Yesterday I showed you my beautiful new felt board gingerbread village. The kids are having so much fun singing the song, reading the book, and retelling the story with their new felt pieces. As intricate as the pieces in this story are, there is such simplicity in felt board stories. It takes me back to a time when WE had to tell the story. Don’t get me wrong, I love technology. We have apps for storytelling, books on CD or the ipod, and Tag readers that do everything for us. I love all of these things, but once in a while, it’s nice to slow down and let the kids be in charge of the story telling.

I enjoy sitting back, and listening to the language skills that kids need to use as they are storytelling. They are speaking, listening, developing their vocaulary, and calling upon reading skills that we have been learning in class. If they are retelling a familiar story, they are using their listening and memorization skills. Creating their own story involves thinking about cause and effect, problem solving, exploring relationsips, manners, and cooperation.

There is so much creativity involved in felt board storytelling. In early childhood, play is a child’s primary avenue for exploration and learning. Play stretches the imagination through hands on learning, in a visual, auditory, and tactile way.

There are many wonderful ideas for different ways to use the felt board. We’ve used felt boards in the classroom to teach math concepts, colors, matching games, sorting activities, seasons, and many other concepts. Storytelling tends to be my favorite use for felt boards. I think I’m going to see if my daughter might want to make a few felt stories with over the break. I know she’d love cutting up fabric scraps to decorate a gingerbread house.

Felt boards are extremely inexpensive to make and kids love exploring with stories and felt pieces.

Happy story telling!