I am creating a felt animal for my son for every letter of the alphabet in our series: ABC Felt Animals! We have so much fun making these animals together — and they are helping him learn the phonetic sounds of the letters, so it has been very worth the time and effort!! Well, for the letter Dd, John had a choice between a Dog, Duck, or Dolphin, and he chose a dolphin, which actually surprised me a little bit :)

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All you need to make a Felt Dolphin is:

felt: gray, white, and black (or you can use paper!)
cotton balls
hot glue gun (or Elmer’s if you’re just using colored paper)
amazing Fiskar scissors (if you’re going to work with felt at all, you have to check these scissors out!)

** This craft uses a hot glue gun — please keep out of the reach of children — these are for adult use only!!

I loved making this dolphin. I had to try to get his snout just right, as well as try to figure out his belly and under his mouth. I think it worked out well!!

I always need to remember, when I begin gluing the pieces together, that one of the bodies has to be turned around — so it doesn’t face in the same direction as the free printable (available below!)

Here are the two sides of the dolphin, ready to have their white tummies and eyes and fins glued on!

Get your cotton balls on and glue them to stay in place!

I carefully begin gluing one side of him at a time. I use a knife to press it down (hot glue is HOT!) This felt animal is really my best yet, with practically no hot glue mistakes!!

Ready to pose in our blanket of water :)

John is always so anxious for me to complete his animal. He felt the need to give his dolphin lots of kisses :)

Ready to pose — a beautiful felt dolphin!!

I made a template and a coloring page for you to make your own felt dolphin!

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You can download the free dolphin printable here!

Book Extension

Dolphins by Sylvia James is a beautiful non-fiction book about dolphins. It includes photographs and facts about dolphins — we got a similar book out from our library, though not this exact one. Children love non-fiction books about animals, as they help them learn about the world around them!