Nursery World - Learning and development: Art in the early years

A fun and fascinating way to extend young children's exploration of textiles is through felt-making. It needn't incur much cost and there's lots of online advice if you fancy having a go.

IN PRACTICE

There are various ways to make felt, so first experiment with the techniques involved so that you can model them effectively to the children. A good starting point would be to watch some online videos on felt-making (see below). A really useful word of advice about felt-making comes from Annie and Lyn, who run the Rosie Pink website: ‘Making felt needs a simple equation: wool + soapy water + agitation = felt!’

FELT-MAKING

Resources

To make felt balls and flat pieces of felt, you will need:
* Wool top of different kinds and colours * pieces of felt and coloured fleece * scraps of material, yarn and cotton * bubble-wrap * net curtain * spray bottle * soap or washing-up liquid * sponges * towels * a clean roller.

Felt balls

Felt is very simple to make. Ask the children to take a piece of wool top, wet it, add soap, then roll the wool between the palms of their hands. Very soon the wool will turn into a hard ball of felt. Rinse under a tap to remove the soap. The finished ball should bounce!

Flat piece of felt

To make a flat piece of felt:

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