Bird Preschool Theme and the Felt Board

Here's a trick...instead of recreating an entire new set of felts to match your Preschool theme or interest, look at your collection, and find the stories (or songs) with the interest inside. For example, if the theme is birds, indeed there are specific stories surrounding the bird as the main character such as...

But, there are also many songs and stories with bird characters inside. So, choose stories or songs, and emphasize the bird to match the current interest. For example, with the following felt pieces below, the Educator can ask  open ended questions to provoke concepts and learning, such as, "Which animals have wings? Which animal has feathers?"

Out in the Garden

The following images are felt pieces in my collection, along with links to blog entries providing more information:

Green Grass Grew All Around

Down By the Bay

Ten Little Yellow Ducks

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Five Little Ducks

Five Little Penguins



Further Reading Suggestion: 

Ideas for a Preschool Bird Theme

Felt Advent Calendar and Number Recognition

We all know the traditional Advent Calendars filled with a chocolate a day leading up to Christmas. 25 days of sweets! Recently, there seems to be many variations to the original calendar for both children and adults. This year, I made one for my teenage son who claims his father eats all the chips in our home (actually, this is true)!

This is an "Advent" Calendar made with felt ornaments that could be placed out throughout December in any Early Childhood Environment and helps foster number recognition.

Alternatively, the ornaments could be matching which would help with transitioning out of Circle Time.

So easy to make and fun to interact with!

Happy Holidays

Scat the Cat Felt Board Story

Scat the Cat is one of my favorite felt stories to present to Preschool aged children during circle time. As I tell the story, I ask children to think of other things that are the same color of the cat. This open ended question fosters cognitive and creative development.

My version of this story.... 

Once upon a time there was a black cat. His mom was black, his dad was black and his brothers and sisters were black. 

This cat had a very special hat, it was magical. When he put it on his head, he could change his color. 

So, on this day, Scat the Cat put on his hat and said, "I'm Scat the Cat and with my hat, I am going to change my colors just like that!"

And Scat the Cat changed himself into a blue cat. He was blue as blue can be. He was as blue as....(this is when the children are given some time to provide answers. Get ready, for the children get very excited as they provide answers). 

But after awhile, he was tired of being blue, and so he put on his hat and he said, "I'm Scat the Cat and with my hat, I'm going to change my colors just like that!" 

And Scat the Cat changed himself into a red cat....

AND SO ON. 

The story ends when  you are finished the colors OR when it seems right with the children.

The Ending: Scat the Cat realized he was happy being a black cat. He didn't know why he wanted to change. So he put on his hat and he said, "I'm Scat the Cat and with my hat, I change back into a black cat". 

Preschool Math Concepts and the Felt Board

Felt pieces on a flannel board provide young children visual cues for basic math. Many songs, poems and stories  teach math concepts such as number recognition, counting, matching as well as the introduction of adding and subtracting. By including mathematical concepts within the telling of a story or poem,  it will foster cognitive development within the young audience members.

Every time we have a felt story with numbers, we can ask children to count along, or ask open ended questions to encourage subtraction and addition. For example, "If I have five ladybugs all together, and one is on the felt board, how many are in my bag?" These type questions stimulate the minds of older preschool children.

There are so many felt stories and preschool songs with the number five. Next time you are telling the story, try including some math questions to challenge the children's minds: 

"If I have two on the board, and three in my bag, how many felt pieces do I have all together?' 

"I have four on the board, I will take one away, so how many will be left?" 

"Two felts make a pair. We have four all together, so how many pairs do we have?" 

And so on, and so on...

Online Early Childhood Workshops with Circle of Ideas

Spring Flower Felt Board Activities

To the Tune of Farmer in the Dell 

Springtime is finally here, oh springtime is finally here

Flowers come this time of year

Springtime is finally here. 

Springtime is finally here.

Springtime is finally here, oh springtime is finally here

The bees are buzzing, can you hear

Springtime is finally here. 

Use these Flower Felts for Transitioning out of Circle Time

Other felt board activities, such as matching or sequencing, work particularly well with transitions and of course language development. In larger groups, in order to allow every child an opportunity to visit the felt board, you could ask children to bring pieces to the board, and then ask children to remove the pieces. In the flower example, 9 children bring a flower to the board to place in the right sequence, and 9 children remove one flower. But, with smaller groups, the children could simply take the pieces off. For example, "Jenny, could you please come to the board and find me the biggest purple flower?". When Jenny successfully completes this request, the teacher can ask the group, "Is she right? Let's give her a clap. Hooray!" Followed by, "Jenny you can go and wash your hands". The amount of time this takes with each child, will allow for a gradual transition.

Matching and Sequencing Flowers

Preschool children can learn basic math concepts with these visual felt flowers. In this activity, children can be provided a flower to bring to the felt board. This hands on activity works well for circle time management. When the children bring the flower to the board, they can find which color it matches as well as the order of size. The Educator will then promote language development by emphasizing the words bigger and biggest, smaller and smallest, while asking children to repeat the words together. 

Online Early Childhood Workshops with Circle of Ideas

Five Little Snowmen Felt Story---Easy to Make

Five little snowmen, on a winter’s day.

The first one said, wake up so we can play.

The second one said, let’s stomp on the ground

The third one said, let’s roll all around

The fourth one said, let’s run and run and run

The fifth one said, I’m afraid I feel the sun

Oh dear, cried the snowmen

As they looked toward the sky

And the five melting snowmen

Waved a fond good-bye.

Online Early Childhood Workshops with Circle of Ideas

Fall Leaf Poems

                

Online Early Childhood Workshops with Circle of Ideas

Itsy Bitsy Spider Felt Board

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Such a classic song for young children to enjoy, and it's very easy to make the felts to accompany the song and story. Toddlers, in particular, love this action song.

Adding some glittery felt paint will add to the final product.

Online Early Childhood Workshops with Circle of Ideas

Spring Flower Felt Glove Puppet

These fun Felt Glove Puppets are perfect for spring. On one side is the bulb, and the other side the tulip. So when the finger is closed the bulb can be seen and when opened the tulip pops up! 

Tulip Poem

Ten tulip bulbs planted in the ground
Can you see them? Will they be found?
The sun shone bright and the rain came down
And one little tulip sprung up from the ground.

Online Early Childhood Workshops with Circle of Ideas