Ladybug Math

There is something about ladybugs that is just fun and cute! 

 I made this math set for my almost 4 year old daughter and she loves it!

The spots are movable, so there are so many ways to play...
-match the ladybugs spots to the dot cards
-count the dots as you add and subtract them from the felt body
-practice making symmetrical designs with the dots
-use your imagination!

I created the ladybug spot cards with paint and word, printed them out, laminated them and cut them out.  If you're interested in a word copy of the file I made, just leave a comment and let me know.  I'd be happy to email it to you.

This ladybug math set is also now in my etsy shop!

Retelling Stories with Felt!

Recently a lady who teaches preschool Spanish classes asked me to make some felt board sets to go along with familiar children's books.  I had such a fun time making these sets, and my children loved retelling the stories too!  This is a great way for them to interact with a story.

 

 Itsy Bitsy Spider:

 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar:

 

Some of the pieces from Brown Bear, Brown Bear:

 

 

Felt Cupcakes!

It's no secret that we love felt around here.  I love that it's easy to work with and durable so it makes for great toys and learning activities for children.  (And even when my baby chews on pieces they are not destroyed!)

 

Here's a new felt set I've added to my esty shop: Felt Cupcakes!  To make your own set you'll just need some felt and scissors.  I made my own template, but you can also download a free template here.  We've been busy "baking" up a storm of these fun cupcakes!

Build A Felt Snowman

After seeing this idea on I Can Teach My Child, I wanted to make a kit for Isaac.  I didn't use the template Jeane provides, but instead just cut out shapes of hats, eyes, a carrot noes, and other snowman parts.   After making his first snowman, Isaac asked for some specific part...have you ever seen a snowman with a Star Wars light saber?

Christmas Tree Shapes and Colors

This easy-to-make activity was designed to help Amy (25 months) practice colors and shapes.  She knows pink and purple without fail, but often mixes up other colors. :)

I cut out a tree from green felt and then circles, triangles, and squares from the colors of the rainbow plus black and white.  (You could also use paper and glue this little tree together if you'd like.)

 As she chose the pieces (ornaments) to put on her tree I would ask her what shape and color she was using, and correct as needed.  Sometimes I would ask her to find a certain color or shape to see if she was able to remember what she was learning. 

The great thing is we can play this game again and again. And the little felt shapes were a great fine motor activity for her as well.  She was very proud of the tree she decorated!

Can you tell from her outfit that she adores purple and pink!?

Older kid adaptation:

-Isaac (almost 4) enjoyed making a face with the ornaments on his Christmas tree.  He also made up a story about how his tree scares away animals...a fun creative thinking activity!

Felt Pumpkin Faces

 We're getting in the Halloween Spirit with this simple felt activity.  All you need is a piece (or more, depending on how many pumpkins you want to make) of orange felt and one piece of black or dark brown felt.

I cut out four orange felt pumpkin shapes and then lots of little shapes for eyes, mouths, noses and stems.  My kids have been very creative with their pumpkin creatures!

I also love this idea for turning the pumpkin face making into a game for preschool age and older.

Fall Leaves Button Snake

Here's the newest addition to my etsy shop: a fall themed button snake!  And as a special thank you for reading Baby Brainstorm, you can get 10% off anything in my shop by using code BABY10.

How Many Apples on the Tree? Felt Game

I saw a paper version of this on a blog (I can't remember which one!) recently and immediately thought, I can make that out of felt!  It's also similar to the children's board game, Hi Ho Cherry-O.

The premise of the game is taking turns rolling a dice and placing that many apples on the tree.  This is great counting practice!  You can also do addition and subtraction.  We used one die at first, then added a second to practice larger numbers.  I've added a How Many Apples on the Tree? felt game to my etsy shop, check it out here.

Happy Counting!

Felt Board Stories! (And Prize Drawing!)

I was recently introduced to a wonderful website source for felt board stories and activities: Felt Board Stories!  They carry high quality felt backgrounds and figurines for classic stories, nursery rhymes, scripture stories (even specific ones for the LDS church) and so much more!

This week I'm hosting a Felt Stories Online Party!  Now through midnight on May 25th you can place orders and fill out a Prize Drawing Form to win some free felt!  I'm really excited about this!  So go check out the website here, and for more info on the Party and the Prize Drawing Form, go to my party page!  This week is a great time to order felt stories for summer travel and family fun!

 

I recieved no compensation for this post.  All opinions are my own.

Felt Animal Habitats

*UPDATE* For those of you who are interested, I now sell this set in my etsy shop, Felty Fun.  Check it out here!  Thanks!

I saw this idea on my friend Laura's blog, and attempted to replicate her creativity. Here's the result: a matching game of animal habitats. I made 9 cards that show an animal's home:

Then I made nine little animals that can be placed on or in the homes. We had a really fun time playing with this and talking about where animals live. I loved the insights Isaac came up with, like the fact that some turtles do live in the ocean, and a bee could be found on a flower as well as in a hive!

All you need is a little felt and a hot glue gun to create this take-along toy!

