Are You My Mother? Felt Board Story

Are You My Mother by P.D. Eastman was one of my favourite books when I was a child, and this felt story was one of the first ones I created for my Circle Times.  I usually tell the story close to Mother's Day or in the spring time, but it works anytime throughout the year, and correlates well to an All About Me theme.

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10 Little Rubber Ducks Felt Board Story by Eric Carle

Eric Carle's books correlate to felt stories so effectively. In addition, his stories always contain lessons for young children to learn such as mathematical concepts like subtraction and addition. Years ago, I read 10 Little Rubber Ducks and immediately knew I wanted to turn the book into a felt story. When I finished and was at circle time telling the story, I realized a little mistake that I made... the pieces were so big, it was challenging  to tell the story on a regular felt board easel. I had to take pieces on and off throughout the telling of the story. You can tell through the photos, the creased lines where the felt material has been folded to get into its bag. But, we always learn through our mistakes and since then, when making felt stories pieces, I make them smaller in size. Best of all,  it saves on felt material and cost! So, since the pieces are extra large, the felt story is shown among a number of photos.

The children love this story and at the end I hide the plastic toy duck and squeak it behind the board, so they cannot see.  Throughout the story, the children can help to count the ducks and learn about direction (north, south, east, west, up, down, etc.) I wrote the story on index cards, which makes it easier to tell as I coordinate the felt pieces.

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Train Felt Board Activity

This felt board activity is a great one for toddlers who can learn their numbers while placing the train cars in order from engine to caboose.

See the trains chugging chugging down the track

Engine in the front, caboose in the back

All the colors streaming past

This train’s going very fast

Further Reading Suggestion: Train Preschool Theme

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Five Little Sea Creatures Felt Board Poem



Five little sea creatures on the ocean floor.

The lobster walked away. Now there are four.                   

Four little sea creatures living in the sea.                

The octopus crept away. Now there are three.

Three little sea creatures wondering what to do.
 
Good-bye said the starfish. Now there are two.

Two little sea creatures not having much fun.              

Off swam the seahorse. Now there is one

One little hermit crab, sad and all alone.

He went home, and now there are none.

Back came the seahorse, back came the starfish,

Back came the octopus, back came the lobster,

Then they all went home.

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Down By The Bay for the Felt Board

Down By The Bay is such a fun song to sing with young children and using felt board pieces is a great addition. The song is upbeat and great for learning the concept of rhyming!

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Dinosaur Felt Board Story

One Friendly Dinosaur

One friendly dinosaur wanted to play peek-a-boo.

She found another, then there were two.

Two friendly dinosaurs looked behind a tree.

They found another, then there were three.

Three friendly dinosaurs went to find some more.

They found another, and then there were four.

Four friendly dinosaurs feeling so alive,

They found another, and then there were five.

Five friendly dinosaurs played in the sun.

They all ran to hide; now there are none.


Further resources:

Dinosaur Preschool Songs

Dinosaur Preschool Lesson Plan

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Seagull Felts with Felt Board Poem

Inspiration comes in many variations. We have recently moved to an apartment near the ocean. The building across from us has a rooftop made with cement and gravel, and baby seagulls hatched a few weeks ago. We have been watching the seagulls through binoculars. It is very interesting to see how speckled they are. The mother seagull calls out to the father seagull, or the other way round, with the loud, "caw, caw, caw, caw" throughout the day.

So I thought it would be fun to try and make a seagull felt and make a poem...

 

A Seagull Poem for the Felt Board

Five seagulls standing(sitting) on the sand

Into the sky, one bird soar

And now there are only four

Four seagulls standing on the sand

One flew to a nearby tree

And now there are only three

Three seagulls standing on the sand

One flew to the sky so blue

And now there are only two

Two seagulls standing on the sand

One left to go find some fun

And now there is only one

One seagull standing on the sand

Flew towards the sun

And now there are none



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