Low-tech presentations for young children

January 1, 2021 6:52 PM

Anybody here familiar with that old school technology of making presentations (usually for pre-school children) using a cloth backdrop (maybe felt) and sticking cut out objects on and off of it, for storytelling? I need to rig up something like that for online teaching of kids. Pretty sure it doesn’t use Velcro (what they call “magic tape” here in Japan) because the objects affixed to the background come off very easily, and quietly. Anyone who knows about exactly what it is that they use for this, please inform! Thanks.
posted by flapjax at midnite to Education (10 answers total)

Best answer: It's felt on felt!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:54 PM on January 1, 2021 [7 favorites]

Best answer: Are you thinking of a felt board?
posted by fancyoats at 6:54 PM on January 1, 2021 [1 favorite]

From childhood memory Fuzzy-Felt was/is the commercial version of this.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 7:01 PM on January 1, 2021 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Eyebrows, fancyoats, Kyle, thank you!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:11 PM on January 1, 2021

Flannel boards are still very, very in vogue with children’s librarians. If you ever want to go down a rabbit hole, do a search on Pinterest for flannel boards and you’ll find more stories, patterns, and games than you can shake a stick at.
posted by itsamermaid at 7:22 PM on January 1, 2021

We called it “flannelgraph”, and come to think of it I did mostly see it in/around Sunday school.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 7:35 PM on January 1, 2021 [2 favorites]

“Fuzzy felt” could be a handy search term. That’s what it was called when I was a kid.
posted by pompomtom at 8:55 PM on January 1, 2021

I've made these, and felt-on-felt works beautifully.
posted by nkknkk at 5:49 AM on January 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

I made one of these when my kids were small, just wrapped a flannel swaddling blanket around a large piece of cardboard, and cut out felt pieces, storing the sets together in clear envelopes. The only tricky part is getting the right scissors - felt can be difficult to cut. I had a small, sharp pair dedicated to the task as regular use (of other cutting tasks) will dull them.
posted by dreamphone at 5:52 AM on January 2, 2021 [1 favorite]

Yup. Just felt. I got a large picture frame on clearance and covered the plastic with felt and popped it back into the frame. The one I made I use with toddlers to teach colors.
posted by kathrynm at 6:33 AM on January 2, 2021 [1 favorite]