How to make a Felt Gorilla
We are so excited to bring you our Felt Gorilla today! Making our ABC Felt Animals has been a learning process, but we love their ability to teach our children their letters and beginning sounds! Both my son and daughter love these animals, and though they take some time and effort, it has been well worth it to see the phonemic awareness that these felt creations are reinforcing too!! Our gorilla was not without some mishaps — don’t look too close at the hot glue mistakes! — but the children love them and that is all that matters….. I hope you enjoy learning how to make a felt gorilla!!
We took a recent trip to the zoo and saw some gorgeous gorilla. I didn’t capture a perfect picture, but I got a couple shots….
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All you need to make a Felt Gorilla is:
- felt: dark brown 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!!
Our gorilla is a little forgiving…. but he is still a gentle giant :) We cut out the paper template {free printable below!}, then cut out two dark brown bodies. Next, I cut out the arm and the head on the paper template and cut those out of felt as well. Finally, I cut out eyes, a nose, and a mouth. I glued the arm and face on first, before I glued the bodies together.
During the felt gorilla making process, John decided that he wanted to make his own gorilla. I was beyond thrilled with this idea. He had felt, scissors and glue, and went to work creating a baby gorilla!!
We stuffed a lot of cotton balls in this gorilla, to make him bigger. We also glued some cotton behind his one arm to make it look like he is walking :)
All done! He is ready for play! May (my two year old) keeps calling him monkey and absolutely loves him :)
She loves all of the animals.
John pointed out that gorillas don’t have tails which grew into a conversation about primates and great apes!
May wanted to sort all of our felt animals so far. I laid down our letters (we are over half way through with our animals!) and she placed them down. I am so thrilled that she knows so many! I was a bit shocked, too.
She loved having this learning time all to herself.
I made a template and a coloring page for you to make your own felt gorilla!
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Download your free gorilla printable pages here.
Book Extension
There are many wonderful fiction books about gorillas, including the above ones from Gail Gibbons and the Smithsonian. And of course, how could I not include the bedtime classic Goodnight Gorilla :)
