Extend the Experience with Felt Board/File Folder Games

we want more! 

Know how it feels when you've finished a really good book and you're not ready for it to end? Sometimes I search the author's website for a sequel. I NEED more chapters!

I bet the Littles feel the same way. Give them more. Extend story time! Set their imaginations into motion, stretch vocabularies, let them physically interact with the story. 

Felt board games keep the story going indefinitely. These games can be tailored to fit a particular story or be more generalized to use with several different books. Below I created a game to follow the book page by page. There are no rules to accompany the game but you might want to let the Littles add story pieces to the board as you read. Later they can retell/sing Five Little Pumpkins and interact with the board any way they want. Suggestions for different games are matching, action pictures for chronological sequencing, an exploration of a subtopic brought up in the story, etc. Now all you need to do is choose a story and get creative! Yes. Yes. So simple. So easy. And but of course, so

                                              perfectly

                                                          

                                                         perfect.

easy as pumpkin pie!

Step by step how to make a felt board game to accompany the book "Five Little Pumpkins, pictures by Dan Yaccarino. In fact, it's not necessary to have the book, simply sing the song. Find on YouTube.

"Five Little pumpkins"

Now that you're familiar with the text/lyrics, let's get started. You'll need a "draw" program and a PC. My go-to draw program is Serif DrawPlus. It's a very old but simple draw. It's also free. Its creator ceased to love and nurture it back around 2012 so there's no updates or add-ons or even tech suport. Do a web search to find it. I prefer downloading from C-Net, it's usually trustworthy.

Once installed, you're ready to get started. Search pumkins. You'll need five. These can be drawings that you print and color yourself or let the littles color them. They can be real pictures of pumpkins, graphics, or clip art. 

Search "pumpkin photos"

Search "pumpkin graphics" or "pumpkin clip art"

Search "pumpkin coloring page"

I've chosen to use graphics for my pumpkins. If you go with 'photos", you should go with "photos" for your gate/fence to. I'm thinking "graphics will be easier.

Time to open up Serif DrawPlus. In the box under "create" choose to start a new drawing. Then choose paper size and direction (portrait or landscape). I chose portrait and "letter". Then size the window to cover half of your monitor space. 

Now open a new tab on your web browser keeping this tab open if you're going to need it. Size your browser to cover the space on the other side of your monitor.

off to the pumpkin patch!

My game plan is to choose five different pumpkins and a gate/fence looking thing from the web. Note: when you select art and it comes up with a checkered background like this, it's usually unusable. the checkers mean it's transparent. Most of the time transparent comes up black once pasted in the draw program. Sometimes it won't matter but most of the time it will.

Once a suitable image is found, open it, right click on it, then choose "copy image". Then move over to your draw page, right click and choose "paste". A prompt will appear to size it so drag it at a diagonal. you can move it around on the page using the left mouse button. You can change the size later if needed. 

Quickie (ridiculously detailed) DrawPlus tutorial:

I've chosen a few pumpkins that I like the look of and sized them similarly. I picked more than five because I've already thought of a second game to play with them. Think I'll let the Littles choose which five they want to put on the gate. 

Now I'm ready to look at fences. Ooops, forgot one thing! This page is full now so I'm opening a second one on top of it. At the top left corner of the Draw window click on the paper icon. Choose to create a new drawing again. This time choose "landscape" so the fence can be long enough for five pumpkins.

I'm searching for fences just as I searched pumpkins. I found one I really really like so I copied and pasted it to my new draw page. I stretched it out to cover the bottom of the page. Then I found a few witches to add, one of the pumpkins says something about witches in the air. 

Don't forget this game needs a title. On the left side of the draw program there is a letter "A" for the text tool. Touch the paper where you want to begin typing then in the upper left corner choose the font and size, on the far right choose a color if you don't want to use black. Now go back to the blinking cursor and enter the title.

Once the title is done all the pieces are here. Save your work! Click on the "file" at the upper left corner and choose "save". 

Name this page.

Then click on the little x to close it. The page with the pumpkins will still be showing. Save it now. I always save before going any further. Wouldn't want to forget to save. 

Note: When you close out the DrawPlus program it's going to try to do an update but there is no update because it's been abandoned. Just X off the popup boxes and it'll be fine.

get ready! get set! print!

Materials needed:

paper (card stock is best)

laminator/laminating sheets (optional)

Not your favorite pair of scissors

self-adhesive velcro in strips or dots or whatever

For durability use card stock. Open the drawings and inspect them once again for perfection's sake. Print the pages then cut each item out. It doesn't have to be a perfect detailed cut, just a quick rounding off kind of cut. 

Here's where I usually scan the pieces into a PDF file to make it easy to share my project with others or recreate it is it gets damaged. Laminating is highly recommended. Cut little pieces (about a square cm for the pumkins and witches, 2 or 3 pieces for the fence and title) of the "hook" side of the velcro. This will stick to felt.

And there you have it!

BONUS!

Remember I mentioned searching "coloring pages"? That's for DIY coloring. Why would you want to color it yourself when you can simply print it out finished? Sometimes the www just can't accommodate you. Like. . . 

Here's a game inspired by this beautiful creature, Rosebud, and also the book A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni. (view)

A perfectly customized matching game (match the chameleons to the chair they might have been sitting on) cannot be found but it's still so simple, so easy, you get it. Now color!

Voila! I call it "Whose Chair is it Anyway?"

PDF files are available for most of the games on the Play Parade blog. Just email your request to PLayParade@outlook.com and I'll be happy to send it. If you've downloaded Serif DrawPlus, I can send draw files too.