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Felt boards are a great tool for teaching children. This DIY felt board tutorial will easily show you how to make a felt board that you can use at home or in the classroom with your children.
Last Christmas, I made a felt Christmas Tree for Little. It was mostly an effort to keep him distracted from our actual tree, but also an attempt to find a fun way to talk about shapes and colors throughout the week. My efforts were only half way successful. We learned a lot about colors, but the actual tree was way too interesting to completely ignore.
After that project, I ended up with lots of left over felt and I knew that I wanted to make a felt board that I could use throughout the year for lessons with Little. I found a great tutorial online by Jen at Mama Papa Bubba that I used as my inspiration for Little’s board. I was shocked at how simple it was to create and we have played with it almost everyday since.
Benefits of Felt Boards for Kids
Playing with felt has many benefits for children. It’s a visual learning tool which can help children with color and shape recognition. It’s easily manipulated by children since felt sticks to itself without need for Velcro or glue. This means that children can easily pick up the pieces and move them around as they wish encouraging the development of fine motor skills and spatial recognition.
Felt boards also encourage creativity as children are able to move the pieces around as they wish. We use our felt board for instruction and play. This allows me to demonstrate an idea to Little, then allow him to easily mimic the idea or point to things when asked to recall them. This is great for his listening skills.
Aside from all the educational and play benefits of using felt boards, we really like it because it easily stores under our coffee table (or under a couch or bed, or behind a shelf, or it can be hung on the wall) so it’s out of the way and the pieces are easy to store in plastic bags or a small bin. We also love that it is so versatile so Little doesn’t get bored with it easily.
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How to Make a Felt Board
Supplies:
- poster frame
– preferably with a plastic insert
- We used an 18 x 24 frame so that it would easily fit under our coffee table when not being used.
- Neutral color felt
- Size dependent on the size of frame you choose. I bought 5/8 yard and had enough for two boards since the felt was folded double. If you’re unsure of what size to get, someone at your local fabric store should be able to help you.
– preferably with a plastic insert
Instructions:
- Remove the insert from the frame.
- Carefully lay felt on the backing of the frame
- You may also wish to use spray adhesive or Mod Podge to secure the felt to the backing, but I didn’t and our felt hasn’t gotten loose.
- You may also wish to use spray adhesive
- Pull felt tightly and insert back into the frame
- Use the clips on the back of the frame to hold the backing and felt in place
- Trim excess felt from the back of the board
- Flip it over and you’re ready to go
or 
to secure the felt to the backing, but I didn’t and our felt hasn’t gotten loose.
How to Use Your Felt Board for Learning
There are many ways to incorporate felt into a playful learning experience for your kids. Once you have your felt board created, be sure to grab some smaller pieces of felt to create play shapes and tools to use with your board.
You can check out our Itsy Bitsy Spider Felt Storyboard template (with a free printable so it’s easy to recreate), or celebrate the holidays with our felt Christmas tree tutorial.
For more fun ideas, Abi over at DIY & Dinosaurs has a whole collection of fun ideas of things to make and ways to incorporate your felt board into your play and learning.
We have loved using our felt board at home and I know we’ll be using it to learn through play for many years to come!
That’s cute and useful at the same time, thank you so much for sharing it at The Really Crafty Link Party. Pinned!
Thanks so much! I really appreciate you sharing!
What a fun and creative way to teach! My Grandmother used to use felt boards when she taught Sunday School. It always helped take the boredom out of the lessons.
Yes! We used to use them at church also! They are great for storytelling!
Such a cute idea. My daughter loves felt boards. I’m going to try this. Hopefully, I can make her some cute felt pieces to go with it.
You totally should – it’s really simple to make and you can make lots of shapes and things to go with it. And if you don’t feel like making all the shapes, there are lots of stores on Etsy that sell patterns or shapes really affordably!
This reminds me of items I played with as a child. What a fun DIY
Thanks so much, Lee! We certainly enjoy it!
So cute! And added bonus – it’s something that, if left out, won’t make you yowl with pain if you accidentally step on it barefoot! (Unlike some things I know…I’m looking at you, legos.) I love your ideas for different board themes!
Thanks! I totally agree. The pieces are really easy to store – and haven’t injured me yet! 🙂
This is adorable! I love how simple and easy it is, and that you can use it to teach and practice almost any new concept! Thanks for sharing your tutorial! 🙂
Thanks so much! We have tons of fun playing with it and I really think it’s been helpful in teaching!
So crafty and fun! My fave is the weather board. Good job!
Thanks so much!
Great instructions; we used to use felt boards all the time in our daycare. Pinned.
We really get a lot of use out of it, that’s for sure! I appreciate you sharing!
Oh I love this. It’s so creative! Thanks for linking up to #ThatFridayLinky
Absolutely! We enjoy it a lot!
That’s such a great idea! Thanks for sharing your tutorial at the Sew It Cook It Craft It Link Party! 🙂
Thanks so much! What a fun party!
This is great and a massive help in learning fab post Thanks for linking to the #THAT FRIDAY LINKY come back next week please
Thanks so much! I will definitely be back!
Lovely! I need it for my baby boy:) and it doesn’t look so difficult
#ThatFridayLinky
Yes – I bet he loves it! We certainly love it here!
That is so cute! What a great way to use up extras and make wonderful lessons <3
Totally – and he loves playing with it!
I have seen so many felt boards and toys on Pinterest, but my boys never had them. I didn’t realize they were so easy to make! I may put together one with letters and numbers for my 3 year old.
Yes – this is where I got my idea. I picked up the numbers and letters from Target’s dollar spot, but I think you could easily just stencil them onto regular felt. In fact, that’s what I plan to do to make more once we start learning words and more numbers!
Such a versatile piece to use with little kids! There are so many possibilities. Thanks for the great tutorial!
Absolutely! I need to find more time to make new felt sets to play with!
Awww so cute! I remember playing with felt cut outs as a small kid – it’s such a fun activity for little ones!
Yes! So much fun!
This is awesome! I was trying to find a felt board tutorial awhile back to make for my child, but I couldn’t ever find one that looked simple and appealing. This is a great roundup and resource!
Thank you; I’m glad it is helpful! The other blogs I linked to also have great ideas!
Oh, I love this! I want to do make one today! I have used felt boards in the classroom, but it did not dawn on me to create one for home! Genius!
You totally should! It was really easy – like less than 20 minutes to make easy and we’ve loved using it!
This is such a good idea! It looks so easy to make and provides endless amounts of fun, and stays away from video games! 🙂
So true! It’s crazy how early kids learn to love the screen!
Live making and using felt boards and have for years
That’s awesome! Do you have any favorite things to do with your felt boards?
I love your idea to put it in a frame! I teach Music for Young Children, and EVERY. SINGLE. CHILD. adores the felt board.
It’s crazy how much they love it and it is so useful for teaching!
Love this! Super cute and creative DIY girlie!
xo, Afton
Thanks so much!
I love this! I have to go to the craft store today for some other things so I think I’ll give this a try! Thanks 🙂
We love it! It has been incredibly helpful at teaching and it stores so easily right under the coffee table!