Best way to Utilise & Clean Felt Resources
Felt resources are a great way to encourage engagement and re-invent familiar songs or stories with children in the care and education environment. They provide a visual component which can assist maintaining children’s interest and often extends the learning and play.
Used in an educator directed play setting such as a group story or music session, in small groups or individually there are many benefits to felt resources including:
- Fine motor development and manipulation
- Imagination and creative thinking
- Language and vocabulary development
- Cognitive skills including early numeracy (counting, sorting, matching, etc.), problem solving, organization, planning, memory and recall, cause and effect, etc.
- An opportunity to share and practice turn-taking, to communicate and work together to tell a story, act out a scene, or play a simple game.
- A lovely, soft, quiet sensory experiences
- A way to re-enact stories and events, helping children to better understand the world around them.
- Connection within the group providing times to build relationships between educator and children.
How to Store & Clean Felt Resources
When not in use felt resources can be stored in individual bags or containers, labelled for easy identification for future use. Picture labels will assist greatly as it will help the children easily recognise the felt items as well if they are popped back onto the shelving for children to access as well.
Keeping resources in the care environment clean and hygienic is important and as felt is a very vulnerable material when wet it can make maintaining and cleaning difficult. For light soiling or maintenance use a damp cloth to wipe the material down with a small amount of mild soap. Leave to dry in a warm place but do not put into the dryer or you risk shrinking the resources. A gentle hand wash is another option with resources being laid flat to preserve their shape.
Browse our range of Felt Resources HERE.
