Exploring Leather as Alternative Material for the Production of Instructional Media for Preschool Education

The research explores the use of locally tanned leather as an alternative medium for making instructional materials to aid pre-school teaching and learning. Materials usually employed in the production of instructional materials to serve as teaching and learning aid usually, include plastic, wood, paper, day and plaster of Paris. These materials may be too heavy as found in wood, easily perishable as found with paper, or even too expensive to import from other countries. The researcher employed qualitative research tilling the descriptive and experimental methods. The principal instruments designed to collect data were observation and interview. Leather was identified to be a convenient material for producing instruetional media for preschool education since it has been found to be readily accessible, easily in anipulated, remarkably light in weight, and attractive when scorched, painted or dyed in various colours to arouse the interest of children. Leather instructional materials produced were attractive and easy to manipulate by the pre-school children. The instructional materials produced with leather were child-friendly.