Flannel Friday: They Can't All Be Winners

Y'all, sometimes in life you try things and they just don't work. You've tried something new, put a lot of work into it and it just flops. Whawp. And when that happens you focus on the positive, figure out what you can learn from the experience and move on.

In this Flannel Friday Flop, I learned pieces can be too detailed, good visuals won't make up for a crummy or half thought out poem, and that Ed Emberley is a genius.

Let's talk about Ed Emberley for a minute. That's really who I really want to highlight with this post. I got his book, Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Animals, from my (beautiful, wonderful, and thoughtful) mother for Christmas last year and to say that it has changed how I draw and think about shapes would be a gross understatement. And with a little bit of tweaking, they make great flannel pieces.

And now that I've built it up so much, let's take a look at the flop. It actually wasn't all that bad; I just can't imagine ever using it again. Which is a shame because the pieces are so intricate and were lots of fun to make. There were ooohhs and ahhhhs from the adults in the audience and the kids certainly liked playing with them after story time was over, but I think on the whole they were just too much to take in and the rhyme I came up with didn't do them any justice.

It is about dragons though, and dragons are never not cool.

The Cleverly Titled Dragon Poem

Who thinks dragons are scary?

Oh no, not at all!

Let's take a look at some,

up here on this wall.

And if you look closely,

I think you'll agree, 

that dragons a lot

like you and me.

Because...

There are dragons that are tall

And dragons that are small.

Dragons who ROAR,

 And dragons who snore.

 This dragon laughs,

And that dragon cries,

But it's time to go

So here's a dragon to say "bye-bye!"

The pieces are pretty big, and I backed them in black (which is the color of my big board that I use in story time) so that the skinny necks and tails wouldn't flop around. Maybe I'll keep them out for kids to play with outside of story time; I'm certainly not worried about them breaking or getting lost.