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Do you have a box of animal figurines in your house that looks like this?

 

 

Or perhaps they’re not even in a box like this. They’re simply sticking out of the nooks and crannies of toy boxes and bins and bookshelves everywhere in your house.

Momma, I feel ya!

I literally feel ya. Every time I step on one of those pokey plastic weapons? Yeah…

 

That’s why I racked my brains to figure out a way for my daughter to actually play with them in a productive way.

Hey, productive play. I like the sounds of that…

 

One of my first thoughts was…felt play mats! That’s an easy, space-friendly way to incorporate all the animals. Something that wouldn’t take too long that we already had the supplies for.

So , I did a quick search on Pinterest for felt play mats and drew a few really sophisticated sketches (ha!) like this based on some of the little features I wanted to add:

 

A little cave here…

A pond there…

A few removable tufts of grass…

 

And I made a mental plan for the various “habitats” I wanted to create for our animals.

We have different “types” of animals, so I designed the play mats to roughly suit their appropriate habitats.

For example…

• I made a water mat for the sharks and fish.
• I made a farm mat for the farm animals.
• I made a jungle-y, volcano-laden land for all the dinosaurs.
• Oh and a random Smurf village for our little Smurf collection. Ha!

So, take a look at the animals you have lying around to decide what type of habitats you want to create with your mats. Then, create a rough idea for your mats like I did.

The next step is to gather your felt and embroidery thread and get to work. I used the materials we already had at home.

I just used a pretty wide straight stitch to sew each part to the mat. I’m horrible at straight lines, so if you are too, don’t even worry about it.

Let me show you what we ended up with and how I put them together.

 

Farmland

The farmer’s field is an extension of the barn.

First, I started with two patches of crops. I stitched yellow lines across a brown rectangle to represent one field and red circles with green “stems” to represent more crops.

 

Then, we added the animals, a fence, and a tree to complete our farm setup.

 

Smurf Village

For the Smurfs, I created mushroom and log homes with stepping stones. I intend to add fake flowers, decorative embroidery, and floof to make it even more idyllic.

Each stepping stone is anchored by a single stitch and I made a bush that’s made with just rectangles stacked on top of one another with a single stitch down the center.

 

For the base of the mushroom, I simply stitched the sides of one long rectangle together…

 

Then, I made the top of the mushroom by stitching together two red circles with polyfill in between and white circles on top. The top of the mushroom just sits on top of the base so the Smurfs can go in and out.

 

For the brown log, I just stitched two sides of a rectangle together again and cut out three sides of a square to make a little window.

 

Aquatic life

I used a blue mat for the sea and added a cave, lily pads, and an island. Any sea animals are welcome on this play mat.

Start with a blue mat

 

Add the island and the sea cave. Stitch in place. I added a little bit of fiberfill inside the island to give it some elevation.

Add some greenery. The bush on the island is another stack of green rectangles. I also stitched the lily pads down with one green stitch each.

Add all your aquatic animals. If you have rocks and seashells at home, add them for another fun dimension (if your child is over 3 and won’t choke on them, of course).

 

General Wilderness

We sort of put all the leftover animals here. With a pond and a cave, this habitat could be anywhere.

I started with a green mat and added a pond, a cave and another bush.

I made several of the standing grass pieces you see in the center there. I just cut two rectangles, snipped out some fringe, and stitched them together about a half-inch from the bottom so I can make them stand.

 

Prehistoric Dino Land

I don’t really know much about dinosaur habitats, but from the other example play mats I saw, I figured a volcano and some tropical greenery seemed appropriate.

 

Rectangle bushes. I like them.

 

For the volcano, I created a cone out of brown felt, stitched it together down the back and wrapped a piece of red “lava” around the top.

 

 

The Entire Wilderness

Here’s the finished product with all the play mats. You can see how a toddler could have endless fun with this right? It also offers you an educational opportunity…

 

Educational opportunity

This project is all about imaginative play and being resourceful. However, this process has several great teaching opportunities built into it. If you have a toddler or older child at home, you can use the animals and their homes as teaching moments for your kids.

 

You can teach your kids about:

• Animal noises: What does the lion say? What does the cow say?
• Animal names: help your child learn the names of familiar and new animals.
• Animal habitats and homes: teach about land and sea animals; help them figure out where the animals live (farm or jungle); explain why you put the bear in the cave for hibernation, etc.
• Animal babies: use big and small versions of animals to name animal babies.
• Colors: colors are everywhere here; point out and identify them with your child.
• Numbers: count the fish, the dinosaurs, the lily pads, etc.
• Art and sewing skills: older kids can help make the mats for younger siblings.

I’m probably forgetting some educational opportunities too. I just think there’s so much you can teach here!

I hope this activity gives you some inspiration! Thank goodness we can make use of all these random animals now, right? We keep our animals and mats together in a plastic bin. That way, they’re not scattered everywhere throughout the house and puncturing our bare feet.

I don’t think my daughter ever played with the plastic animals until we organized them and gave them an entertaining purpose like this.

This little mat world opened up so many new possibilities for these toys I would’ve otherwise eventually pitched.

 

So, tell me…

Did you ever play with felt play mats when you were a kid? Are you going to try these (I’d love to see them!)?