They sell them at places like Lakeshore Learning for around $50. I made this one for under $5. I took a piece of cardboard and glued large sheets of black wool felt to each side. The wool felt allows the regular felt to stick to it easily. Then I bought a package of mixed color felt and cut out a few play sets for M. Making Learning Fun has templates for the Brown Bear, Brown Bear pieces. I also tried a set of A Very Hungry Caterpillar pieces (because circular fruit is super easy to make). M loves books and will go get them and bring to me to read. He typically chooses the same three books so this gives us another way to read.
My intention for this was to have it to hang in our play area in the basement of the new house. I figured we'd probably use it more in the years to come than now but M does like when I take it out to play with. M's favorite use of this board right now is for me to put all the pieces on and for him to pull them off one by one. He also likes to carry the pieces around (we've already lost white dog). When we use it to read Brown Bear, Brown Bear I'll put each animal on as we read and then tell him to take it off before we put the next animal on. He seems to be interested in pulling them off and seeing what comes next. When I make another set of pieces I'll probably use tacky glue. I used Elmer's for these and we're losing pieces off some.
Why we love our felt board:
Baby: He loves books and Brown Bear is definitely his favorite. I think he enjoys having the tactile pieces of the animals from the book. As I said, he loves pulling them off.
Mommy: Makes reading Brown Bear for the thousandth time a little more interactive and fun! I also love that we'll be able to use this for more than pulling pieces off as he grows up. They're great for retelling and creating stories.
M's age when we played: 11 months, 2 weeks
M's age when we played: 11 months, 2 weeks
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