ALPHABET FELT ANIMALS

FELT ANIMALS and FELT ITEMS for a Flannel Board

Animal Alphabet Patterns Are Below

How to Use the Felt Animals and Felt Items

      First name the animals “this is a penguin” and help the child put the animals in alphabetical order on the flannel board.  Children may want to put the animals in categories—water animals, African animals or (with help) animals without a backbone (octopus, jellyfish); reptiles and amphibians (frog, alligator); birds (quail, vulture) and mammals (horse, lion, cat).  Make sure the child knows the names of the animals (or at least most of them) before you start to put the letters with the animals. You can 'spell' out the child's name with the animals (or items) and have the child add the letters.
     You can lay out all of animal and the letters that start their names, or you can do it as a game, putting out some of the letters and asking for the correct animals, or the reverse, putting some animals on the board and asking which letter starts their name.

      Cut the animals out of felt.  The animals are recognizable by shape without added detail, but are more appealing when decorated by the child or parent. There are suggested details below.  We used Pebeo Gloss Touch Paint (in a squeeze tube) to add details to the animals, however, black permanent marker, or a bead or embroidery, or an ordinary marker will all work.  Do try to at least add eyes to the felt animals as it makes them seem more “alive”.

Animals—Felt Colors:
Green:  alligator, dinosaur, frog, iguana
Yellow: butterfly, giraffe, lion, tiger
Gray: cat, elephant, kangaroo,  narwhal,  seal,  whale
White: octopus, jellyfish, penguin, unicorn, X-ray tetra (fish), zebra
Brown:  horse, monkey, quail, rabbit, vulture, yak

     Or you can add light purple for the jellyfish, orange for the tiger, blue for the whale, black for the seal.  The horse, rabbit, and cat can be black, white, brown or gray, while the butterfly can be a number of colors. The octopus could be light orange, pink, purple, or yellow.

How to Make a Flannel Board for Your Letters and Animals

     Take a piece of cotton flannel in a pleasant solid color, and fasten it to a piece of plywood, cardboard, or other stiff material. Fasten it on the back side with tape, glue or push pins. The flannel board will have other uses for many other projects.
The felt animals and felt letters will stick to the flannel board as you arrange them (rub them a little if necessary).

      Felt Animals:  alligator, butterfly, cat, dinosaur, elephant, fish, giraffe, horse,  iguana, jellyfish, kangaroo, lion,  monkey, narwhal, octopus, penguin, quail, rabbit, seal, tiger, unicorn, vulture,  whale,  X–ray fish, yak, and zebra.

     Note: The narwhal is a kind of toothed whale found in the arctic.  The X-ray fish is called that because its body is transparent, so that its skeleton is visible.  It lives in South America.

      Felt Items:  Acorn, bell, carrot, donut, egg, fan, grapes, hand,  ice cream, Jack O'Lantern, key, leaf,  moon, nest, orange, pear, quilt, ribbon, star, truck, umbrella, valentine,  wagon,  xylophone, yarn, and zipper.

      Several items—the acorn, egg, grapes, ice cream, nest, orange, quilt, truck, umbrella, valentine, wagon and xylophone are made of two or more pieces of felt in different colors, glued together. The completed item, plus the pieces that make it up, are shown in the pattern.  For the quilt felt item, there are “squares” (which are asymmetrical shapes because the quilt is not flat) which should be a different color, or even scraps of another fabric if you have it.  Some of the “squares” of the quilt are meant to be the color of the background of the quilt.   The letters ‘R’ ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ are represented by “ribbon” (a piece of ribbon, “yarn’ (a piece of yarn) and “zipper” (an old zipper).  There is extra space (acorn) or a tab (grapes) on the pattern to give a good gluing surface.   I glued a small piece of felt to the back of the ribbon and the zipper to make sure they stayed on the flannel.  The yarn did not require any.

      You May Want to Buy Felt Letters at a craft store as the letters are more tedious to cut out then the animals.  There are patterns below for capital and small letters.

Print Out The Animals:

Use the GREEN PRINT button below, NOT the print button above!

Suggested Animal Details:

Learn to Read by Reading with:

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