The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is a special story that resonates with children. Story pieces can be handmade out of felt or purchased, and children can recreate the story from egg to the metamorphosis into a butterfly. Days of week, life cycles and food groups can be explored.
Along the same line, Dr Seuss’s “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish” can be recreated in flannel pieces. Children can retell the story, sort by color, number and size.
Set up a calendar board. Use days of the week placed along the top of the board, with an assortment of pieces to place beneath the corresponding day (a birthday cake, flower for the first day of spring, Halloween pumpkin, etc.).
Children love to talk about the weather. Weather pieces (an umbrella, a snowman, a smiling sun or clouds) placed under the days of the week is another fun idea. You can also add boys and girls and different weather attire (boots, raincoat, bathing suit or sunglasses) for children to relate weather to the clothing needed.
Create an underwater flannel board with fish, octopus, starfish, coral, a skin diver or a jelly fish. Your child's imagination is the limit. Children can tell a story with the pieces and learn about ocean life.
Creating felt pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters along with the corresponding numbers (both symbols and written word) will help children learn about coins, their value and symbol/word identification.
Happy faces, sad faces, angry faces and frightened faces can offer a great starting point for children to share their feelings and learn to talk about feelings and why they feel the way they do.
Create flannel or felt food items from each food group, plates and forks, spoons, glasses and bowls, which can be used to teach children about nutrition. Children can design meals from the different food groups. Sorting skills can also be developed (vegetable from fruits, grains from meat, etc.), which helps develop math skills.
A diversity-themed flannel board provides an opportunity to teach about different cultures, races and abilities. Felt pieces with a large planet earth, surrounded by figures of children from around the world, allows them to learn about the multi-cultural world in which they live. In addition, you can create the felt words “hello” in the various languages that the children represent. Disabilities can also be represented using felt children’s figures with crutches, hearing aids, wheelchairs and braces.