Fun Activities for Kids, Families, and Teachers

What to Wear?

Back to school time means new wardrobes for a lot of children, and more choices when they get dressed. Have you ever had a discussion with them about appropriate clothing for different situations, seasons, or situations? The following ideas come with the Fashion Doll felt set from Story Time Felts. If you don’t have this set, you can still do the activities with other dolls and clothes.

Using felt paper dolls is a great way to help children learn about color and style! They’ll learn the following concepts:

- The versatility of neutral colors such as navy, beige and black for coordinating outfits

- Patterns coordinate best when worn with colors that are a part of the pattern

- A versatile wardrobe isn’t about the quantity of what you have as

much as it is the colors, styles and patterns that go together

Let your child experiment with a felt paper doll set and talk to them about their likes and dislikes. You will see their tastes and their sense of what is appropriate develop. They’ll gain a better sense of coordination, especially as it relates to mixing pieces together. They’ll try ridiculous combinations and come to conclusions on their own.

Here are some activities to try:

Seasons:

Divide the felt clothes by seasons and put some away for summer and others away for winter. Decide which ones should be put away for which seasons. Talk about your child’s own clothes and which items get put away, or taken out, and when.

Roommates:

There are a variety of dolls that we offer, and the Fashion Doll Set comes with four. Talk about how each one may have a different personality and choose to where different clothes based on their lifestyle. Make up stories about them and decide which clothes each one would choose. For example, one works in a skyscraper in a fancy office. One lives near the beach and goes to garden parties. One is going to college to be a teacher, etc.

Invitations:

What would happen if the children received invitations to the following events? Which clothes would they choose to wear?

- A garden wedding

- A grand ball at the governor’s mansion

- Swimming and a picnic at the beach

- A Saturday afternoon of horseback riding

- An evening party in an elegant home

- The Academy Awards

- A weekend of skiing

As kids work through all the preferences they’ll develop social skills that will help them be comfortable with their own personal tastes and the preferences of others.

What to Pack:

Tell the children you are going to give them a place to go. They’re late for their flight and they only have a minute to pack. See how fast they can pick the best clothing to take with them on any of the following trips:

- A business trip to a large city

- A weekend skiing vacation

- A camping trip to the mountains

- A weekend at the beach

- A friend’s wedding

Put-Together Competition

Give child a doll and put the clothes at random upside down in a stack. Have the children take turns picking an item from the stack. Each child gets 5 points for a 3 piece outfit, 2 points for a 2 piece outfit and 1 point for a one piece outfit.

Color Matching

Here is another version of the previous game. Give 2 extra points when there are 2 matching colors in an outfit and 3 points when 3 colors are matching from piece to piece in a single outfit.

How Many Outfits

This is a great numbers game. Allow each child to start with 2 clothing items. Ask them how many outfits they can put together with these 2 items. Give them a point for each outfit then let them select one more item and count the number of new outfits now! They will learn quickly that some items and some colors are more versatile than others.

What Do the Clothes Say?

Tell the children that you are going to tell them a mood that their doll might be in and ask them to pick clothes that match that mood. This teaches them that what you wear affects people’s perceptions of you.

- I’m excited and ready for fun!

- I have too much to do! I hope people will leave me alone and just let me do my job.

- I’m sad. I wish I were somewhere else.

- I hope everyone notices what I am wearing today because I feel great!

- I’m having a bad hair day and don’t want anyone to look at me.

What’s Appropriate? What’s Modest?

Use the dolls to talk with the kids about why you feel is appropriate and modest in swimwear, evening wear, etc. Talk about what you would personally wear, and why. Share your feelings about modesty and you’ll teach more than you know!