Introduction

The major class of non-protected display media that consist of those, where display material is stuck
to the display surface in some way. The most important members of this class are flannel boards,
hook to loop boards and magnetic board etc.

Flannel Board
The flannel board is a display board made up of porous board covered with coloured flannel cloth of
dark colour. Display material like cut-outs, pictures, drawings and light objects can be backed with
rough surfaces like sandpaper and strips. Flannel strips etc will stick to the flannel board temporarily.
The sandpaper backed display material can be detached easily and replaced with new relevant
material as the lesson progresses.

A flannel board of 1.5 X 1.5 m is most widely used. It can be fixed to next to the chalk board or can
be placed on a stand about one meter above the ground. Display material can be adhered on the
flannel board in a sequence for proper development of a lesson.

Characteristics

Visual Audio Utilisation

1. VISUAL
 It visualizes theoretical ideas.
 It helps to recreate situations involving motions.
 It visualizes dimensions and colour.
 It helps to recreate part.

2. AUDIO
 It creates events through dramatization.
 It recreates environment.

3. UTILIZATION
 It permits any sequence.
 It permits restudy.
 Material Needed
 porous board
 Flannel cloth of dark colour 1 inch larger on all sides of board : darker backgrounds make
felt pieces stand on it, blue or green also work well.
 double side tape
 Sand paper
 Cut pieces of items to be displayed.
 Scissors
 Fevicol
 Decoration material

Step Wise Preparation

Step 1
Choose the size of porous board according to the purpose.

Step 2
Cut the flannel cloth to fit the board allowing 3” for overlapping edges.

Step 3
Strech the cloth and fasten it tightly with the help of fevicol. Be sure that there are no wrinkles on
the cloth this will cause the material to fall.

Step 4
On stiff paper print colourful figures or shapes that are appropriate to lesson/ activity.

Step 5
Cover back of printed cut-outs with sandpaper that will help it to fix it easily on flannel cloth. They
appear to be magnetic.

Points to Remember
1. Display the material on the flannel in a sequence to develop the lesson.
2. Change the cut-outs as you talk to the students.
3. Use flannel board to create proper scenes and designs relevant to the lesson.
4. Try the layout to see that it fits the shape on the flannel board.
5. Place the flannel board at eye level and at slightly inclined angle.
6. These should be adequate lighting.
7. Use a minimum no. of items to let the students focus their eyes on a few items at a time.
8. Talk to the class as much as possible and not to the board
 .

9. Plan the layout keeping in view the principles of teaching.

10. Outtime what you want to say.
11. Arrange the materials in such a way that they lend themselves best to illustrations what you
want to say.

Advantages of Flannel board

1) The flannel board is simple and light to carry.
2) Probably the greatest advantage of the flannel board is that it is of dynamic medium.
3) Changes can shown by adding or taking away or transferring figurines or flash aid.
4) The flannel board can be used to present or practice almost any structure in syllabus or any
of the language skills.
5) Permits numerous and varied arrangements of visual materials.
6) Flannel board is appealing because the audience is fascinated in watching the steps in the
presentation.
7) Permits the developments of a complete story.
8) It permits the use of either chart or small pieces of material.
9) It permits use of various colours, which may be used for specific purposes.
10) Flannel board is effective because it permits two techniques for developing a message, word
of mouth sound and symbols or pictures sight.
11) Chronological development of ideas on board promotes ease in note making.
12) Ease to construct material for flannel board then to make slides or movies.
13) Materials can be packed and transported easily.

Advantages of Flannel Board

As per a Chinese proverb
What I hear, I forget
What I see, I remember
What I do, I know
And flannel board is a doing activity.
1. It is an invaluable and versatile educational tool for teachers and students.
2. Flannel board is the tool that, aids in learning through involvement of multiple
senses. Students can see pictures; they can hear their teachers while talking about
pictures and even they can touch the pictures. So, they enjoy manipulating and
touching the pictures.
3. The most exciting feature for students is – How the pictures are sticking on flannel
without using glue, it looks like magic to them. And we know the students love
magics so they will love flannel board.
4. Students don’t like the black and white pages of books, they love colours. Flannel
board are of different colours.
5. Teachers can teach about different shapes, colours names, days of week and months
of the year.
6. Flannel board can be used to solve puzzles by students, this is like a mental exercise
for the students.
 7. Flannel board can be used to test recall and recognition- students love to give such
exams. When learning and playing go hand in hand it makes a learning more
permanent.
8. Flannel board is very good tool for storytelling .Retelling of stories helps in
strengthening memory skills.
9. If materials are left on the board for the use of students then it will gravitate
students towards the material and they start to make their own stories. It increases
their imagination and creativity.
10. It helps in fine motor development.
11. It helps to teach social skills and team spirit to students, when a group of students
use flannel board together they learn cooperation and team spirit.
12. Flannel board can a good tool for teaching safety lessons on road side accidents or
safety from fire through stories.

Helpful for Parents:

Flannel board play is a great independent activity for the child.

While waiting at doctor’s office or before.

It can be helpful tool for mothers while to prepare dinner it will keep the child occupied.

It is very good indoor activity during a rainy day.

Disadvantages of Flannel board

1) Space in flannel board is usually limited.
2) To tell a complete story it often takes either too much of board space or small designs and
materials, some of which cannot be seen well.
3) Time and cost of making material for presentation posed a problem.
4) Transportation and storing of board and material is a problem.
5) Suitable tables to support board must be available.
6) Presentation is limited, a new idea involves lapse of time before the new material can be
added.
7) Require considerable imagination to construct effective and varied materials.
8) Materials must be attractively prepared.
Use of Flannel Board
1) For telling a story, the teacher adheres the picture on the flannel board along with a
description.
2) For teaching elementary lessons on numbers, a flannel board can be used effectively.
3) For recognition and recall testing, appropriate picture can be used for teaching different
subjects.
4) For word formation letter recognition during language teaching in primary classes. This is
done by cutting out big letter from chart paper and backing them with sand paper strips.
5) For playing interesting and educative zig-zag puzzles a flannel board can be quite useful.
6) For showing inter relationship between different steps of a process, a flannel board can be
used effectively eg. Steps of hand washing.

Conclusion
A flannel board is a board that is usually covered in a flannel and propped up on an easel. Teachers
often use flannel board to enhance story telling. The board is also used for teaching spelling and
simple mathematics.

References
 Neerja K.P, text book of Nursing Education, Jaypee Publishers, 7th Ed. (2009)
 https://en.m.wikipedia.org>flannel