bit sometimes and have some magnet sets that you use on a cookie sheet!

M played with the (very few) felt sets we had when he was small, then lost interest for a time being. I would say he regained interest (and boy, it was a LOT of interest) when he was about 2 1/2 years old. At this stage, many children are intrigued by the way you can *see* a story unfold by using the flannel board.
They also love poems and songs that have manipulatives (the felt pieces) that they can use to bring the songs to life. Poems and songs are a big hit here, in part because they are short and easy to memorize, so M can “do” the flannel board by himself.

And I love the counting poems we have! It’s great to see M learning to count and even learning to subtract or add as pieces are added to the board or taken off.

Pictured below are our poem and song felt sets. When appropriate, I’ve linked the title to the site where I found the templates. You can find more templates and ideas at these sites too, so be sure to click over!

5 Green and Speckled Frogs:blog pics 001

5 Little Seashells:blog pics 053
There’s no link for this one because it was a freebie as part of a membership at The Mailbox.com (which I no longer have). However, the shells and wave are super-easy to make and here’s a link to a poem that goes with them. It’s not the exact same poem we use, but it is cute!

5 Little Pumpkins:blog pics 002(um, yes, there are only four pumpkins here and no gate. This one still needs a few finishing touches, but the pumpkins are just so pretty, aren’t they?)
 
5 Little Ducks:blog pics 004


10 in the Bed (This one was made by printing the pieces, laminating them, attaching sandpaper to the back of the bed, and putting velcro pieces on the pillows and the backs of the bears):blog pics 062


Old MacDonald Had a Farm (also made by printing and laminating!):blog pics 007

There’s a Little White Duck:blog pics 010

Polka-dot numbers 0 – 20 :blog pics 005
We use this for number recognition and number sequence, playing a kind of Brown Bear, Brown Bear game – We’ll put #1 up and say “number one, number one, what do you see?” “I see a number two looking at me”, etc. M has to find the correct number and put it on the flannel board. Often, I will put them out on the floor pretty much in sequence to make it easier for him. Occasionally we mix them up a little bit. Sometimes I have him recite the poem and see if he can get the numbers in order. Right now we only use 0-10, as that seems to be enough for him to deal with at one time.

2 Little Apples:blog pics 057 I made this one myself – simply cut a trunk and tree top out of brown and green felt. Make two apples with faces (if you wish) and you’re done. Here’s the poem that goes with this one in case you are unfamiliar with it:
Way up high in the apple tree,
I saw two little apples looking at me.
I shook that tree as hard as I could,
Down came the apples,
and mmmm, mmmm, were they good!
When M was a tiny baby I would recite this poem for him like this:
Way up high in the apple tree,
I saw a little baby looking at me!
I shook that tree as hard as I could (gently, gently “shake” baby, without really shaking him at all),
Down came the baby,
and mmmm, mmmm, was he good! (eat him up, but don’t really eat him up, ha ha).
He always giggled with that one! :)

Next week (hopefully) part 3 – telling stories with the flannel board and how I (try to) keep them organized.

Have a beautiful day! :)

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for this post and all the links! M is so lucky to have mama that spends so much time making things for him!

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  2. So many fabulous sets!! Maddie is in the "no interest" phase right now but it's encouraging to hear that, hopefully, she'll get renewed excitement for it soon. I love creating pieces for it and will absolutely be trying some of yours out!

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  3. I have been wanting to do a flannel board for the twins and this post is so helpful. Especially knowing 2 and a half year olds like them because they will be that old by the time I get it done :)

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  4. I love these ideas...I just made my first flannel board activity the other day and am so addicted to them! Can't wait to try these :0)

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  5. I love the number recognition set. Definitely going to stay up tonight and make one! LOL.

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  6. I love all the felt ideas. My son loves them too! I need to do more!:)

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  7. We use foam core for our flannel board too. Looks like you have some very cute flannel board sets!

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  8. I use a felt board with my 13 month old all the time! She loves it and I love making the pieces. She will not ever let me actually get through the whole song or poem but I just continue anyways as she busies herself with putting the pieces on and off as she sees fit. Thanks for the links!

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