How to Make a Felt Activity Book to Teach Shapes to Your Preschool Child

Teaching colors to your preschooler can be fun with this interactive felt book. Because it is handmade it can be personalized with your child's favorite items to really get him interested.

Things You'll Need

• seven 8 x 10 sheets of white felt
• one each 8 x 10 sheet of: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, black
• fabric markers
• fabric glue
• needle and thread or sewing machine

Instructions

1. Stack six sheets of white felt together neatly. Sew securely up and down one of the 10 inch sides to bind the book. The seventh sheet of white felt is for cutouts for the white page.

2. Cut out the letters for "MY BOOK OF COLORS" from various colored sheets of felt. Lay the letters out on the cover. When you have them arranged how you want them, glue them down with the fabric glue.

3. Use the fabric markers to write on the back: "Made especially for (your child's name) By (your name or title)."

4. For the color pages you can put them in whatever order you choose. My book is in rainbow order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. Then I moved on to pink, brown, black and white. At the top of each page you will create a label for what color is featured. See next step.

5. From each of your colored squares, cut out a crayon shape. Use the fabric markers to add in details to make it look like a crayon, and write the color name on it. Glue down the crayon "label" at the top of each page.

6. For each color, choose several things your child would recognize, favorite characters, or favorite foods of that color. Draw their outlines onto your colored felt and cut them out. Fill in details with your fabric markers if needed. Also, use the fabric markers to trace around each cutout, leaving an outline on the page to help guide your child. This is a MUST on the white page as the page and cutouts will be the same color.

7. Now play with your child and your creation! Talk about the colors and the cutout items. Encourage him when he gets them right, and help guide him when he isn't sure.

Tips & Warnings

• The title of your book can be personalized with your child's name. For example, it could read "SUZIE'S BOOK OF COLORS."

• The felt cutout pieces will stick to the pages without any assistance. However if you want them to stick better, you can add a small piece of velcro to the page and the cutout. At some craft stores, you can get velcro strips that already have sticky backing so you don't have to do any sewing.

• Try to use objects your child is familiar with. It will make it more meaningful to her and also more fun. Favorite foods, characters from movies she likes, favorite toys are all good starting points. Also see the link to Enchanted Learning in the resource section.

Resources

• Enchanted Learning's Colors Page