My longest-running felt board story project is the pieces for Where’s Spot? by Eric Hill. I spent hours upon hours on several of the pieces last spring, and added one more piece last fall, and now have to scramble to finish off the pieces in time for the “Peek, Peek, Hide-and-Seek” toddler storytime this week. These are tough to make because I’m trying to duplicate a lift-the-flap book in felt: it uses a LOT of felt, and requires a lot of patient gluing to keep the inner parts from sticking to the flaps.
So here are a few of the pieces from my collection – the staircase (with lion inside the under-stair closet) and the bed (with crocodile hiding under the bedskirt) are quite large and safely stored at the library, and so are not shown here. Note that the left photo is the pieces as they are shown first (“Is he in the clock?”), and the right photo shows the pieces with the flap lifted; click on images to enlarge:
Above are Spot’s mommy, Sally, the door with the bear behind it, the clock with the snake in in it, the closet with the monkey in it, and the piano with the hippo in it. Still to be created are the box with the three penguins, the rug with the turtle underneath, the basket with Spot, and Spot and Sally’s food bowls. Stay tuned for those photos!
Before leaving the library today, I set up the story room for Monday morning’s toddler storytime – and realized that I actually had my camera with me (for a change). So here is a photo of the feltboard pieces I made for Robert Kalan’s Moving Day, the story of a hermit crab who has outgrown his beloved shell home and wanders the ocean floor searching for a suitable shell home upgrade. Click the image to enlarge:
I love doing this story in feltboard form, because there is so much repetition (“too big, too small, too long, too short, too smooth, too rough…”) and the feltboard pieces really encourage the kids and parents to echo along with the repeated words. It makes for a fun communal storytime experience.
Note that when I took the photo, one shell had hidden itself away behind another, so the “too plain” shell is missing from the photo. But it does exist!
I’m hoping that by posting these feltboard pieces I can give a little inspiration to children’s librarians and teachers who are just beginning to use and make feltboard stories. Please let me know if you find these photos to be useful!
And the last three feltboard pieces for Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?, written by Bill Martin Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle. After putting the walrus on the board, I go back to the book and show Eric Carle’s illustration of the zookeeper, and then the final spread with the children dressed in costumes of the various animals. Going back to the book made sense in terms of the story, and it also reinforces that the feltboard pieces are based upon a book.
Here are the pieces for the leopard, peacock, and walrus (click image to enlarge):
Today and tomorrow I’ll post photos of the feltboard pieces I made for Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?, written by Bill Martin Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle. I’ve found that illustrations by Eric Carle translate very well to felt pieces, probably because the originals are made of paper collage and are thus more similar to felt pieces than painting or pen and ink drawing.
Here are my feltboard pieces for the first seven animals (polar bear, lion, hippopotamus, flamingo, zebra, boa constrictor, and elephant) – click on image to enlarge:
And the final photo of the felt pieces for Eric Carle’s The Very Quiet Cricket – the dragonfly, the mosquitoes in the starry night sky, and the luna moth (click on image to enlarge):
Here is the next photo of felt pieces I made for Eric Carle’s The Very Quiet Cricket – the worm in the apple, the spittlebug, the cicada, and the bumblebee (click on image to enlarge):
In response to overwhelming demands to see some of my felt board creations posted here (that would be you, Dan…), I have taken photos of the pieces I made last weekend for Eric Carle’s The Very Quiet Cricket. I’ll post the photos in three separate posts; today’s photo includes the pieces for the two small crickets, the cracked egg, the large cricket, the locust, and the praying mantis (click on image to enlarge):
Reflections on children, literature, libraries, and life…and cats.
