I came across this fabulous DIY tutorial for a felt board and color matching game on Mamma, Papa, Bubba. I strayed from their felt board tutorial and created my own, but stuck to their adorable ice cream and ice cream cone matching game. One important piece of advice…SHARP, SHARP, SHARP SCISSORS! Although short lived, for now, Reagan loved this activity!

Materials:

Cork Board – whatever size you like- I found a large framed cork board at target for around $10.00

SHARP Scissors

Large Sheet of White Felt- I got one yard of white felt and have a lot left over. You just need enough to cover your board.

Various Smaller Sheets of Multiple Colors of Felt (the JoAnn Fabrics near our house sells felt squares, that worked perfectly) I purchased two beige squares for the cones and single squares of red, brown, orange, blue, yellow, green and pink for the ice cream and matching circles.

Hot Glue Gun and Glue

Ruler

Marker

Quarter

Directions:

1) Iron the large white felt sheet to remove any bumps and/or creases.

2) Lay the white sheet of felt on top of the cork board and trace, with a marker, around the inside of the cork board molding.

3) With your SHARP scissors cut along the traced lines.

4) Using your hot glue gun, attached the white sheet of felt to the cork board. I did very small areas at a time, pulling the fabric so that it lined right up against the molding and showed no cork board. I only applied glue along the edges of the cork board. I did not glue anywhere in the middle of the board. ( the picture is from before glueing)

5) Using a ruler or free hand; draw a cone on the beige piece of square felt (size will depend on how large or small you want your cones to be). Cut out the drawn cone and trace it to create however many cones you may need. Cut all cones out. Early Learning Activities have fabulous printables that can be printed, cut out and traced. I free-handed my first cone…not too shabby!

6) Free hand an ice cream scoop or print, cut and trace Early Learning Activities free printable. Trace the cut out scoop onto each colored felt square. Cut out all scoops.

7) Trace the quarter on matching color squares to the ice cream scoops previously cut out. Cut out circles.

8) Using a hot glue gun, glue one colored circle to each ice cream cone.

9) Ta Da! And there you have it!

At first I left all of the cones on the board and handed Reagan one color scoop at a time and said ‘Here is a (color scoop), can you find the (color circle) that is the SAME as your ice cream scoop?’ I then left all of the scoops on the board and did the same having her match the cones to the matching scoop. ‘Here is a (color circle), can you find the (color scoop) that is the SAME as your cone circle?’ After repeating these two activities multiple times. I placed the cones on the board and scattered the scoops next to Reagan and had her match the scoop to the cone independently. I would randomly ask her the color of each cone and/or scoop. Reagan enjoyed this activity and I can definitely see her color identification skills strengthening with the continued use of this activity!

Reagan walked around the board to place the orange, blue, brown and pink scoops on the cones, which is the reason why they are upside down.
How could you not love this face!