Felt Card Matching Game

We have several matching games I've made with cards or paper, but as Amy (16 months) wants to participate more in our activities, the cards are showing more wear and tear. Amy loves to crumple paper in her hands. We needed a game more suitable for a toddler!

With that in mind, I made this easy matching game out of felt and Steam-A-Seam 2 Double stick Fusible Web. (Although you could use a hot glue gun, but from my experience, Steam 2 Seam is much more permanent!)

I cut out squares of red felt with my rotary cutter to make it faster, and then used my iron and Steam 2 Seam to attach the shapes. Quick and easy. And fun!

Any now Amy can play right along with us and I don't have to worry about any cards being bent, torn, or chewed on!

No-Sew Felt Pizza Tutorial

I love felt play food...and I love a quick project. Which leads us to this tutorial for creating a no-sew felt pizza. Great for budding chefs, for color and number practice, to use on a flannel board or on the table...imagine the possibilities!

Here's what you need:

Materials:

-scissors

-1 large square tan/light brown felt for crust

-1 large square red felt for crust

-scrapes of felt in different colors for pizza toppings

Here's the process:

1. Decide how big you want your pizza and cut a large circle of tan felt for the crust. I like mine to fit in a recloseable plastic bag, so I use one for measuring:

2. Cut a slightly smaller circle out of red for the sauce. It doesn't need to be a perfect circle...it's pizza sauce! I fold mine as shown to make sure it's smaller than my crust:

3. Now it's time to cut the toppings. Here are some of the ones I like:


Cheese (triangles of yellow felt)

(sorry the color's a bit off in this picture)Green Pepper (made of light green felt)

Mushrooms (made of white, gray, or tan felt)

Onions (made of purple felt)

Pepperoni (red circles with black dots made with a permanent marker)

Black Olives (made of black felt)

With all your toppings cut you are ready to make a pizza!

I like to keep mine in the bag I used as a measuring tool from the beginning, that way none of the little pieces get lost.

My two year old enjoys taking my order and making a pizza for us to share! I'm sure your little ones will love playing pizza chef too!

More Felt Ideas

I think felt is great! You can make so many flannel board activities/games/stories with it. Although you can buy them, you can make your own with some creativity and a little felt. I find that looking online at other people's work helps me figure out ideas for projects. Here are a few ideas:


-Freight Train felt story (you need a train car out of a variety of colors, similar to this idea, read the book by Donal Crews and place the train cars on the board, or have your little one retell the story with the pieces.)

-Old McDonald's Farm (make a barn and animals and sing as you put up the animals one by one). If you want some templates to make your animals, try this website, or google coloring pages for the animal you're trying to make. You can make it as simple or elaborate as time allows!

-Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed (make a bed and five monkeys. I used a die-cut as a school district office to cut my monkeys, but that's not necessary. Just search on etsy.com for monkey ideas)

-Snowmen (easy shapes to cut out and then assemble on the board). You can even sing this song to go along.

-Felt People/Face (cut out a basic person shape and clothes to go on him/her. Or cut a large circle for a face and then pieces for eyes, nose, etc.)

-Shapes (use different colors and cut different shapes. Use them to practice shapes, colors, counting, fractions, or make things as if they are felt Lego's)

-Five Speckled Frogs (I love this story and song! Here's one pattern you could use from Early Learning Activities.) Here are (one version of) the words of the song:

Five little speckled frogs,

Sat on a speckled log,

Eating the most delicious grub.

Yum! Yum!

One jumped into the pool,

Where it was nice and cool.

Then there were four green speckled frogs.

(Repeat until all are in the pool)

These are some of the ones we do at our house. What other felt ideas do you have?

Side note: If you have access to a die cut machine (either a home machine on one in a school district office) you can cut felt with it, although you'll want to put a piece of paper on top of the felt for the machine to work best. Our local school district lets anyone use their machine, and it was great for cutting things like vehicles and animals!

Pizza Box Felt Board

While we're one the theme of felt, here's an idea my friend Sarah gave me of making a felt board out of a pizza box.

Materials:
Pizza box- call around to local pizza places to get an unused one for free or very cheap
Felt- Large enough to cover top of box
Glue


To Do:
1. Cut your felt to the dimensions of your pizza box.

2. Glue the felt onto the inside of the top of the pizza box.

3. Open box and use as a felt board

You can even store your felt stories in the box! Try using a personal pizza box for a travel sized felt board!



Here's an idea of what the flannel board will look like:

Felt Pizza

I have lots of felt that I have collected and have been trying to come up with ways to use it to make games and activities we can do at home or on the go. Here is a felt pizza that is easy to make, quick, and can be used for creative/dramatic play, to practice color, or to practice shapes (I cut my cheese in triangles and pepperoni in circles.)

Pizza topping ideas:

-pepperoni (red circles (you could put black dots on top with permanent marker to help them stand out from the sauce.)

-cheese (yellow/orange triangles)

-onions (purple rectangles)

-green peppers (green shapes)

-olives (black o's)

-mushrooms (made with white felt)