The royal family were made using a basic shape cut using beige felt. Details to the face were added using a fine nib Sharpie pen. The clothes, hair and crowns were made using scraps of felt cut to fit and glued on top of the basic shape using PVA glue. Edging detail was done using a tube of glitter glue.
The mattresses were simply thin rectangles cut out using different coloured felt to place on top of a basic bed frame, and the pea was a small circle cut out of green felt.
The feather mattresses can also be used to teach colours and counting.
I told this story at mat time, using the felt characters. Then after lunch, when we have quiet time, I laid out a few of the felt stories that I have made so far on mats around the room, so children could choose to do one themselves if they wished. Little groups of children gathered around the various stories and they sat down and began telling stories, taking turns to put the felt characters on the mat, usually with one narrator and when they had finished, someone else would begin, telling the whole story again. It is so exciting to hear all the language happening around the room, and to see the Tamariki so engaged, so focused, working co-operatively, collaboratively and independently without being teacher led, and making up their own story if they don't know it.
One child ripped one of the feather mattresses in half, and another child said, "Now there's only 19 mattresses!". I thought to myself "That's subtraction! And he is only 4!" I was thrilled to see an example of how important play is, and how through their play, children pick up these concepts of maths and literacy and figure things out for themselves - incidental learning. You can't plan for incidental learning, but by providing a well thought out stimulating environment and open ended resources, you set the scene for incidental learning to occur.
The children have been going back to the story sacks again and again, choosing to tell stories, to listen to stories, to combine stories to create a whole new story, asking teachers to read them the book while the children put the felt pieces on to the mat as the story unfolds. They are in charge of their own learning, they are empowered to have a meaningful literacy experience as they take control, and it has been a heartwarming outcome of my project so far.
Click on the link for more of my teaching resources.
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