At our local library they had a felt board that our daughter enjoyed playing with. Then the pandemic hit, and it still has not shown back up. I thought it’d be fun and easy to make a felt board for the kids since I had some extra felt laying around.
Let me show you what I did and what I learned because my felt board ended up only lasting a day.
Supplies you’ll need:
- Different colors of felt for the shapes/decorations
- 1 large piece of felt for the felt board
- Tape or adhesive strips or adhesive spray
- Soap, water, and towel to clean the wall
- Scissors
- Pen
First start by cleaning the wall with some warm water, soap and a towel or some paper towel. This will allow for the adhesive to stick better.
Next, add your adhesive to your wall or to your large piece of felt. Here is where we went wrong. I used paper tape and it wasn’t strong enough. After some research people are typically having more success with use of adhesive strips or adhesive spray. Which are both supposed to be safe for your wall and your felt, make sure to read the bottle before applying.
Also, I didn’t have a large piece of felt and decided to use felt rectangles that I had left over. Since there are so many pieces to secure and because of the tape I used, our felt board only lasted a day for the kids. I’m sure if I used a larger piece of felt and a better adhesive it would’ve lasted longer.
Once you’ve applied the adhesive you can attach the large piece of felt to the wall.
Then here comes the fun part of making different shapes and decorations with the smaller pieces of felt. I folded some of the felt and at times used a pen to create even shapes. We decided to make shapes to work on our shape recognition. You could also do numbers, or pick a certain theme, or if you’re artistic you could make some fun animals. You can find premade felt boards with decorations already made too at a relatively affordable price. I saw a few with farm animals, zoo animals, and even an Outerspace themed one, just to name a few.
Once you’ve made your shapes you can simply press them onto your felt wall, and they’ll stick. You can easily take them off and stick them to another place or to one another on the wall. Have fun making different designs with your kids. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how fun, easy, and enjoyable this project is!
Some FAQ
What Age is Felt Board for?
What’s great about a felt board is that it’s safe and fun for all ages. Now, it might be hard for a baby to use a felt board, but they can play with the shapes and decorations. You can set up their tummy time mat in front of the board to work on strengthening their neck, especially if you have other kids that they can see interacting with the felt board.
My kids are 1 and 4 and they both like playing with the felt board. One of our favorite games to play is hide and seek with the felt board. Someone picks a piece to hide, and you hide it under another object. We then guess one shape at a time that the hidden piece might be under and lift it up to look.
Is a Flannel Board the Same as a Felt board?
Yes! If you don’t have a large piece of felt, you can use flannel, ideally a smooth flannel blanket to make a kid’s felt board. The felt should stick to the flannel without a problem.
What Is the Use for a Felt Board?
Felt boards are great for shape, number, animal recognition. They’re also great for creating fun games and designs that don’t have to be perfect. You can easily take the felt pieces off the board if a mistake is made and the pieces and the felt board can be used time and time again.