Feltboard In Teaching

[Music] today Miss Jackson is working on number Concepts her pupils are alert and their interest would be evident to the most casual Observer to make learning easier for the children Miss Jackson uses a felt board identifying the number of apples on the tree is excellent drill experience for the youngsters and the felt board helps to make learning both interesting and Lasting for them the felt board is simple both in construction and operation basically it's merely a piece of stiff backing covered with felt other pieces of felt will adhere to the board by merely placing them there commercially constructed boards and cutouts use special long fibered felt which increases adhering qualities to a maximum felt a cloth that is matted and shrunk rather than woven will not Ravel and Designs may be cut from it as easily as from paper the most simple type of cutout is the silhouette which may be a single piece of felt or made up of several pieces as in the case of this elephant the eye and the ear hold as firmly to the cutout as the body will to the felt board any outline traced or drawn on a piece of felt may be cut out for use on the felt board a great number of cutout sets are available commercially these circus animals this Christmas tree with its many different colored ornaments and this fruit tree are examples of such commercially prepared sets stamped felt materials to be cut out by teachers or pupils are also available sets of this nature range from sheets of numbers and letters to sets of characters for storytelling and for special units of work such as our community helpers the felt board is an adaptable teaching tool Miss Jackson uses it for vocabulary development as well as for arithmetic the ease with which children can use the medium its colorfulness and the lack of any mess or mus in using it make the feltboard an attractive device for both teachers and pupils now with the Barnyard complete let us look at another teacher as she uses the feltboard to help children discover for themselves the combinations of five Mrs Williams has a number of different types of cutouts that she might use today she selects houses and sets up the problem with them let us see how many ways we can make five she suggests and asks who would like to begin Ruth seems a bit Grim in her offer to start but she demonstrates her idea nevertheless a demonstration that makes her thinking evident and at the same time gives Mrs Williams an opportunity to stress a right concept or correct a wrong one felt cutouts need not be limited to silhouette forms several types of coloring media may be used directly on felt to make more elaborate materials almost any picture story may be made up in felt figures in this way these cutouts of The Three Little Kittens who lost their mittens were done by a sixth grade girl such cutouts as these are ideal in dramatizing familiar stories and in serving as a stimulus to oral expression an easier way to achieve this same type of cutout may be seen as Jimmy cuts out a picture from a story book given him for that purpose when the picture has been backed with felt it will adhere to the board as readily as any cutout made entirely from felt a little paste mucilage or glue will hold the felt backing in place a paper cutout of this type need not be backed completely with felt if a portion of it is so covered it will possess sufficient adhering qualities to permit its use on the felt board for dramatization of stories by pupils use of the felt board is not limited to the teaching of any single subject arithmetic vocabulary development and oral expression are just some of the curriculum areas in which it can be used the mobility and attractiveness of felt cutouts for example make them ideal for study of word families the felt board is applicable for use on any grade level here as Mr Miller shows that a fractional part such as a fourth need not always always be the same size or shape it contributes in the teaching of fractions because felt cutouts will adhere to each other fractional relationships are easily understood through a demonstration such as Mr Miller's in the Later Elementary grades the felt board also can contribute to effective language teaching such Concepts as the meanings of prepositions become less difficult to grasp when their meanings are vision visualized with this instructional tool the felt board appeals to older children as it does to younger ones and pupil participation is easy to achieve when using it even teaching on the secondary level can call upon the felt board with Advantage here for example by the manipulation of a single piece of felt the formula for the area of a parallelogram is seen to be the same as that for a rectangle in extracurricular activities as well as inal classroom teaching the felt board is ready to contribute a successful football season for example reflects the previous skull practice sessions that coach Hayes carried through in many of which he used the felt board where does the tackle go on this play he asks and Joel's demonstration assures the coach that the play is understood the band director also finds the feltboard useful band formations are as intricate as football plays and must be thoroughly understood to be performed properly in special education work the felt board contributes in another way because felt cutouts will stay where placed or pushed children with poor muscular coordination can get satisfying art experiences through this medium the felt board has many valuable features as a teaching tool it is readily stored inexpensive to purchase or construct light in weight and easily handled it may be set up in a matter of seconds on any desk or table and immediately it's ready to go to work also the felt board is an extremely flexible medium it can contribute to instruction in all curriculum areas and on all grade levels there is no set pattern for its use it stands ready to fit the needs and methods of individual teachers as it is here doing in helping Miss Andrews make the teaching of color recognition appealing and effective whether the felt board holds a single Balloon Man to teach color concepts or several items to help develop reading skills through its use youngsters can learn better and such learning will be accompanied by interest and enthusiasm [Music]