The Empowered Educator

Inspiring ideas, training and resources for early learning.

Toddler Fun with Felt Games!

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Would you believe the toddler twosome are already sick again? This time its a cold and cough so hopefully won't be around as long as the virus they just got over! I don't think our weather at the moment is helping matters as one day it is sweltering hot…the next it is back to cool!

So unfortunately no interesting photos from our weekend…..there was just a lot of trying to keep the girls happy, snot free and busy with some quiet indoor activities!

I decided to get out my old box of felt stories and games after a particularly trying morning with the girls….a new distraction was indeed called for!

I used to have fun making felt games and stories and selling them to child care centres…this was in the days before they made such wonderful felt resources as they do now!

 

As we have been enjoying colour recognition activities lately I thought I would start with 3 of my favourite colour games…they are great for 3-5 yr olds but easy enough to simplify for the toddler twosome at 2 years.

5 LITTLE FISH COLOUR RECOGNITION GAME

This one is quite simple but even older children enjoy participating….I have 5 different coloured fish which I lay out on the feltboard…..the toddler twosome loved helping me set up each time so that was a game in itself!

I then sing either of these two songs….

Song 1

Five little fish
Swimming to and fro,
Ruby caught the yellow one
As  it swam to slow…..

Obviously you insert your own child/children's names….if using this activity in a group i worked through most of the class by also making it a game to bring the colours back to the board so they had to recognise them twice and then we started again with a new round of names!

Song 2

Five Colourful Fish,
Swimming in the sea.
Tara caught the blue one (nominate a child here)
How lucky could she be!

Another very simple little rhyme and no particular tune…i just tend to do a sing song type tune with emphasis on the names and colours.

For younger toddlers with shorter attention spans you can start with just 3 fish and modify the songs. They really enjoy bringing them back and it is a simple lesson in turn taking and waiting too.

Another very similar game uses colourful birds…….

5 LITTLE BIRDS COLOUR RECOGNITION GAME

Much the same premise and again the girls loved helping to line them up on the board….at this age you need to be pretty flexible with a structured activity like this and perhaps modify as you go along…use the learning opportunities as they present rather than being too worried about getting it ‘correct'!
I had fun making these colourful little parrots…I actually made the wings a different colour to extend the activity for older children when I use them for early learning.
 

I like to use this little song for the birds…

Five Little Birds
Sitting on a tree,
Away flew the blue one,
Now….how many do you see?

Continue with 4 little birds etc etc…

This rhyme is used for maths and colour recognition. Either the parent/teacher removes a bird or nominates a child to do it. We focused on the bird colours first to get the hang of the game and then I began to ask the girls to count the birds as we took one away.

They had lots of fun trying and often got the colour and math concepts right after a few turns!

The last felt game we had fun with is a real favourite with toddlers…….

FIVE LITTLE BALLOONS COLOUR RECOGNITION GAME

 

Again a very similar concept and very easy for toddlers to grasp and feel a sense of accomplishment with rather than frustration…with all these games; if  the wrong colour is picked I still like to praise for their effort and just point out the correct colour rather than telling them they are ‘wrong'.
This is the rhyme I use…..
5 little balloons
Flying way up high
‘Tara' picked the yellow one
From the sky.
 
4 little balloons etc…
 
We didn't just stick with the feltboard….we placed balloons all around the furnishings to ‘find' as well.

There are so many possibilities for playful learning when using felt resources and feltboards!
See how to make your own freestanding, double sided feltboard HERE.
I have more play based learning ideas you might like to explore on my Pinterest Boards …
Do you have fun with felt stories or games? I'd love you to let me know in the comments if you have some fun felt ideas I could also try out or pin!
I'll be sharing a few more of my old favourites over the next few weeks….although I must admit some of them are looking a little neglected….I guess they are 20 yrs old now *sigh* where do those years go?

 

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