Animated Magnet Theater
Rehabilitate an old shoebox. A corndog box or other similar one piece folding box will work as well. Cut the bottom of the box out leaving at least a 1/2" border. A larger border may be needed on two or all four sides if it's a rather large box. Laying a piece of printer paper over the box will help you decide how wide to leave the border. I measured and drew the lines to be cut before using a razor blade to remove the bottom.
Next, I ran a narrow ribbon of "loop" side of Velcro all the way around the frame. Covering the entire frame allows you freedom when it comes to placing the "hooks" on the background page.
Choose a story or a song. Find pictures to indicate key features or characters of the story/song either by searching them on the internet as described in the last post "Extend the Story with Felt Board/File Folder Games" or scanning and copying them from the actual book. I like to combine real photographs with background pictures I've colored myself because I'm cheap and ink is not.
I chose The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams, illustrated by Megan Lloyd.
I found this photo of felt board pieces online. How convenient! I only used a few of them (standing lady, pumpkin head, gloves, hat, pants, shirt, shoes) to keep it simple. I cropped them out individually on my computer so I could size them appropriately. Appropriately: Not too large (the lady stands 3.5" and everything else is a bit smaller) and not smaller than my 3/4" wide, 1/4" thick round magnets. As long as we're talking magnets, larger magnets are not better. They are too heavy and tend to slide down. Smaller just won't hold much at all. Then I printed them on standard printer paper, not card stock as I did with the felt board games. It makes the pieces too heavy.
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It was harder to find a background. I wanted realistic but settled for this. Again, I printed on standard printer paper and laminated. Card stock is too thick keeping the magnets from holding well. That's also why we had to cut the bottom of the box out.
Okay so let's put it all together. once all the pieces and the background are laminated and cut out, add 1/2" square or circles of the "hooks" to them. I used 14 magnets placing 1/2" "loops" on them. If you haven't played with magnets much lately, remember they can be tricky. Match up their poles before putting the Velcro on them. While opposites can attract. Sometimes they repel.
Add "hooks" to the background picture. Just two small pieces per side ought to do it. You don't have to be particular where you place it because you have "loops" all around the frame.
And Voila!
For this one I actually made a second background and taped the two together to allow it to flip over and cover the first picture. I scanned this from the book itself as a dramatic ending.
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