How to Tell Flannel Board Stories to Toddlers

Storytelling can be more interesting and fun with a flannel board.

Flannel boards or felt boards are rectangular or square pieces of cardboard or wood covered with flannel or felt fabric. Smaller, cut-out pieces of flannel and felt will stick to the board without adhesive due to the friction between the fabrics. Young children enjoy playing with flannel boards; these flannel boards are useful teaching tools, enabling an instructor to teach shapes, letters, numbers and even tell stories with shapes and characters on the board.

Things You'll Need

• Flannel board
• Story
• Flannel or felt pieces

Instructions

1. Make or buy a flannel board with a neutral background color like white, light blue, beige or green.

2. Pick out a story you wish to tell with a flannel board. Use a simple children's book or write a story yourself.

3. Purchase characters for flannel boards or cut out shapes and characters for your story.

4. Hang your flannel board up on a wall or easel, so it is easy to access while telling your story.

5. Tell the children to sit around the flannel board in a circle and begin to narrate the story. As you narrate, place different characters and shapes on the flannel board, moving them around or removing them as appropriate to the story.

6. Ask an assistant or one of the children to help you, if you need an extra hand to arrange the characters on the board.

References

• DLTK: Felt Board Templates
• Storytime Share: Shapes Flannel Board and Matching Game