Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Eggbert Flannel Story

I fell in love with Tom Ross's Story of Eggbert the Slightly Cracked Egg many years ago. Fortunately, the paperback is still available too.

For some reason I am drawn to picture books about individuality.

Anyway, you all don't need to know that, I just wanted to introduce a Felt version of this story that I tell in both storytime and laptime. And, of course, I always display copies of the book for patrons to check out at the end. Furthermore, if you fall in love with the story like I did you might not be able to resist picking up that paperback for your own home library!


Eggbert the Slightly Cracked Egg by Tom Ross

Eggbert
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...and it is discovered...

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...and Eggbert is told he must leave...
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Wow, he can stay here...
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Aha! An idea, no one needs to know...
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Better than butter and lettuce!
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Tada!
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Oh, but it is discovered that you cannot get nectar from an egg...
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The most beautiful thing he has ever seen!
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And WALLA!
(this one always gets a good giggle)
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After the rain, the clouds parted...
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And Eggbert realizes...
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that cracks just let the sun shine through.

3 comments:

Babygarten TT said...

HI! This is a beautiful "flannelization" of this book which is one of my favorites. I'm doing my Easter theme next week but didn't necessarily want to do a book about egg hunting or the Easter Bunny. I am worried though that for toddlers this book might be a little advanced? This is when I thought of changing it to a flannel version. What I'd like to know though is how did this work with all these pieces and transitioning from one scene to the other? and what age group did you use it on? My groups are 6months old to 2.5 years old. Thanks!

SALTZWORKS said...

Hi Babygarten TT :)

I've found that presentation is EVERYTHING. That said, it takes a very energized teller to pull off Eggbert for the not-even-walking-yet babies. I've done it, but then, I'm a tad overboard in the energy and exploration of emotion department not only in this flannel, but all my storytelling.
I do take the bee out into the crowd, the bee 'tastes' with happy buzzing sounds in around the flowers as well as around and above the children. But then -- bzzt.BZZZT! The bee tries to get nectar from Eggbert. It's a giggle catcher if there ever was one.
In the end, I think its this crazy adult going full into a story that sells Eggbert for infants and babies, it rivets them.
The 3 year olds and up--no problem, the energy combined with a story they can begin to grasp is perfect.
Oh - one more thing, if you can get the adults riveted and laughing, the kids take their cues from their adults and you've got a winning story or laptime.

SALTZWORKS said...

Yikes, you asked about transition -- practice practice practice and have everything laid out in order behind the board. Quickly grab and go for it.

I try to stick to the text, but don't stress if you are paraphrasing or making it easier and shorter for your audience.